Thursday 18 September 2008

Casper the not so friendly ghost.....

What can I say- last night was one of the worst nights we've ever experienced in a "hotel" ever- Pete assures me it wasn't as bad as his Birmingham experience, but it got pretty close!

From my entry last night it was probably evident that we weren't impressed with the Shilo Inn Hotel in Casper- well, it didn't improve. Not only did the room absolutely reek of smoke, there were stained/yellowing towels, spots of blood on the bed sheets (not loads, but still- ewwww!), a toilet which re-filled extremely noisily every half hour, and cold water for my bath. Neither of us were keen to stay there, we didn't feel very safe, there just wasn't a very friendly feel about the place- plus we could hear people hacking up in the next door room. We put off going to sleep for as long as possible-thank God for the TV and Internet! Don't think we were keen to turn off the lights! At about 12:30 we gave in and fell asleep. All was fine until 4am- we were woken by very odd noises which made us very uneasy- there were banging noises outside in the corridor- I swear I cannot express just how much we both thought gun shots would be fired.... it was that kind of place. No idea what the noises were we heard, but they kept on banging away at regular intervals for a while. There were shrieks and the sound of people talking. A dog started howling and barking a few doors down, and I could hear people going up and down the corridor and knocking on doors saying "room service" in fake Mexican accents... All of this was bad enough, and quite scary and freaky in the middle of the night. We were on tenterhooks, convinced we'd be getting someone banging on our door and trying to get in. Whilst all of this was happening, the toilet continued to make it's noises.. Just when we thought things were settling down again at 5 am ish, trains started chugging up and down the very close railway honking their horns so loudly and for so long you just wouldn't believe it. It was like some comedy sketch except we were too tired to find it funny. After half an hour of train horns, there was another commotion outside in the corridor as various guests who had obviously got fed up with all the noise etc decided to leave in the most noisy fashion possible, bumping and dropping their suitcases up and down stairs. I was ready to get in the car at this point- our get out plan was pre arranged- we would skip the free breakfast, I'd forgo a shower, my clothes were already laid out- we wanted to get straight on the road and the hell out of Casper, or Crapster as I'd like to call it... The Shitlo Inn in Crapster.. Excuse my language, but it was so bloomin' awful!

Well, we finally managed to fall back to sleep and woke at 8, jumped straight out of that icky bed and on the road. We could not get out of their fast enough. This is the view we had from our hotel room- you can see the beauty. I imagine this is where most honeymooning couples would choose to stay!!



Perhaps I'm being harsh towards Casper- we had no chance to explore, it, it probably had reasonable parts... but how would we know when our tour company decided to stick us in the skankiest hotel in the most remote part of town, so well situated next to the railway, interstate and fast food joints.

So, we were on the road early and fuelled only by our desire to get out. No breakie! Had to make do with snacks from the car. We were so far into hicksville, there weren't any proper rest stops with food for miles. Talking about fuel, we were in need of some more, so followed a sign from the interstate indicating fuel nearby. We ended up going round and round some tiny town trying to find this elusive garage.. it was all getting a bit unnerving, American horror movies started running through our minds.... We'd all but given up when we happened upon a small garage so we pulled up and re-fulled. All went well, but we were greeted by some very over excited local teens wearing head to toe black clothing, scarves round their necks and bandying what I assume were paint guns.. who knows. They were yelping and running around, driving pick up trucks.... I was just thinking "let's go, let's go" in my head. I'm sure they were harmless enough. Though Pete admitted that he thought at first they'd just robbed the garage!! Whilst at the garage we had to attend to one of the biggest problems with the great American road trip- bug splatter. We'd never considered it before. It doesn't seem to occur in the UK. I suppose in America there are just more bugs. Basically, your car gets covered in bugs. You hit them as you drive along and their smooshed biddies and gunk stick to your windscreen and car like glue. Every garage provides squeegees so you can clean up. This will give you an idea of what you get after just a few hours on the road. I've also included a pic of a sign that was placed just by the garage.







There's not much to report about our journey today. We stopped in Cheyenne for lunch, grabbed a subway sarnie to share, and a coffee- oh it was good to eat something like that after our experiences in Casper. Sat in a car park and read our books for an hour or so, that was nice. We then got back on the road, detouring via the Rocky Mountains to get some more excited scenery and then made our way to Denver, the Mile High City of Colorado.







We reached our hotel and were glad to find it's clean, tidy and with good facilities. So relieved. We've enjoyed a yummy meal at the restaurant on the 14th floor with a panoramic view of Denver. Pete was ecstatic to get his hands on a double vodka and coke, and I was happy with a slice of chocolate cake.

Tomorrow we'll explore Denver- hoping to track down a Krispy Kreme Donut store, the mile long mall and an Indian Restaurant!!!

Oh, and we have sent a strongly worded email to the people who've booked our hotels with regards to the Casper experience.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wargh! You poor things. Who says place names don't give you a clue about the character of a place? Ah well! It all adds to the memory bank and natural America will dispel some of the nasties. I bet the views are still stunning . The pictures are great. Can't wait to see the CSI pics of the Casper room. Enjoy Denver xxx moinlo

Pete & Alex said...

Waking up in Denver today we both feel alot better :)

The sun is out and we've got a day of activities planned (along with an Indian meal for the evening!)

Fun fact: Because of the alltitude of Denver, the suns rays are 25% stronger here than at sea level. Better put on the sun cream.

Anonymous said...

Poor you, that must have been awful. I'm representing the office - I've just told everyone off for not commenting! Scott wants me to send a photo I've just had through from C/stoppers showing one of the kiosks in the background - how to reduce crime! I said no. Anyway you look as though you've got over the ordeal - bit of compensation in order there I think. Keep having fun.

Gaynor

Pete & Alex said...

Thanks Gaynor :)

It was a real low moment for us both there, we both really felt down - it took us a day or two to feel normal again.

But we're back having a good time again now!

Best wishes to you all in the office, hope some of our weather gets to you all in England