# Memorable Motels (or not)



## NancyNGA (Jul 28, 2017)

Do you have any memorable motel pictures, or stories, or whatever? 

The World’s first motel, opened on Dec. 12, 1925 by Arthur Heineman, was a Luxury Establishment, Not a Dive.

Motel Inn, San Luis Obispo, CA



"_It cost $80,000 to build in its ornate Spanish-mission style, with a three-tiered bell tower, white pillars, and a tree-fringed courtyard.  In those days most American car travelers still were staying in campgrounds or tiny wood cabins (some about the size and style of chicken coops) that were clustered by a gas station or general store."_


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## NancyNGA (Jul 28, 2017)

I Love Lucy (1955). Motel/train scene.  First stop on their trip to California with Fred and Ethel.


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## NancyNGA (Jul 29, 2017)




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## Son_of_Perdition (Jul 29, 2017)

NancyNGA said:


> Do you have any memorable motel pictures, or stories, or whatever?



  	 	 	 	   Me, my wife, my 80 YO MIL, BIL & son pulled into a strange looking motel outside of Tucson, AZ in 1986.  It had very few lights to lead the way.  Paid for 2 rooms took our luggage in then discovered that the motel had been converted from a former car wash.  The floors sloped to the center, the bathroom door had a wedge of light under it when the light was on.  There were 3 beds lined up along the one wall, a TV & it was about 30 feet long by 10 feet wide.  It was clean but all slump block interior painted with a horrible yellow-orange hue.  Should have became suspicious when they only had 8 rooms & the office.


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## jujube (Jul 29, 2017)

Motels? I stayed in one in the Florida keys about 35 years ago that had the toilet just sitting out in a corner of the room (there was a small folding divider available to use for a hint of "privacy") and a rusty metal shower stall in another corner.  It was prime vacation time and we had come down without reservations and that was the ONLY thing we could find.  It cost way too much, too, but they had us over a barrel unless we wanted to sleep in the car.

You want to talk strange hotels, B&B's and youth hostels?  I have a few of them...


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## NancyNGA (Jul 29, 2017)

jujube said:


> ...You want to talk strange hotels, B&B's and youth hostels?  I have a few of them...


I'd love to hear them, any time, jujube.  Motel, hotel, B&B, jail cell, who cares? Wherever you spent the night. Ha!


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## Manatee (Aug 6, 2017)

Three of us went to Detroit on business.  We checked in and went to our respective rooms.  One of our group was a big man, 6'3" and husky.  He looked in the drawer and there was a shirt, brand new, still in the package, his size.  He put it in his suitcase as a bonus.


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## jujube (Aug 6, 2017)

NancyNGA said:


> I'd love to hear them, any time, jujube.  Motel, hotel, B&B, jail cell, who cares? Wherever you spent the night. Ha!



As far as strange youth hostels go, I've stayed in the cell of a former jail and a WWII underground bunker in Berlin.  

Hotels? I stayed in a small hotel in Copenhagen where the owner came in the bathroom while I was showering, stuck his head in the shower and asked if I needed my back scrubbed.  I guess that was included with the room, huh?   I stayed in a pension in Salzburg where I had to walk through someone else's bedroom to get to ours (awwwwkward, because they were guys....sleeping au natural).  I stayed in a hotel in the redlight district of Amsterdam which turned out....no surprise....to be a redlight hotel (whole lotta stomping around going on outside up and down the stairs.....)  A Salvation Army hotel in Rome.  We got breakfast, but we had to pray for it first.  Another time in Rome, a convent (we didn't have to pray for our breakfast there, just pay.....)   

B&B?  The strangest one was on Maui at a Buddhist retreat center.  Sounded great from the brochure...."hot tub, tasteful oriental décor, comfortable futon, waterfall a short walk away, delicious tropical breakfast on the breakfast lanai" (this was pre-internet, so no way to check out reviews). 

We drove up a one lane mountain road in pitch dark until we stumbled on the retreat center.  One house had a light on so we went to that.  On the door was a piece of paper that said "Mr. & Mrs. ______, take the room to the right."  So we did.  It had an old mattress on the floor, no sheets, no linens.  There was a door that didn't lock and two windows with no curtains, one which looked into the hall for some reason.  We stood there, trying to decide what to do when a man (tall, skinny, blonde dreadlocks....definitely not what I was expecting) walks into the room, accompanied by a small naked boy who immediately ran over to my suitcase, unzipped it and started throwing clothes out.  The man handed me a pile of clean but threadbare sheets and towels and carefully explained to the toddler that Mr. and Mrs. _________ hadn't given him _permission_ to touch their things and he would have to wait for _permission_.  I hope I didn't warp his tender psyche but _permission_ was not granted.  I would have liked to warp his naked little behind (and Dad's, too).  

