Where has the Time Gone?

Wow, I'm astounded that I've let weeks go by without posting anything. I've been doing a lot...just not blogging about it.

One of the things I did was attend a family reunion. I may have mentioned it. We had a great time, we ate and talked and shared pioneer ancestor stories. And we went swimming at a big resort in a teeny little town in Idaho. There is a natural hot springs there, and the pool was built years ago, and over the decades has been expanded until it is a mega-complex with diving platforms and three-story slides and picnic areas, etc. It's really terrific, and since the water comes from deep inside the earth, near the molten core (as explained to me by my four-year old grandson) the pools are pleasantly heated and quite comfortable.

However, even as the resort has grown, and people love to come there for family reunions, and small weekend vacations, or just to soak in the therapeutic original hot pools, the town has struggled to keep up. There are a few motels, some are pleasant and some are a little less pleasant. I didn't start looking for a room for me and my daughter's family until about a month before the reunion, and so I kept hearing from the desk clerks I'd call that they were all booked up. So, I felt relieved when finally one woman told me they'd had a cancellation and so they had a two bedroom suite available. I was looking at their site on-line and it seemed reasonable, so I grabbed it. It was a deal, too, but I assumed that their remote location might factor into it.

 Well, here it is: Napoleon Dynamite's Grandmother's Motel. This is actually the "veranda" just outside the office door. Yes, those are plastic flowers in that arrangement in front, along with the deer antlers. One could, I suppose, sit here in the shade on a warm afternoon, or enjoy a beverage during the cocktail hour in the evening. There's a liquor store across the highway.

Actually, as I walked around the edge of this area, looking for the office, there was a girl (turned out to be the maid) sitting there, reading a magazine and drinking a soda. I looked into the office, but saw no one. I looked around for a bell or something to ring, but not seeing anything, I called out, "Hello?" The girl still didn't say anything to me, but she did look at me without blinking. I heard a voice from a doorway shout, "Just a minute!" and then something flew right past my head across the little counter. A BAT!!!  It landed on the window frame by the opened doorway.

A very old lady came around the edge of the door behind the counter, using a cane. She said, "Are you looking for a room?" I just pointed and said, "Um...a bat just flew through here, and it is perched on the window ledge right here." 

"Oh, that silly bat! He's not supposed to be in here. He needs to be outside. Hold on a minute, Honey."  She wobbled back through the door, returned with a handful of paper towels, and shuffled to the window frame. Her first pass at the bat was a miss, and he fluttered up and circled over my head as she waved her arm toward him. Then he landed on the window sill again, so she attempted to capture him a second time, but, fortunately her gesture scared him toward the open doorway and he flew outside and away. This all took about a minute. I think bats should live outdoors, too. Really. It was a small bat, about as big as a sparrow, but still...bat (!!!!!) flying around my head in a tiny room. (!!!!)

So, we got me checked in. She wrote a phone number on a small piece of paper that would me connect to the Internet, but I didn't bring a computer, so, hey.

I walked down the sidewalk, found room 4. Very interesting...The door isn't all that unusual, it was yellow--really yellow--but it had an interesting, arty touch at the bottom. It looked designed, as though someone had a plan.

That was the last time I thought anything at all about a plan, however, because when I saw the wall paint in the first room, I realized that, actually, someone just had a lot of yellow paint. Perhaps left over from when they put the stripes on the highway?  And the paintings on all the walls---Deseret Industries or maybe a motel furnishings sale? And there were lots of paintings. Every wall had several.



These are the curtains at the window by the door. Yes, they are big towels. I think I learned how to make these in Homemaking, in 1976. My granddaughter commented on them. "Hey, Grandma, why do they have towels hanging in the windows?"  Indeed---but the yellow matched the walls.



Here we are in the second room of the "suite." It seems to have formerly been a screen porch. But with a little clever carpentering, and lots of wood paneling, it has been transformed into a bedroom/sitting room. There is a queen bed, and a single platform-type bed along one wall. The love seat faces a television that had a VCR balanced atop it. Behind the television stand was a fold-up cot that, frankly, I'm not sure would have fit into the room anywhere.



This is the "twin bed" in the second room of our suite. Note all the paintings on the walls. Actually, there were several wall treatments back here. Some sections were cinder block, some painted wallboard (yellow, of course) and some wood paneling. The ceiling was wood paneling, too. I kept expecting Uncle Rico to drop by.

When I made the reservation on the phone, she pointed out that this was the handicapped room, and so there was only a curtain, no door, on the bathroom. I said that it wouldn't be a problem for us. Of course, I'm thinking standard motel room bathroom. But, frankly, I don't think that this bathroom could have had a door on it anyway. The edges of the doorway weren't parallel. But, we just needed a place to brush our teeth and go potty, so we were good.

The bedding was also fascinating. It seemed to have selected it so that nothing matched anything else. It was awesome. Note my bed, as an example: quilted polyester floral bedspread, plaid flannel sheets, paisley brocade pillow covers.

But, the water worked, the refrigerator worked (we ate cereal, as we sat on our beds, for breakfast), and we were able to sleep very nicely. There was a bit of an off odor. I'd gone to the grocery store to get some yogurt and dried fruit and I picked up an air freshener spray--which I left for the next lucky patrons. But after we spritzed around the "suite" it smelled a little fresher.

The next morning, I walked down to the office to drop off the key, and I noticed another man video-taping his room interior. I leaned in his door and said, "The real name of this place is "Napoleon Dynamite's Grandmother's House." He looked at me for a sec and then burst out laughing as he nodded and replied, "Yes! That's it!"

I probably won't be back. But it was an adventure! And I'm also really, really glad that I didn't need to stay there any longer than one night. My lips would probably have gotten chapped real bad.