Edwardsville NOT to Jeffersonville: the disappearing Motel.

Today is the first day of the third week of this eight-week trip. Having just completed two full weeks last night, I noticed this morning that my trip odometer reads 3650 miles. (By the end of today it was more like 3825). For those concerned with these things, she's just reached over 66,000 miles and I'm getting an average of 43 MPG.

After teaching and shopping, my main plan for today was to drive four plus hours to what I think is a suburb of Louisville, KY called Jeffersonville, IN and stop at a forest on the way. But the night before, I was going to look up the location on the website to see if they had an onsite laundry, and the link from my reservation didn't work. I couldn't get to the information about the property, but I could on any of the other reservations. I figured it was a glitch in the website, so I went to google the location and found over 300 reviews of the property.
It was overwhelmingly one-star reviews. People were saying that the customer service was great but the place was gross with mold and bugs and stains and garbage. One commenter suggested that people of compromised health shouldn't stay here because of the high level of mold. Many people said things like, "I've been going to Motel 6 for years and I've seen some that were pretty bad, but I've never seen anything this bad." The "Manager/owner?" was often responding and being very pro customer service and assuring the complainer that it wasn't their policy.

And then, I noticed that about two months ago people began complaining about the smell of paint, and many were saying they were inconvenienced by the maintenance. The whole ground floor was closed for painting? It sounded like they were fixing it up, so I was encouraged again. But then I saw on Google that it was marked as "closed", so I tried calling them. I was directed to what sounded like a generic corporate recording "We're sorry. The property you're trying to reach is experiencing phone difficulties. Try again later."

So I began to realize that I needed to find a place to sleep tonight!

Original plan - Aborted

I was planning a visit to Hoosier National Forest on the way, but sadly, that wasn't a priority, so I didn't get there. 

What I decided to do was to set my navigation for Louisville and stop along the way if I saw a good place. I drove about two hours. We passed the town of Griffin, Indiana.

I stopped at the Black River Visitor Center in New Harmony, IN and I had lunch and fed River. Then I remembered I had the Bring Fido app on my phone, so I checked for local accommodations. That's when I saw that Motel 6 was one of them. It was one I never had heard of, and it was only about half an hour from New Harmony, in the direction of Louisville. It's not as close to Louisville as Jeffersonville was, but it was open, so that was a plus. It's between 2 and 3 hours to Louisville, but my class is at 4:30pm, so I have plenty of time. I do have to take into account that I'll be crossing over into the Eastern Time Zone once I'm in Kentucky. Still, it's a leisurely drive tomorrow. 

But I still didn't even know if they had any rooms tonight. I thought I'd just show up and take my chances. But it seems like they have plenty of vacancies, so I got a good room. Small and too many flies, but it's got a roof and I don't notice any mold, so it's all relative.

Some of my friends were just hit by Hurricane Harvey and have been flooded, darkened and cut off. So I can't really complain too much. My heart goes out to them, I love them and I wish them well. 

I took River on a long walk and he was frolicking more than I've ever seen him do. Really just ecstatic jumping and running and rolling around and coming at me, but dodging me and running around me, to a tree, to the tall grass... He'd jump at a crushed paper cup and we found a long stick he could destroy. It was a nice big thick one so it kept him busy and took a lot of energy to break. With my help, he finally did. And I congratulated him and he trotted off to explore more grass. I was letting him have his dog day until it led us into the semi truck parking area of Motel 6 and River wanted to wade in a big puddle. I figured there was probably a lot of grease or anti-freeze or some other gunk in that puddle, so that's when I called him and gradually escorted him in the direction of the room. He's been asleep on the floor here ever since. 

I have no idea what the story is behind the Jeffersonville Motel 6. I cancelled my reservation online when I got into this room, and I booked a night in Mason, OH to replace the next night. I had planned to stay in Jeffersonville after class tomorrow, and had two nights reserved there. So instead, I'll hit the road after class and drive a few hours to Mason. 

So this is what I ended up driving today:

I'll also update the Where the Heck? blog to reflect the change.