Red Rood Inn

And then there was the hotel.

Last year we stayed at the Red Roof Inn. Someone **ahem** had a typo on the itinerary sheet and called it the "Red Rood Inn". We made fun of said person for the duration of the week and kept referring to our evening accommodations as the Red Rood Inn.

Perhaps it was prophetic.

We decided to stay there again this year because their rates are good and the rooms were all recently remodeled. I get there to check in. Here are your two keys.

"Excuse me? Two keys? We have three rooms. "

"We only have you down for two, sir."

"But I have three. Here are the reservation numbers." (I keep excellent records.)

"I'm sorry, sir. We have down that one of those has been cancelled."

"No way. We canceled some of the other rooms, but we were certainly left with three. I have the conciliation numbers right here."

"I'm sorry, sir. It appears that our corporate office has made a mistake. You only have two rooms. And we do not have any more rooms that we can give you. We are completely booked up."

"You have nothing?"

"Nothing. In fact, it looks like we have just had three more reservations made over the Internet while you and I were here talking. And we do not have any rooms available for them, either."

"You mean there are going to be other parties coming in here tonight expecting a room and you are not going to be able to accommodate them?"

"That's correct, sir. We're sorry. There is nothing we can do for you."

"Can you recommend another hotel in the area that may have space?"

"No, sir. They will most definitely ALL be booked solid."

"What about in another town? Is there a Red Roof Inn within about a 30 minute drive that has rooms available?"

"No, sir. Nothing."

We left in a huff. We still had not eaten anything but Gummy Bears, and the bears were still grumpy. It was late now. About 10:00. That is, 11:00 our time. I went to the car and explained the situation to my teammates. We started making phone calls. Luckily we had brought along a cellular card for the laptop, so there was Internet access in the car. After making quite a few calls, it became apparent that we weren't getting in anywhere that night.

My friends at the office had said that we should go to Portello's and try the hot dogs. Chicago style. And loaded. So we did. We got there just as they were locking the doors, but I didn't even notice. Alan and Kevin both said that I needed to get the Jumbo Dog, two of 'em, loaded.

I got to the counter and they said they were out of jumbo dogs. I would have to get the regular size. I didn't much care. I was still thinking about where I was going to sleep for the night. I got the regular dog and wolfed it down while I clicked away on my computer.

I was a little uneasy about eating a dog that late at night with peppers on it. And the fresh tomatoes threw me off as well. But I have to say that it was outstanding. I wish I had the time and the peace of mind to enjoy it, but c'est la vie. The peppers didn't cause much problems. Apparently the bears rendered them harmless.

We finally decided there was nowhere else to stay. My wife and I split up for the night and shared rooms with Tori and Matt, respectively. When I got back to the "Rood" I was able to get another hotel for us for the remaining nights, thanks to Priceline.com.

And there was evening, and very quickly there was morning. The first day at the Willow Arts Conference.