What? No Refund? Well That Doesn't Seem Right.

We have snow!  

Of course we do!!  

The last time we planned on going to visit Stacy and Vinnie In NJ and going to Atlantic City, Hurricane Irene kept us from going.  The hotel "Holiday Inn Express in Absecon, NJ" kindly gave us a refund on our reservation.  I think it was because they were evacuating.

This time, Jason (Gary's son) and his girlfriend were going to meet us there too.  Gary was so excited to be seeing his kids.  We had plans to go out to a really nice place for dinner, and then to the casino for a while.  

This morning we woke up to snow, snow, snow.  We began our trip anyway, but turned around and came home.

The Holiday Inn Express said, "No way!  We cannot refund your money within 24 hours". 

 But what if it's not safe to be driving?  

"No,  no refund for you!" 

Humph!

Below you will see some video of my complaining husband and the conditions that we were driving in as we headed back home and sucked up the $55 for the rental car, $30 in gas to fill the rental car, and $99 for the room.

The music is compliments of a radio that
we never did quite figure out.  

Ugh!

Gettysburg, Pa and Save The Planet

Early yesterday morning I headed to Gettysburg, Pa. to attend a hearing convention for my job.  My navigator announcer has a beautiful, crisp, clear voice which is unusual in a GPS, (mostly they are very computer-ish sounding). But she's not very bright.  Oh, she found us the quickest route and it looked like we'd be 15 minutes early, just in time for coffee and donuts UNTIL we ran into a detour less than a mile away from our destination and were rerouted around the town...  She freaked.  She kept  repeating 'make a legal u turn now', 'make a legal u turn now,' then she sent us to a couple of dead end roads and a closed bridge after recalculating several times.  We were late.

The bad news: The day was long and I almost fell asleep a few times.

The good news: They served a great lunch and I had a few good laughs with the others from our franchise.

On to the hotel. 

 I carefully chose Comfort Suites after viewing the fabulous feedback from others via trip advisors.    A good hotel means a good nights sleep.  A good nights sleep means the next day will be more enjoyable.  I'd gotten up at 4 AM and hadn't slept well the night before.  I was dead tired.  

  

And speaking of dead.  The first question the desk clerk asked:  "Do you want a room facing the cemetery?"  I'm assuming those are the choice rooms, since Gettysburg is known for it's 'ghost tours' and 'haunted houses'.  

I love Gettysburg....  but not for those reason.  

It's the history and stories that I enjoy.
"No, thanks."

When we got to the room...

*GASP*  

Oh no!  It's one of those hotels that only wash the towels that are found on the floor.  Lucky for me I brought my own towel and wash cloth.  

ESPECIALLY after seeing this dirty towel folded and waiting for us to use.  

I'm sorry.  But this is disgusting. 

 I'm wondering now how many other things they don't bother to replace in attempts to 'save our planet'.

The room didn't look right. It didn't feel homey. It was cold and dreary.  

Oh, great!  

They were using these blasted curly light bulbs that are supposed to use less energy.   

Before leaving the hotel this morning, I tore all the towels and washcloths down and threw them in a heap on the floor.  

At least the next guests will have clean ones.  

Did I mention that the Internet didn't work?  I finally had a call back on that at 10:00 PM when I was in bed for the night.  'Thanks, but no thanks.'

I didn't understand why everyone on Trip Advisor had raved about the free breakfast.  I have never witnessed sausage that had that much grease inside and out.  And the fake eggs tasted bitter.  

The good news:  The coffee and waffles were great!!

We were glad to say goodbye to our room and move on...

Goodbye room.

Uh oh!  The elevator was out of order.

The good news:  There are only 3 floors to the Comfort Suites.

The bad news: We were on the 3rd floor.

"And now off to town for 

some History Lessons and fun!"

... to be continued

I hope everyone is having a great weekend.  The weather has been beautiful and tomorrow is the first day of spring.  I tried reading some of your blogs from my phone last night, but commenting was being very slow so I'm going to try real hard to catch up in the next few days.  I sure did miss you guys.

Dear Diary,

I love this time of year.  I went to the tennis court and I ran and played Chickie Bird and drank water.  My feet hurt now.  Gracie.

Help Our Planet Thrive

Thanks so much, for all the prayers and well wishes for safe travel on our trip to Annapolis.