I asked about the hot tub.  What hot tub?  The hot tub in the brochure. What brochure?  This one.  Oh, THAT brochure.  Nope, no hot tub.   Not much of a surprise, but there was no path to the waterfall, either.  In fact, there was no waterfall.  Then we get to the tropical breakfast (he pointed out the refrigerator at the end of the hall, where I could find white bread, margarine and jelly that I could toast IF the toaster was working) and eat on the breakfast lanai, which consisted of a small splintery porch with two rusty chairs and a 3-legged table, equally rusty.   OH, and there wasn't any hot water, either, and the shower was outside.  If the Buddhists had anything to do with that place, well....I'm the Dalai Lama. 

So, unwilling to make the trip back down the mountain in the dark, we made up the.. uh...futon......repacked our suitcase, and slept in our clothes.  At first light, we snuck out and drove down to Lahaina where we had a blissful stay at the decidedly funky but totally delightful Pioneer Inn for the rest of our stay.  

After that, my late husband started twitching uncontrollably whenever I made the merest reference to staying in a B&B.  

Motel?  In Oregon, way high on a bluff over the Columbia River, a young couple had bought a closed-down motel and refurbed it into a classic 1950's/60's schtick.  I'm talking turquoise bucket chairs, kidney shaped coffee tables, fantastic fabrics, black-and-white old TV's.  It was a blast from the past.


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## Trade (Aug 7, 2017)

The Belleview Biltmore in my home town of Clearwater, Florida was quite a place back in the day. Of course growing up I was never inside of it as it was way out of my family's socio-economic bracket. We did have our 25th High School reunion there in 1990, so I did finally make it inside. The band that the reunion committee hired canceled and they had to get a last minute substitution. The replacement band only knew about four songs from the 60's. So they kept playing the same ones over and over and over. It was hilarious. It reminded of that scene from the Blues brother's where they kept doing "Stand by your man" and "Rawhide" over and over. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belleview-Biltmore_Hotel


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## RadishRose (Aug 7, 2017)

That is lovely, Trade.

My cat goes here-


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## oldman (Aug 7, 2017)

Oh, Jeesh! Being a pilot for 34 years, I have stayed at so many hotels that I could not even begin to count the nights. When I first started flying for a regional airline, it was all about conserving money. So, we (flight crews, which consisted of both pilots and F/A's) would stay at what are called "crash pads." There may be as many as 11 or 12 men staying on one room because that's all the airline would pay for. If I flew 6-8 legs in one day and would end up in Columbus, Ohio for the night and my home airport was Harrisburg, I would be forced to stay in one of these crash pads or fork over the money to have my own room. At the time that I was just starting out money was an issue. I was really happy when I signed on with United and was able to have my own room or share it with the F/O. 

Here is a picture of a hotel in the Poconos in Pennsylvania where TV and movie stars would go to relax, play golf and just to chill. It is called the Shawnee Inn. Inside on the various walls are autographed pictures of the rich and famous that had stayed there. It is a very luxurious hotel from back in the day with beautiful wood moldings, doors and such on the inside. The rooms are quite large and very luxurious, as well. I have stayed here with my wife a few times during special occasions.


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## NancyNGA (Aug 18, 2017)

There was a little motel, 12 cabins with a high fence around, right near the house where I grew up in Ohio. We kids congregated at the entrance to catch the school bus. It seemed no one ever went in or out, like it didn't even exist. I got curious.  StreetView 2011, still in business 65+ years later! 



It has a Facebook page with some funny entries: 

Don White was at Motel X

Comments:
Jim Lewis ???? Why? 

Don White Rounding up my girls.

Mildred Porter Letting them go for good behavior? 
Betty Parker lol go Don

Don White Just kidding! I had to pick up my nephew Bud he works there at night 

Laura Neil way to go *wink* 
Mark Sentry Nice save ! 
Mary Contrary Good cover story. . . picking up the nephew. . . . hmmm. yeah 

Don White There's nothing like that going on there. I was just kidding!!! The police go in and out of there all night long making sure everything's okay, which makes me feel better about Bud working there at night.


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