Hi! Still in OOOOOOAAAAAAK-lahoma today! Had two appointments today, three tomorrow then we start heading back down to Louisiana with two on Friday before going home. All the driving is starting to hit me and I got really sleep driving back to Tulsa this afternoon from Oklahoma City (which I love by the way!)
Anyway, as promised….the scary hotel story.
Monday, we were to spend the night in Monroe, Louisiana. Let me preface by saying if you live in or like Monroe LA, I am NOT bashing you. I am sure there are nice areas of the city….but not where we were! So I didn’t make hotel reservations, because well, I figured I didn’t need to. We pull up to the Hampton Inn….oh. my. gosh. Old, dirty, run down, and with outside corridors (which I hate esp. when just traveling with my mom, just not safe!) there were so SCARY looking people coming in and out of there, so we decided to Google hotels and found a decent area of town by a mall with a new hotel. We walk in and ask for a room…and they are BOOKED SOLID! Not only that, but she said every hotel in the area that she would deem safe for two ladies was booked! I freaked a little, I had an appointment in town at 9 am the next morning.
SO I call the running store and tell them my predicament….trying to hold it together. They tell me about a hotel (not a chain) an old one that was redone that was nice and that is right by the store. They said if they had family come in town that is where they would have them stay. Trusting their word, we called and booked and headed over.
You could tell it was really old and was probably nice once, it had a fountain in the lobby and a pretty chandelier….but that’s where the niceness stopped. It had outer buildings with outside corridors. They put us in a “remodeled” room. It had an air conditioner in the window HELP UP BY 2X4’S!!! I wish I was kidding. It had ONE LAMP in the whole room not counting the bathroom light. The paint was coming off everywhere, there as a hole in the shower where the faucet was, and had a crappy little lock on the door and a chain. We felt REAL safe…Not in a great neighborhood either.
We laughed about it but were also PETRIFIED at the same time! This was not good.
We went out and got a pizza and brought it back to the room and ate in the near dark and watched tv. The walls were so thin we heard the TV blaring next door. I was afraid to touch anything and we checked the beds for bed bugs.
a scary ominous cloud didn’t make things any better…
Anyway, we hardly slept, it was so loud and when people walked by the door it sounded like they were in the room. I slept with my million volt tazer next to me. No lie. Don’t mess with me yall, I will taze your butt! Anyway, I have never been so happy to leave a hotel. I kept waiting for someone to kick in the door or someone to grab us and pull us into a room when we walked by. Good thing I am a trained ninja.
heh.
Anyway, NOW we are VERY happy to be in a nice hotel, never thought I would be so happy to walk into a Hampton Inn!
Here is my skirt outfit for yesterday:
mums pinkalicious RS, White Strappy Tank, black swift sox
Layered with a black run love long sleeve top.
Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I DO own regular clothes!
Last night we went to dinner at Olive Garden and we walked around the mall. I was on the hunt for fro yo, and I found some!
Welcome to PeachWave! I had never heard of this particular one before, but it was pretty good. Not as good as my beloved Menchies but really, what is?
Hello Tiramasu and Blueberry Fro Yo!
aaannddd just in case you were wondering….it’s still hot!
Have a great day! I go home tomorrow, yay!
QOTD: Favorite Fro Yo topping? Go!
Tara Burner says
OMG to the scary hotel story….I’d have been sleeping with my baseball bat…yea I’m not into tasers but do carry a big bat in my car! LOL
I fortunately haven’t been in any spooky, unsafe, scary hotels in many many years.
and I’m luvin all your outfits.
I must get running skirt when I get $
enjoy the rest of your appointments and hopefully nice hotels! 🙂
Rambling Heather says
WoW what a story!! Glad you ended up finding another hotel. At least you have some great memories to look back on.
I’ve ordered a running skirt that should be in any day now… I cant wait!! I may have to just wear it out on the town if this injury doesn’t heal before it arrives. I’m that excited. 🙂
Heather says
awesome! which one did you order?
Rambling Heather says
I ordered a skirt through Fleet Feet here in Raleigh. Totally didn’t realize that you are the skirt lady. Now I’m working on the hubby to let me get a snazzy design of yours! I could use more than one anyhow. 🙂
Jeni @ stepping out says
I know exactly what you mean about scary/disgusting hotel rooms. Had an experience similar to that when I was in London back in June. I had pre-booked the hotel but through a different service than hotels.com so I didn’t see all the warning reviews until I was already checked in and on my own, after I read about 5 reviews mentioning bed bugs and 1 that mentioned a rat (!) I booked another hotel as quickly as I could and made my way on my own, late at night in a big city (aka London) to the new hotel. I breathed a huge sigh of relief once I got there.
Glad you’re safe and you made it through!
Heather says
OMG! would have died! scary!
Jen says
Ahhh crazy! I would have freaked out. I’m not a fan of outside corridor hotels either!
I’ve only ever stayed at a gross hotel in a “resort” area of GA. Big bugs and a huge needle in our room! I was so disturbed, but luckily not scared since Jeff and Nati were with me.
Morgan @ Becoming Rooks says
Heather! I totally thought of you the other day because we have Menchies here now!! I need to go in search of this mythic red velvet froyo.
Heather says
aahhh! check the website for flavors of the day, they don’t have red velvet all the time.
Stephanie says
ooo gosh i have totally had experiences like this. i am not a big h otel girl. it is either got to be super nice or i just wnt to stay at home. i stayed in a hotel before disney and it was not not safe but you could hear the toilet flush in the other people’s rooms it had these dirty weird sheets and it was all i could do to run the other way lol
Crystal says
eew about the hotel! I don’t think I’ve stayed in any really seedy motels. Thankfully, everywhere I’ve stayed for work has felt/been clean, safe, and inside corridors! LOL.
Also LOL about having regular clothes…I wish I could wear running clothes every day to work!
As you know, my favorite froyo toppings are strawberries, mochi, and chocolate chips… 😉
Emily says
First off, I am a longtime reader of your blog (love it!), but I have never commented before. I know, shame on me 😉
Secondly, my entire family lives in Monroe (and West Monroe) and I’ll go ahead and agree with you on everything you said here. Some parts of town are nice, but the rest of it…yikes. If you ever have to go to Monroe again (without hotel reservations), take the short drive over to West Monroe. There are plenty of nice, clean, safe hotels over there!
Heather says
Hi thanks for commenting! Glad I didn’t offend you. We were at the Atrium….off Louiville or something? It was quite creepy. Thanks for the tip!
Karolina says
I love crazy travel stories! I JUST posted one today on my blog here: http://counselormusings.blogspot.com/2011/07/one-time-i-was-pushed-by-passenger-on.html
Anyways, glad that you made it out of there safely! Good call checking on bed bugs. As someone who has found bed bugs in a hotel before (no- i hadn’t gotten into bed yet!), I refuse to do anything in a room until I check everything out! YUCK!
Carleenp says
Hate scary hotels and bed bug checks (major ick!), Love that running skirt!
Kerrie says
I stayed in a gross hotel once at the beach!! Well the college beach. We thought it would be nicer since there were several of them, as it was a small chain. NOPE! Our neighbor got in front of our car and screamed shot stop!
I love your running skirt outfits. That is so nice your mom is on your trip with you!!!! You are so lucky!
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