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In travels along the highways and journeys of life, we all have to stop once in a while to take a break.

Especially if it has been a long drive. Endurance is an admirable quality, but when it interferes with the safety of driving a vehicle it is sometimes best to stop and get room.

In the last couple of years and for various reasons I have had to get a hotel or motel room many times.

Some are fantastic, some offer great amenities, while others are just basic check in and check out experiences.

We all remember and talk amongst ourselves about the really good rooms. The ones that offered a great view, or offered really great service and great staff. Those are the places we remember and come back to if we happen to make it down that specific stretch of road again.

While others are so pathetically bad that it takes a person’s breath away.

I remember one in particular on the North Shore, near Duluth, that will obviously go unnamed as you will see why.

It was one I had stayed at before. It was in a great location and the price was right. I knew what I was getting. The only expectation I had at the time was that it would be a quiet and nice place to sleep, relax and get some rest before visiting more sights along the way the next day.

It was clearly an older motel that had gone through a few remodels, perhaps. But it was basic and turned out fine the first time.

The second time a year or two later, not so much.

A restaurant that was attached to the motel had great food and service that I enjoyed the first time around. The second time when I came back through, the restaurant was clearly closed. It also wasn’t very obvious that the motel was open either.

After ringing a doorbell to the attached motel, a very tired and clearly disgusted individual greeted me and said that they unfortunately closed the restaurant, but that they were still renting rooms to road construction crews that were working nearby. Luckily, he said, there was one room left. The check-in desk was also missing this time around, but the individual walked over to a utility closet and came back with a key and said the room was down the hall and to the left.

After a few short steps I unlocked the door to the room and gasped.

Clearly, all the cleaning staff had quit and walked out mid-shift. However, the motel kept running obviously.

Not only was the bed not made, but sheets and pillowcases were strewn across the room, tissues and other artifacts were stuffed in glasses and best of all the toilet looked like someone had gone after it with a jackhammer.

I tried to reason with what was in front of me. I could not. As my mind was racing after a long day of driving, I briskly walked out the door and went looking for the manager only to discover that he had left for the day, but only after partying construction crews running up and down the hallways whooping and hollering and carrying on informed me of this unfortunate fact.

It was late and the chances of finding another room at that time of night were slim to none in the remote area I was in. So I made the decision to tough it out for a few hours and then get back on the road.

I brought in a sleeping bag from my vehicle and spread it on the floor and slept a while, then I left.

It taught me a lesson that sometimes cheap can be too cheap. Also if a place looks closed, if it’s not, it probably should be.

For notable motel stays this one took the cake.

In contrast, a wonderful place I once stayed at in Sioux Falls literally had a waterpark attached to the hotel and a scrumptious full free breakfast. It was so nice I had to force myself to leave shortly before official check-out time.

Good and bad, we still have to stop and rest.

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