May 21, 2016 11:35 p.m.
Springdale, Arkansas is reminiscent of Topeka; this is not a compliment. It’s run down and places seem to close early, but, unlike Topeka, they have a cool baseball stadium that houses the AA-Royals affiliate, Northwest Arkansas Naturals.
The first hotel was a disaster.
It was rated highly on Booking.com, so assumptions were made based on the “good or above” rating. After getting a refund and leaving abruptly 5 minutes after check-in, assumptions were made that these ratings were written by friends and relatives.
Upon checking in, it was also assumed that I would be checking out soon. However, I wanted to make sure the paper trail was started in order to get full credit back from Booking.com.
Once I was handed the key, I pulled my car back to a crumbling parking lot spot. Getting luggage out was my last thought at this point. I could have avoided this altogether had I went with initial impulse, but I persisted. The door opened to an uncleaned party room.
Money back on my card and 15 minutes later, a much cleaner Super 8 was patronized. Although I still wasn’t trusting enough to sleep under the covers, it was convenient and I didn’t fear waking to guns in the face and/or the ever-so-inconvenient needle stick left by a previous tenant.
Mind Stroll 