It's good to be back!  I've missed everyone the last few days.  I was kept busy though.  On Thursday we left for Annapolis where we stayed with my sister, Angie.  We went to 'Mike's on the Water' for dinner.  Great seafood place!  We were impressed.  But what I was not impressed with was the new app that Angie tried to wow me with that was on her IPhone.  

"Watch this!" she said to Gary.  "All I have to do is speak into the microphone and it will send you that in a text message".

She said clearly " Hi Gary, it's so nice to have you and Bobbi. I hope you come back again. Bye"  

Angie had Maryland Crab Soup

Gary had flounder and I had a crab cake sandwich and fries.

And a bowl of cream of crab soup.

Prissy the cat was true to her name.  She watched as we left the next morning making sure we didn't make off with any of the antiques or vintage jewelry her mommy showed us the night before.  

It snowed Friday morning, and Angie had her fingers crossed...  but shortly after 6 AM she found out school was on, and she was out of there and on her way to work. 

And soon after we were headed to Arundel Mills where I had a meeting.  

After the meeting we enjoyed the beautiful Arundel Mills Mall.  

About our hotel.  It was nice enough.  But I was a little troubled with this message on the clean towels. Help Our Planet Thrive>  #1 states that the only towels they wash are the ones found on the floor.  So...  that means if the towels are still hanging they consider them clean.  That tells me that we may or may not be using clean towels.  I drug my own out of my suitcase.  

Gary thought it would be funny to sprinkle pepper over my side of the bed sheet...  in honor of my bed bug fear.  I pretended to believe him for just a minute, to humor him.   

This morning we lingered at the hotel a while, then it was off to our boss's After-Christmas party...

Where there were colossal shrimp and lots of meat.  And everyone seemed to have the dropsies.  Yes, that's crab dip on Gary's shirt.

And George decided since nobody cut into his boston cream pie that he brought, that he'd take it back home with him....

I don't think he meant he wanted to wear it home...

Uh-oh.  Looks like George's pie ended up all over his car.  No, there were no alcoholic beverages served at this party....

Gracie spent the last few days alone in between the times my daughter Lindsey came by to take her out to potty....  but mostly she was alone. 

She got a new toy for being such a good girl.

It's good to be home.

The Bed Bugs Were Hiding

Tomorrow we leave for Annapolis.  I'll be staying one night with my sister, then going to a business meeting in Baltimore on Friday.  

Friday night, a hotel.  A very nice hotel, I might add.

I have a confession to make.  I'm a freak when it comes to staying at hotels.  If I see one hair in the sink I'm ready to ring the desk and see about changing rooms.  

And smell is everything.  If it smells disgusting, then it  is disgusting.  As for the bedspreads... they're folded down immediately since I figure they're not fresh and clean like the sheets.  

 I have many a hotel horror story.  I remember one where we had just settled in and the commode overflowed.  When I called room service they came up and sopped up the wet floor  with...  you guessed it...  GUEST TOWELS>  The very towels we dried our faces and hands with were being used to clean up bathroom waste.  Ick.  

But even more troubling nowadays is the big pandemic of...   

I now scope out the ceilings, corners, underneath the bedding etc.  making sure there is no sign of those pesky critters. I've heard they climb out at night and suck the blood from your legs and arms.   I would die!!!  

I've stayed in some really nice hotels in my travels and some real dives as well.  What's the worse hotel ever, you say?  Well...  Let me tell you about Hornes.  

On our trip to Florida in '07 Uncle Victor set us up in what he referred to as a real bargain and a nice place.  

The sign said it was clean, air conditioned, had color T.V. and a POOL>  Who could want for anything more?  

"Let's not take our bags in just yet..."  Gary said.

The thick 2 inch stained, foam yellow mattress was more than we could ever hope for.  I wish I would have taken a picture...

I could tell it was a real fun place...  there were two truckers chug-a-lugging a case of beer and throwing their cans in the fungi infested pool, and a pile of pillows were heaped in front of the door next to ours, probably belonging to the hotels only other guests - the two truckers.   It was obvious that lot of partying went on in these rooms, the smell along with the spills on the carpet would attest to that.

I was a little leery about the wiring.  A possible fire hazard?

 "Gary, can't we at least stay long enough to soak in the tub a while?"

There was a no refund policy.  We felt bad that Uncle Victor had been taken advantage of...  but we decided it was in our best interest to cut our losses and go to the Hampton Inn down the road.  We didn't tell him.

This hotel was bad.  Really bad.  Even the bed bugs were hiding.