Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

My family took a very short vacation yesterday. Josh has a job in Belton, Missouri that he needed to check on so the rest of us tagged along. We dropped him off at the worksite and then the kids and I went on to do a little shopping and have some Waffle House for lunch. Unfortunately half-way through the day I got a pretty bad headache and so the kids who were really looking forward to swimming at the hotel had to wait because I was not up to taking them. We did check into our room at the Inn by the Way of the Road and the kids played on their DSes and watched tv. Well, they tried to watch tv, but there really wasn’t anything of interest or appropriate for them. We watched parts of Witness, Monk, Hauntings and Deadliest Catch. Around 6 Josh was finally finished with his work and we went out for what should have been a very nice dinner at LongHorn Steakhouse. The food was quite good, but the kids…not so much. I filled up on so much of their wasted dinners that I was unable to order one of the very tempting desserts. They did, however, bring me a complimentary birthday sundae (my 4th this week!) which Josh and Elena scarfed down. By the time we made it back to the hotel it was nearly the kids’ bedtime and neither Josh nor I were up to taking them swimming (and their behavior earlier had not earned them any privledges) so we let them stay up a bit and watch the end of Mouse Hunt on tv and promised that if they went to sleep without more problems then we’d take them swimming in the morning. This morning went fine and the rest of the trip was fine and we are now safely and happily back at home. NOW, let me tell you about the crap hole we stayed in! The room was small and dark and the bathroom was way small and laid out such that when you opened the door it hit the toilet seat. The toilet leaked so every time it was flushed a small stream would appear across the floor. The cable channels sucked and EVERYTHING all over the hotel bore the labels of other hotels! The iron in our room said Super 8, the ice bucket said Days Inn, and the little sign on the inside of our door had a sticker that said Grandview Hotel covering the original name on the sign–neither name being the name of where we were! The only redeeming factor was the fridge and microwave available in the room. Or so I thought until we realized this morning that the fridge had shut off somehow during the night and so our pop was not cold and our half gallon jug of milk, yogurt snacks, and left over chicken and steaky goodness would need to be pitched! They touted a “hot breakfast” and after sleepily stumbling the almost mile it took to reach the breakfast area from our room I found three hot pans. One with biscuits, one with gravy, and one with instant eggs. YUK. I saw some cold cereal options and went for them until I realized that the big machine holding the milk had a temperature gauge on it that read “Freezing” on one end, a couple acceptably cool temperatures in the middle and “DANGER” on the other end. The marker was in “DANGER.” So I turned to the bread for some toast. The toaster wouldn’t stay down to toast. So I had a waffle. Now I do like waffles, and it was pretty good, but the handle on the machine was difficult to open and so my waffle burnt while I was trying to get to it. All this while, two employees were walking around the area arguing about whether to put out more food or not because supplies were running low and there was still an hour left before breakfast was to end. They were also making comments about whether or not someone had come into work that morning and been taken away by the police for being accused of rape. It’s a good thing the management had a sign on the outside wall by the parking lot that said guns were not allowed inside, or I might have felt unsafe. ! After breakfast we finally took the children down to the pool. I was a few minutes behind Josh and the kids and when I arrived I saw a very small sign on the door that read “Pool not heated. Heater is broken until further notice.” They had gone in anyway, so I entered. Immediately my nostrils were filled–not with the usual overwhelming chlorine smell that you come to expect at a hotel pool, but with the dank wreak of mold and mildew. I mean it was strong! There was random standing water in areas that probably shouldn’t have even been wet. Josh said he saw bugs in the water. It was gross. The kids swam for about 10 minutes before we pulled them out and said it was time to leave. They were so cold they didn’t even argue with us. OH! And I completely forgot to mention the beds!!! Hard as freaking rocks! In fact, I think the pillows WERE rocks! Worst sleep I can remember! (Dreaming about being chased by lions didn’t help.) But Josh agreed that he even sleeps better on the Wheelers’ loveseat than he did in the hotel’s queen-sized bed. Seriously, we will NEVER go there again! (And I strongly urge the rest of you to steer clear also.)