Chains vs adventure
| May 04, 2010 12:38PM |
BrianJ Wrote:
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> I agree,
> families want a named place...
Depends on the family. When I was a kid Mom & Dad would *never* stop at a chain motel or restaurant. Mostly because they wanted their $$$ to go to locals, not some big corporation back east. According to Dad, people who went to chain places wanted to certain of what they were getting so they avoided the dumps but neverr found the really neat places we did.
When I was traveling with my daughter 30 years later, we wound up in some of the same places! A restaurant in Delores and a motel in Poncha Springs both leap to mind. Didn't remember either of them until we were inside, then went "Whoa! I ate/stayed here with your grandparents back in the 70's! The only time I stay at a chain place is I'm in a larger town. For Ex: When I'm arriving/departing from Grand Jct I'll stay at a Motel 6 out by the airport (taking a city bus up there from the Amtrak depot) mostly because all the rental car places are at the airport and it's cheap. Of course all I really want from a motel is a clean room with a decent bed and indoor plumbing.
OTOH, my elder brother, when he was driving our mother out west to visit various places for the last time a few years back, would always let AAA do all the planning for where they'd stay. (Note: he has made a lifetime career out of doing the opposite of what Dad did. I think he's an idiot.) This resulted in at least once where I was supposed to meet them for a few days in a town in Utah that I warned him (had been there a few years earlier) that prices were insane and proposed a motel I knew was cheap(er). He went with the place AAA put them and boy, was it funny to hear him b*tch about the cost when they checked out!
To make this a little more on topic, on one of those trips (2007?) they stopped in Chama & rode the CATS at my suggestion. (Mom wanted to ride the Silverton but Ray has a hate on for Colorado for some obscure reason) Ray did take my advice on a motel there and was pleased. The two things he (still) says about the CATS are "the track was so rough" and "nobody ever collected our tickets, we could have rode for free." (NOTE: that one is a dig at me, as I'd suggested that making reservations would be a good idea so he'd had to do all that "work" for, as he sees it, nothing).
Be afraid Chama, Ray sometimes talks about moving there! Of course when he does, I always talk up the snow & cold, two of the reasons he gives for wanting to leave Iowa, so you may be safe.
hank
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> I agree,
> families want a named place...
Depends on the family. When I was a kid Mom & Dad would *never* stop at a chain motel or restaurant. Mostly because they wanted their $$$ to go to locals, not some big corporation back east. According to Dad, people who went to chain places wanted to certain of what they were getting so they avoided the dumps but neverr found the really neat places we did.
When I was traveling with my daughter 30 years later, we wound up in some of the same places! A restaurant in Delores and a motel in Poncha Springs both leap to mind. Didn't remember either of them until we were inside, then went "Whoa! I ate/stayed here with your grandparents back in the 70's! The only time I stay at a chain place is I'm in a larger town. For Ex: When I'm arriving/departing from Grand Jct I'll stay at a Motel 6 out by the airport (taking a city bus up there from the Amtrak depot) mostly because all the rental car places are at the airport and it's cheap. Of course all I really want from a motel is a clean room with a decent bed and indoor plumbing.
OTOH, my elder brother, when he was driving our mother out west to visit various places for the last time a few years back, would always let AAA do all the planning for where they'd stay. (Note: he has made a lifetime career out of doing the opposite of what Dad did. I think he's an idiot.) This resulted in at least once where I was supposed to meet them for a few days in a town in Utah that I warned him (had been there a few years earlier) that prices were insane and proposed a motel I knew was cheap(er). He went with the place AAA put them and boy, was it funny to hear him b*tch about the cost when they checked out!
To make this a little more on topic, on one of those trips (2007?) they stopped in Chama & rode the CATS at my suggestion. (Mom wanted to ride the Silverton but Ray has a hate on for Colorado for some obscure reason) Ray did take my advice on a motel there and was pleased. The two things he (still) says about the CATS are "the track was so rough" and "nobody ever collected our tickets, we could have rode for free." (NOTE: that one is a dig at me, as I'd suggested that making reservations would be a good idea so he'd had to do all that "work" for, as he sees it, nothing).
Be afraid Chama, Ray sometimes talks about moving there! Of course when he does, I always talk up the snow & cold, two of the reasons he gives for wanting to leave Iowa, so you may be safe.
hank
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
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