The only thing worse than having to stay somewhere like that is having to
stay there when everything else if full and paying an arm and a leg for the
"privilege"

Jo

in

<Shudder>  What a lovely place ;-)
Dennis and I have stayed in some pretty dodgy places as well on our
travels.  But none was as bad as this one place in Ayre, Qld,
Australia.  It was 1996 and we were driving from Sydney to Cairns and
had been planning to camp on the beach that night, but couldn't find
any suitable access spots.  So it got dark, and late and we reached
this small crappy town.
We were both unemployed so money was an issue, so we stayed at this
hotel above a bar for $20/night.  It was old and run down but we
figured we'd just sleep and get up early and continue our drive north.
There were 2 twin beds at a 90 degree angle in the room and one fan
which rotated back and forth.  We lay on our beds in our underwear
hoping for the fan to blow some cool air on us for a couple of
seconds.  We were sweating.
After a while, Dennis asked me if I was sweating so much that it was
trickling down my legs.  I said yes, it sure does feel that way.
After another while, Dennis commented that sweat doesn't usually make
you feel so itchy.  We decided to turn on the light.
OMG!!!  We were covered in fleas and blood was trickling down our
legs!  We looked at the carpet and it was *moving*!  We totally
freaked and ran to the (disgusting) bathroom down the hall to rinse
off, then we grabbed our stuff and fled the hotel.  We didn't even
check out, we chucked the key out of the car window as we were driving
down the highway.  We ended up sleeping in the car in some suburb.
Ugh.
The next night was much improved as we arrived at a wonderful hostel
in Mission Beach with a pool.  We got a box of wine and hung out in
the pool all day.  Then we found a pub where you got a free dinner of
chicken stew on rice if you bought a beer.  What a deal :-)
--
Britta
"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast." -- Unknown
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album

It looks like I will probably be spending tonight in a motel, due not
to traveling but to plumbing problems.  My house drains have been
getting slower and slower for the past 10 days or so, to the point
that flushing the toilet now sometimes brings up sewage in the tub.  I
had a plumber come today to run a power augur down the drain, but he
couldn't reach the blockage, which apparently is out near the street
and probably caused by tree roots.  They will be coming in the morning
to dig a trench near the house, feed the augur in at that point, and
then send a fiber-optic camera down the line to see the nature of the
blockage.  If it turns out to be tree roots, as I expect, they will
then have to dig up that section of the sewer and replace it, or else
the roots will just grow back into the pipe again.  The whole process
is going to cost around $1300 (ouch).