by Norma Stamp

Created on: July 13, 2008   Last Updated: July 14, 2008

Our niece, Lois, was getting married on Saturday and had booked us a hotel room for Friday night. She chose it, sight unseen, because it was close to the wedding hall and not far from her apartment. When we decided to go up a day early, it seemed like a good idea to stay at the same place both nights.

We set out from Ohio headed for Detroit. We were confident that the directions we had printed out from the map website would lead us to our hotel. Little did we know that I75 would throw up not one, but many roadblocks in our way as we neared the west side of the city. It seemed that the closer we got to our exit, the bigger the signs got saying the darn thing was closed. Eventually we had to get off on a detour. This is never good when you are in an urban jungle like Detroit. However, we persevered and with a little luck we finally arrived at the hotel. It was getting towards midnight by then and we were done with driving for the time being.

It was a chain hotel and seemed to be in a decent enough neighborhood. When we pulled in the driveway the first thing we noticed was a drive-through check in window. That should have been a clue we didn't belong there.

Then when the lady said it needed to be cash because she was having trouble with her credit card machine. That should have been a clue.

We were tired and had been driving around in circles in a strange city so decided to stay. The room was fairly clean, if you didn't look too hard. The bed was like extremely firm and the pillows were like large rocks. I did notice that there were double pillow cases on them and thought that it was a little odd. That should have been a clue.

The bathroom was very Spartan and definitely showing its age. However, all in all the room seemed serviceable but there were only two scrawny white towels hanging on the rack. In order to shower the next morning, we would need at least a few more towels. So we walked across the parking lot the front lobby. The desk clerk was waiting on another couple so we stood back and waited for our turn. We overheard her ask them if it was by the hour or if they were staying all night. That should have been a clue.

We collected our towels and as we headed for the door a resident of the hotel and his two pit bulls came in. One was a large brown adult with a heavy studded collar. The other was a little pup named Anthrax. They were very well cared for and well behaved dogs but they were definitely residents. That should have been a clue.

We trudged back to the room and after locking all of the locks and placing a heavy chair in front of the door we fell fast asleep.

In the morning, we looked out the window and spotted a Comfort Inn that we had not been able to see in the dark. My husband called them and asked if they had any rooms available. The manager said they did and we told them we would like to book it immediately. The manager asked us where were staying. My husband told them and then was asked if he was there with his family. He told the manager that he was there with his wife. To which the manager replied, "You really don't need to be there". "No problem" said my husband, "We will be there as soon as we can load the car". We paid the early check in fee and 15 minutes later we were ensconced in a very large room with all the amenities one would expect in a nice hotel.

Later, we had a discussion with the desk clerk and he informed us that the other place' was also known as Hooker Alley. When we told Lois she was very apologetic and kept saying that she honestly didn't know what kind of a hotel it was. But she did get some good natured ribbing over the matter.

Next time we will trust our instincts, no matter how tired we are and we will pay attention to all those clues.

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