Accommodation

From Moab we drove back to Las Vegas, leaving before the sun came up and finding ourselves in snow when it did. If my memory is correct, the highest elevation sign I saw read 7886 feet above sea level. Upon arriving in Las Vegas we returned our trusty hire car - a sad moment. We then boarded a rather small plane for our flight to San Francisco. Because we hadn't checked in online early enough, Daniel and I were seated at opposite ends of the plane. I think it was the first hour we've spent apart during this trip.

Many of you may already know where we stayed in San Fran, so I feel this post is a necessary precursor - a caveat of sorts. Apart from in the big cities, which are understandably more expensive, we've been staying mainly in roadside inns and motels. These do exist in the big cities, but they tend to be located in less than savoury areas or too far out to be convenient. A number of motel chains exist in America, and we've been frequenting Motel 6s and Super 8s. I've already mentioned a number of the nice places we've stayed, but I've not really mentioned these.

They cost anywhere from $40 to $60 a night, depending on the location and whether they've been renovated since the 1980s. They're as sparse as a motel room can be. When there's fresh air in the rooms they're fine, and often bigger than your usual hotel room. The problem is that most of them smell like somebody has smoked themselves to death inside, and that's in the non-smoking rooms. In any case, they've been doing wonders for our immune systems. We're certain that the Motel 6s are solely responsible for the fact we haven't (yet) been sick.

We've stayed in dozens of motel rooms, yet none of our ten thousand photographs document them. I would only have needed to show you one photo, as all the rooms of each chain are exactly the same. Ineptitude at its finest. What I really wanted you to see was the infamous Motel 6 bedspread. They look like someone ate a rainbow and then threw it up on the bed. Sometimes they smell that way too. We were well and truly ready for San Francisco.