My husband and I purchased a new truck with a full cab a few years ago. It was brand new, gleaming with black paint and precisely what our family needed. We had been envisioning these incredible road trips we would take as a family and now with this truck, we could finally make our visions a reality.
Our first long road trip was to Disney Land. We had been planning this trip for a few years and waited until the kids were old enough to truly enjoy the adventure. We packed up our truck and started in on the 16 hour journey from Portland, Oregon to Anaheim.
We had planned the trip out carefully, everything was in order except for the first night. Our plan was to stay in Sacramento as my husband had been on a few business trips there and it was conveniently the half way point.
I’ve always heard that couples fight on road trips. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I remember my own parents bickering over directions and complaining over bathroom breaks. I was proud of my family, we were all enjoying ourselves. There wasn’t a fight or disagreement between us. This was a stress free road trip until… I booked our motel for the night.
We had saved for this vacation and budgeted our money so that we could splurge. In Anaheim, we had booked three nights at a nice hotel and we planned on dinning out every day. As we approached Sacramento, I started looking at motels for the night. My husband wanted to stay somewhere nice, I wanted somewhere cheap. That was when I found a decent well-known motel chain with a room for extremely cheap. We met in the middle and I booked it.
Exhausted after traveling, we entered the motel, looking forward to a night of sleep and relaxation. We were even excited when the motel gave us a coupon for two free drinks at the bar. The moment we entered the elevator, I knew I had made a mistake. The uneven flooring, the smell of sweat and the jolting back and forth of the elevator made even the kids nervous. We honestly thought it might break down on us.
We find our room, which unfortunately is right above the pool and enter the room. We are greeted with a horrifying humidity and a sticky floor. My husband turns to me and gives me the evil eye, but kindly says nothing. I quickly get the air conditioner working and the room becomes bearable. He wanders down to the bar to get us a drink. The bar tender gives him two choices, room temperature soda or beer in a small plastic cup. He comes back with the beer and with great effort I chug down the worst beer I have ever tasted. He doesn’t say a thing.
We take the kids to the pool and attempt to swim. The water is so cold that it’s the equivalent to an ice bath. That’s when we learn that there is a junior high baseball tournament going on that weekend and an entire team is staying at the motel. At this point, I’m getting a little nervous and my husband still says nothing.
Let me just say this, there is no greater noise in the entire world than a pool party of thirteen-year-old boys. We laid on that uncomfortable bed, with poor ventilation, listening to laughing, screaming, splashing, diving and curse words for the entire night. Our daughters were so tired, they were almost in tears and finally around eleven my husband turns to me and says, “You are never picking the motel again!”
He gets out of bed and marches down to the front office, putting a stop to the entire party.
We didn’t fight. We didn’t argue. We laughed it off as best we could but as soon as we arrived at our destination, he asks to speak to the manager. He proudly requests an upgrade, as far away from the pool as humanly possible. The manager looks us over. He must have seen our tired eyes and weary faces because whether out of pity or because this is Disney Land, he upgrades us for free!
