Motel 6

Ok, I’ve been distracted. This blog is supposed to be for our epic world travels, but, I’ve recently had an experience and have nowhere else to deposit my mindless ravings. And after all, this is indeed related to travel. So, let’s get to it.

On Wednesday Kane and I made a trip down to San Luis Obispo to see some friends and pet our excessively grumpy cat. I hadn’t really thought it would be a particularly special trip but it really turned out to be. We only stayed one night, but it was like a true homecoming for Kane and me. Not to say that coming home to the Bay wasn’t, but we really had an established life down in SLO before heading overseas and reconnecting with the people we saw daily was different than just coming home to family. Family has to love you no matter when you come home; our SLO crew doesn’t have to give a crap if they don’t want to. But they do and boy are there some fine folks down there. We met up with our old Woods friends (and brought the doggies some presents), had a volleyball reunion with our old crew (they’ve gotten to be amazing players, by the way), were reminded how big of an attitude our cat has, were finally introduced to Eric’s new special lady, and were treated to sushi* by Thom and the old Ella Street gang. We were truly in high spirits.

And in harmony with our super reunions was a glorious place that I had previously taken for granted. I had written her off as just a crappy motel for people who were too cheap to stay at the Embassy Suites or the Comfort Inn (i.e. me and my family) and completely overlooked how extremely and superbly clean and adequate Motel 6 is. Yep, Motel 6. I do not use the word "adequate" in an insulting way at all - on the contrary - I use it to describe exactly what the word means: "as much or as good as necessary for some requirement or purpose; fully sufficient". Fully sufficient - exactly.

In five months of traveling, I honestly tell you that this is exactly what we were looking for. We wanted the basics for as cheap as possible. 1) The room is a reasonable size: not "spacious" but more than enough room for two persons to move around and access their luggage. 2) The bathroom is a reasonable size: again, not large but big enough that you're not required to shower, pee and wash your hands all from the same spot. 3) It's clean: crisp sheets, painted walls, vacuumed floors, spotless bathroom - is it really that much to ask? 4) It's sufficiently quiet: no overbearing nearby common areas and decent separations between rooms/floors. And, with all that, can it still be cheap? It can indeed, says Motel 6.

It doesn't sound that difficult to find a place that has a bare-bones room for a low price, believe you me, it is. You're either in a b&b or a decent motel for (easily) over $100/night or you're in a hostel of questionable character for about half that (or more). And even if you find a good deal, you end up sorting through a zillion tripadvisor.com reviews trying to tell who's got the "real" insight into the place and second guessing your choice the whole way though.

Motel 6 offers consistency. They're clean, they have 24 hour reception desks, they have freaking custom made Motel 6-themed bedspreads. It's nothing special and I don't need it to be for $41/night. I ask for "reasonable", "adequate" and "cheap" and, by George, Motel 6 leaves the light on for me**.

*Oh good god, we’ve been waiting so long for some California sushi…sorry Australia, it’s just not the same.

**I should be getting paid for this promo crap, shouldn't I?