The $19.95 motel - May 30

After leaving Acoma, we drove almost 300 miles to a small, forgettable town near the New Mexico border called Gallup. We decided to stay there for the night and drove down the "main drag" which was near the highway and a railroad track. To our surprise, accommodations in town were really, really cheap. We drove past a motel that advertised $14.95 a night and I distracted my mom as we drove past it because I didn't want to stay in a total dive. A couple blocks down, we passed the "Thunderbird Motel" that advertised $19.95 a night and I tried distracting my mother again, but to no avail. My mom promptly pulled into the parking lot and said we'd be staying there for the night. I told her I would rather stay at the Econo Lodge down the street (which was about $40) but she told me that "we're not millionaires" and promptly slammed the door in my face as she went into the motel.

If you ever see this motel, RUN (don't walk) the other way.

After checking into our room, everything appeared ok. The room was definitely run down and needed a lot of maintenance (carpets, paint, bedcovers etc.) but it was adequate. We started getting ready for bed and soon realized why the room was so cheap: a train passed by and blew its whistle right outside our window. It was really loud and I could practically feel the walls shake. My mom said it probably wouldn't come during the night, but boy was she wrong. Turns out, the train passed our motel every 20 minutes and blew its whistle almost every single time. And when I tried locking the window, I discovered that the lock was broken and anyone could just slide the window open and jump into our room. To have some fun with my mom, I told her that someone tried jiggling our doorknob to get into our room and she started freaking out. If I had to stay in this hell-hole, at least I was going to entertain myself :)

To make a long story short, we barely slept all night, my mom was petrified that someone was going to rob us, and we both woke up the next morning exhausted. When I asked my mom if she would ever stay at that motel again she promptly said: "Never". I guess I learned a couple of things from this:
- you get what you pay for
- the lowest price is not always the best value
- NEVER stay in a motel that charges less than $20