My passion is traveling. I have been many places and have stayed in many hotel rooms. No matter how much time passes, however, I will never forget San Diego.

My friend and I flew out to Las Vegas to visit her sister who was stationed near there. We had free use of her sister's vehicle and time to kill. We decided to take a drive to San Diego and spend the weekend. We had beautiful weather, easy directions to follow, and a fun filled day at the San Diego Zoo. Evening approached, we were exhausted, and needed a place to stay the night. We had not prebooked any hotel room so we simply drove around until we found something decent. We checked into one of those chain hotels advertised on t.v. After eating dinner and having a few drinks we decided to call it a night. We each chose a bed and then lights out.

I am prone to vivid, somewhat horror filled dreams. When I heard the shower running in the middle of the night, I thought I was living one of those dreams. What was going on? I turned on a light and found my friend was no longer in her bed. Why would she be showering at 2:00 in the morning? She emerged from the shower and preceded to tell me how she had awoke when she felt something crawling all over her. No matter how much she brushed the area with her hand or changed positions she could not make the feeling go away. She turned on the light and discovered a few ants crawling on the sheets. Not knowing the full extent of the situation, she decided to shower just in case there were any in her hair. Now that we were both awake, we took a closer look at her bed. We pulled back the sheets and lifted the mattress to discover a colony of ants living between the mattress and box spring. From the looks of things they had been there a while. Of course we called the front desk to request a new room. They said there were no additional rooms to be had. Since we had queen beds, she shared my bed for what was left of the night.

In the morning, we described in detail our experience with the ant infested bed. To my dismay, the hotel was not even going to refund the cost of the room or reduce the rate. I generally try not to make a bid deal of things, but I felt this was wrong. After a conversation with the manager, our room cost was in fact refunded.

I imagine the situation could have been worse. Spiders instead of ants, for instance, truly would have been a nightmare come to life. However, I have yet to have similar experience on any other trip I have been on. Honestly, I hope I never do.

Learn more about this author, Tessa Reese.
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