The hills in the background are actually an optical illusion; Hays is a wasteland of humanity. I'm sure some lemonheaded freak of nature who has "I'm a Hick from Hays" or "Kall me a Kansan" will probably do a Google search someday, find this blog, and leave some nasty, badly misspelled comment referencing chew or the love his wife & sister (same person) has for the town, but let me assure you, this place is an absolute wasteland.
The day we left Colorado Springs and I picked up my Michael English book, we trekked back across Eastern Colorado through Limon (COMPLETELY missing that gas station THIS time around) and were headed back to the Holiday Inn (and this one was not a "Stay Smart; Stay Holiday Inn Express" site, let me assure you) with the two-story water slide (they bill it as three stories tall, but unlike most of the people in Hays, I can count) we'd stayed at on the way out.
We were, well, let's say unimpressed with this Holiday Inn on our way to Colorado. It was an old Holidome type of hotel that was built probably in the late 60s or early 70s...with probably no updates since then, either.
Well, the a/c didn't work in all the rooms (we had to change rooms once on the way out b/c of the malfunctions), and I found a few dead bugs strewn throughout the hotel...but the kicker was that the in-room a/c unit that actually did work in our second room had the wires and the plastic connectors dangling down from under the motor.
Nice. Last time I pre-book a hotel like that - I don't care WHAT the discount is.
So, while the people there were really nice, Tammy & I decided when we left and headed for Colorado Springs on Monday that - even though the kids thought the 2 story water slide was just the berries - if there was ANYTHING wrong with that hotel when we came back through, we were getting our money back and going elsewhere.
We got our wish.
When we left on Monday to go to Brandy's on the way out, there was a note on the front desk saying the water slide, pool, & hot tubs would be closed for cleaning. We came into town on Thursday, and sure enough, the same note was there.
Who didn't see that coming?
Once we confirmed it, we got out of that rathole and went down the street to the newly built Hampton Inn. As always, I asked my budget nazi & resident Dave Ramsey guru Tammy to go in and ask for a price...and sure enough, she got it for like 10-20 bucks off of the normal rate.
Again, who didn't see that coming?
We ate, had a great night in the pool and room, and got out of dodge the next morning. Wonderful breakfast...on vacation, I'm all about the hot breakfasts...
The Ha
mpton Inn and a few other places are good there...just don't go south of the overpass to the majority of the town. It's ugly...really ugly...down there... but I hear there's a catch-all type of approach they're looking to apply to improve the town's appeal, at least south of the I-70 exit.
It'll really be a huge improvement.
No comments:
Post a Comment