HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!
So after traversing the rest of Montana and cutting the corner of Wyoming we finally ended up in our new home state of South Dakota! Having spent most of our anniversary apart, Rachel and I looked forward to spending the night together. And yet, after cussing out the "supervisor" at the front desk, I am sitting alone in a hotel room with Ben shut in the bathroom. It's 9pm, and I still have not had dinner, and I am dying of thirst after having to heave up 3 heavy bags and a cooler in this "QUALITY INN." So perhaps I should back up...
After 8 hours on the road, we show up at the "Quality Inn" in Rapid City, SD. Rachel had confirmed that we had adjoining rooms booked so we were ready to put the kids to sleep and head out for a nice dinner. We had booked it through a national line, so Rachel called this hotel to be sure that we had rooms that would work for us. We were told it would not be an issue at all... sure. They give us rooms 200 and 201, not adjoined. So, we are pissed but at least they are next to each other. When we get to the rooms, we find that they in fact are in separate hallways. Yes they share a back wall, but to get to this room- we need to go through 2 doors and a 30 foot walkway. So, I tell them that this will simply not work. The nice guy at the desk "Manny" does all he can to accommodate us, but says he just has nothing open. So, I say we will have to look into finding rooms at another hotel. The staff nod approvingly, and realize our predicament and look genuinely sad about it. Rachel then frantically calls several nearby hotels. We find two that have rooms, a sketchy motor inn with adjoining rooms, and the one across the street- the Frontier Inn, that has two adjacent. I tell Rachel to choose one and go ahead and get over there, and I'll take care of the cancellation. The guy at the desk grabs the "supervisor" and we both tell her of our situation. She says that she'll see what she can do. Julie K. hears me tell Rachel to go get more rooms, and so I figure she has to do something to make it look like it is not easy to do this- but I fully expect her to make exception for us. While I await her return I see the front desk answer a phone call turning folks away- saying that they are booked. After a few minutes of her apparently doing NOTHING- she comes back and says she cannot do anything. ?!?!!? I tell her that I want to speak with her boss. She says her boss is Tim, the general manager and he has gone home and won't be back until morning. That's it. She offers us nothing. It now occurs to me that she clearly must not have been talking to anyone- because when I ask her if she can call Tim on the phone and let me talk to him, she makes some excuse about him living far away. I tell her, I'd like her to try him at home and she does resisting. She leaves a message saying there is a client that would like to talk to him, and comes back to tell me that he is not available. So I ask her what she can do for me? "I cannot do anything. You don't have a name of who you talked to that promised you the adjoining rooms?" This is when I literally start yelling- and those that know me realize that it takes QUITE A BIT to get me to yell. People all around the desk are looking at me wide eyed- like this guy is pissed! And clearly I am. So after I berate her on several levels, I actually told her that she has no idea how to manage. I said, "Let me tell you how to do your job- 1)you are going to take down my cell phone number and when Tim calls back tell him that he needs to call me and that you will do everything you can to give me my refund, 2) you are going to release my rooms and see if you can get someone else to book them (Rachel has us booked in another hotel at this point). Julie K. interrupts- "I cannot do that..." To which I totally lose it... I then ask her what the cancellation fee is. She says there is no fee- that we will be charged for the full rate. I honestly have no idea what I said at this point because I simply lost it. I remember in the end asking her for some paper, she hands me Tim's card and then I say "Julie... what is your last name?" She says, "K. Julie K." "WHAT! CAN I HAVE YOUR LAST NAME JULIE!" "No, there is another girl in town with my name and so I do not want to give it. I am the only Julie K. here so that will be enough." I mean seriously... After all this crap she was saying everything wrong to just make me much more pissed. I have never experienced a more inexperienced "supervisor" in my life. She watched me send away my wife to book another room knowing full well she could do nothing, and was going to charge me the full rate and said absolutely nothing. Then she offered nothing. Even if the policy forbade her from officially offering anything- when I have talked to folks before, they have at least appeared like they were on my side. Julie K. insinuated that Rachel made up the fact we were promised adjoining rooms... So I leave just pissed and head over to the other hotel. I get to the Frontier Inn and am telling Rachel in the lobby that they won't do anything for us. Rachel had already booked us here over the phone- so I nicely ask the lady there if she would let us out of our reservation. She, being a competent manager, says "I am not supposed to, but if you cancel it right now I'll let you out." And I say, "please do, thank you!!!" She has the presence of mind to say "call over there and make sure they don't give your room away." I said, "they cannot, Julie K says that they are not allowed to and that would be double booking" in the most mocking tone I can wrangle up. The manager, still says- "please just call them and make sure." So I do, and they have my keys sitting right there on the desk. As we leave I hear her answer the phone and in the end triumphantly claiming that they are all booked up. So we grab poor dead tired Ben across the street once again- and haul up all our gear. I get Ben setup in his pack n play and here I am typing.
-Update, it is now an hour later. My mom went to get us food and wound up wandering all over Rapid City. Rachel told her not to worry about us and so she returned without any dinner. It being so late and everything a mess, I rushed off to Subway (where my mom had just been) and order right before they close. "I'd like a footlong Italian..." "we are out of Pepperoni..." At this point I begin to giggle. So, I get a turkey and then tell them I'd like everything on it except Bell Peppers and Veggies... to which I then begin laughing out loud. The subway girl laughed as well, and I attempted the order again. "All the vegetables except Bell Peppers and veggies..." For some reason the word cucumber was being replaced with veggies. At this point I was just laughing because I had totally lost it. So now, here I sit on our 8th anniversary- with Lucas asleep on the floor (well lying there anyway), Rachel in the bed reading with her headlamp, and me sitting in an armchair (it is quite comfortable) finishing this blog. Next have to figure out where Mt. Rushmore is and perhaps finally get to a manuscript that needs to be resubmitted by Friday... Sleep? Maybe tomorrow night... at the next hotel room- likely also not with adjoining rooms... but at the very least they did not tell us they would block them for us! What a Quality Inn!