A rule I try to follow is: Don’t check Slack or social media in the middle of the night. I have a kid, a cat, and a fortysomething bladder, which means I’m often up at least once. There’s always the glowing temptation of the phone, beckoning me to see what’s going on with the world.
For whatever reason, I decided to pick up the phone around 1:40 AM to discover that David had booked our room for SEMA in Las Vegas. In general, I try to avoid David booking our hotels for… reasons. He does not always have the same expectations out of life that I do; let’s just say that.
On the other hand, we are trying to be extra thrifty these days, so when David offered to get the hotel, I just went with it.
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It wasn’t that long ago (less than a decade) when I could stay at the Mirage for just over $100/night and it was a super nice room. Which I suppose is why it got torn down and is being replaced with a no-doubt-overpriced novelty hotel.
I considered going back to Vegas a couple of years ago, but it turns out that may have been a “did it, don’t need to go back” kind of experience. I had fun once, but I have surprisingly little desire to do it again.
My wife and I used to book hotels the night of whenever we traveled and were only staying in a place for a day or two. For years it worked out really well. Hotwire hot rates afforded us the ability to stay in places that had indoor skating rinks and other fancy amenities that we could not afford or otherwise justify. Our luck ran out in Idaho My wife was in Utah for a work trip and I flew out to meet her at the end of her trip.
Quick sidebar, there is a LandCruiser Heritage Museum in Salt Lake City that is an absolute must see! They have an amazing selection of LandCruisers that span all generations and body styles.
Back to the main story. Her work trip was ending so we were going to drive around Utah and Idaho to do some sightseeing since neither of us has spent any appreciable time in either of those states. When we were out exploring Bear Lake we assumed that we could find a rental for a night or two. Spoiler alert, this is the place that everyone comes to spend summers at from the area. There were no hotels available except for one small motel. The hotel office was also the Uhaul rental office and outside genuinely looked like a hoarders house with torn furniture and discarded table lamps on the sidewalk. I’ve paid less to stay at a Weston that I paid to sleep with one eye open that night. At one point we seriously considered sleeping in the stupid rental pickup that we ended up with due to a booking issue with Avis.
All of this is to say that it looks like you had a beautiful room to stay in!
As someone who grew up in Bear Lake Valley (Idaho side), trying to get a same day stay next to the lake in the summer is . . . problematic, especially to the wallet. But if you don’t have to have a lake view, there are several motels in Montpelier ID and you are just a 15-20 minute drive to the lake. Bonus is the Oregan trail museum next to the 2 biggest motels (Best Western and Super 8). They have part of the trail preserved in the building.
And there are some nice canyon roads to drive through between ID and WY from there. or some offroad driving that requires decent clearance and no care about paint scratches up in the national forest around the valley doable with 2 wheel drive, but definitely easier with 4WD.
We got to see some beautiful countryside around Montpelier and Bear Lake and I’d 100% go back for a visit. The water clarity and color is unlike any freshwater I’ve seen in the states. Truly breathtaking. We did get out to some caves while we were there taking some roads that were barely wide enough for our rental pickup truck.
What really messed up our travel plans was a ball tournament that week, so kids and families from all over had descended on Montpelier on top of the summer vacation crowd. So the only place with any openings that weren’t several hundred dollars per night was a motel in Montpelier.
They have STELLAR karaoke in the bar there. The drinks are cheap and (when I was there last) they brew beer on-prem. Bonus: Tupac was shot a block away.
I was walking around Vegas one night and wondering what the hell the candlelight vigil was all about on this random side street. Turned out it was the anniversary of his death and people gathered where he was shot.
at least he didnt recreate the episode of smiling friends and not book you a hotel.
no, Matt, you can put a bow on that (smoked) pig but it still oinks. That looked like ass