Sometimes in our lives, we have to do things we don’t want to do to survive. Here is how a last minute hotel room taught thankfulness.
What happened that day
It was springtime. A storm had gone through my area and knocked out the electricity on my area of town. Now mind you, this was early spring, and it was still cold outside.
So the house would stay warm during the day, I opened the blinds to let sunlight in. I knew that would warm up the house during the day, but started to worry about what would happen after nightfall. Without sunlight, the house would get incredibly cold. Tonight, the outside air temperature was to go down to the low 30s.
I called my husband to talk about the situation. We planned to get a hotel room for the night. He suggested that I wait until 7 p.m. and then try to look for a room.
After I got off the phone, I continued to think about the situation. Then, a thought came to me. If the power is out in some parts of town, people are going to be looking for a place to sleep tonight too.
Making the call
It was about 6:15 p.m., and, I figured if I was going to get a room, I’d better get it now. I first called the Extended Stay America. We had stayed there before and liked it.
Their rooms had a small kitchenette, which would be great! We could get some groceries and cook. Eating out gets expensive. Well that dream burst. It turned out they were filled up.
I turned to Google, and brought up the hotel results for my city. Then, started to call each hotel on the list. One after another.
Hotel #5 had a room. I was so happy! I’m not going to name the hotel. Let’s just say it’s a big chain. My daughter and I packed everything we would needed for the next day and got to the hotel ASAP.
We arrived a few minutes before 7 p.m. While I waited in the check-in line with a few other folks, I overheard the desk clerk on the phone telling people that the hotel was filled for the night.
Wow! We had literally snagged one of the last rooms this hotel had! If I had waited until 7 p.m., I’d be one of those people on the phone trying to find a room. I was so happy that that thought had come to me and I had listened to it. I don’t know if it was from the Lord, but if it was, thank you Lord!
Image by Pixabay
The hotel setup
After we got checked in, my daughter and I went got back in the car and drove around to the building where our room was.
This hotel was not a single building. It was a set of two buildings lined up parallel of each other. It looked like a rectangle with the two short sides.
Well, anyway, our room was at the first part of the first building. I parked close to our building, and then my daughter and I unloaded the car.
The Room from H**L
The inside of the room was pretty much what I expected. Two beds, a dresser, a TV, and a nightstand with a lamp and phone. After a few minutes of being in the room, I noticed the strong smell of cigarette smoke.
Now I was disappointed because I had booked a Non-Smoking room. I called the front desk to verify that we were in a Non-Smoking room. According to her, we were.
When I told the front desk agent the room smelled heavily of cigarette smoke, she sighed and sincerely apologized. She said she had an air deodorizer and would bring it to the room. Thank you! After that, I sat down and waited.
As I waited, I looked around the room. I couldn’t help but think this was probably the worst hotel room I have ever been in. Though it felt clean and bed bug-free (I did a check with a small flashlight I brought), the room still felt grungy.
My daughter sat on the bed opposite me. After a quiet moment, she looked at me and said, “Mommy, this room is janky.” She didn’t say it in an entitled way, just matter-of-factly. Deep down, I had to agree with her.
It was bad, but it was all we could get. It was either this or spending a cold night in a cold house. After a moment of gathering my thoughts, I said, “It’s not janky. It’s just a little Spartan. It was the only hotel we could get. So any port in a storm”.
She wasn’t sure what I meant, so I explained that sometimes you have to take what you can get. It may not be what you want. But if it will take care of you for a short time and it’s not going to kill you, you deal with it.
So we started to unpack and relax until the cigarette smoke got to me. I ended up going to Walmart for an air freshener and some cereal bars to snack on. Since my daughter and I weren’t hungry for dinner, I figured some snacks would hold us until morning.
When I got back, we decided to watch some TV. The little TV remote acted weird. If we pressed the up buttom it would skip two channels. If you wanted to watch channel 5, it would skip to channel 7. After awhile of working with the remote, we figured out how to get the channels we wanted. We learned to make very small taps on the remote.
Around 10 p.m. or 11 p.m., my husband showed up. When he walked in, he looked around and said, ‘Oh wow’.
Anyway, we went to sleep warm. I was, and still am, thankful for that room. It wasn’t the best but it was warm. Even if it was a little janky!
Image from Pixabay
What I learned
Way back when I learned to be thankful for what I had, I remember my grandmother teaching me that you should be thankful for what you have.
So being grateful for what you have and being thankful for what you have are two lessons that everyone should have in their personality arsenal.
The takeaway
Well, at the time, my daughter and I were not happy about having to sleep in a hotel that we thought was below our standards, but it kept us warm. So this was the way a last minute hotel room taught thankfulness to my daughter.
Just saying!
If you have any stories of courts in a storm that you have had or just want to add a comment, please do so in the comment section below.
