Super 8

Tonite Ashleigh and I have made it as far as the Memphis suburbs, making quick time across the country on our way to Great Smoky Mountains. We wanted some internet and maybe some other services, so we pulled in to a campground with a sign advertising internet, pool, laundry, showers, and full hookups of electricity, water, and dump tank. Wow! That's great!

We should have known something was wrong by the presence of the Super 8 motel next door. We pulled in and the campsites looked a little seedy. There were no lights on in the office building, and a handwritten sign instructed us to check in at the hotel. We looked at eachother: "the Super 8 hotel?"

Even though the lackadaisical clerk told us the price was $27, we decided to go for it, because it nominally had the services we were looking for. I wanted to do laundry; Ashleigh wanted to take a dip in the hotel pool, which we could use; we could shower in one of the rooms; we could use internet and charge all our devices. That all sounded fine, but after we paid the man (boy), we drove out to the actual spots, and the sinking feeling began to set in.

Why was there a big piece of old fiberglass insulation laying in the middle of the campground? Why were the cooking grills torn up and overturned on the ground? We parked and began to notice other things. Why was there an indigent sitting on the other side of the lot looking at us? Ashleigh went to do laundry. Why was the laundry room infested by mosquitoes and soiled beyond belief? We put on bathing suits and walked to the pool; why was the pool gate rusty, as if nobody had opened it in a few seasons? I dipped my toe in before we decided it didn't look inviting enough, and to go straight to the showers. The clerk gave us a key to one of the rooms, without a smile and also without a warning. We walked in to the room: why was the wastebasket overturned? why were there dirty towels on the floor? why was there used soap in the shower and pubes on the toilet rim? why did the carpet crunch under our feet? We showered with a primary attention given to not touching the walls or the shower curtain. The hotel didn't provide towels, so we used our own, and that is the luckiest thing of all about this hotel. We went to switch the laundry into the dryers: why was one of the three dryers unplugged? where did the mosquitoes go in the intervening hour? Biggest question of all: how did this hotel sucker us and three other RVs into paying $27 each for the nite? well, one of the Rvs looks like it's been living here since 1985.

We have taken refuge in our trailer. Later I will tell the story of what has been happening to us since we left Carlsbad -- some good things, some bad things. For now, we are safe in our locked trailer, which is clean to our standards, eating nachos.