This is the question we are asked the most when people hear
about our summer cross country trip.
In short, my answer is “Goodland ,
Kansas .”
Yes, we saw the Grand Canyon and
hiked in the Virgin River through Zion
Canyon . We saw
painted deserts and climbed to hanging lake.
We visited long time friends and spent a few days with my sister and
brother-in-law. But yes, the night we
spent in the sketchy motel in the middle of nowhere was my favorite part.
Rob and I had been planning this trip for years. Having moved across the country twice while
growing up, I wanted our girls to experience some of the things I did as we
traveled from coast to coast. We discussed the logistics of our trip and whether or not we
would schedule specific stops and make hotel reservations (the “Bob Chapman way”)
or just drive until we were tired and needed to stop for the night (the “Max
Helton way” - which always led to adventures). Due to some logistics (and
because I am a planner), we mapped out most of our days/ nights, but left one open
in case we wanted to pull a “Max”. This
meant we may need to stop for the night somewhere between Denver ,
CO , and Kansas City ,
MO.
As we ate dinner at Chili’s in Denver ,
we googled our route to see where would be a good place to stop for the
night. We discussed driving 3-4 more
hourst, which would put us near the Colorado /
Kansas border. Mentally, we wanted to get to the next state,
so we decided to look for a place once we crossed into Kansas . Goodland sounded like a decent place to stop,
and we figured surely there would be a nice room available on a Wednesday night
at one of the six hotels just off the Interstate.
We couldn’t have been more wrong.
First, we pulled in to the Motel 6 parking lot…and drove
right out. Sketchy place. Next, we tried the Super 8. One room left, and it had a king size bed. (Um,
not for 5 people. No thanks.) The
Holiday Inn charged more than double the other places, and there was no room at
the Comfort Inn. One hotel was a little off the beaten path,
and not being impressed with Goodland so far, we weren’t sure we wanted to
explore more of it at midnight. We
pulled into the last one – a local motel that seemed to attract anyone that was
still awake at this hour. The shady
deals going on in that parking lot made the Motel 6 not look so sketchy
now. And seeing that it only had 4 rooms
left, and 2 more parties walking inside, we figured this was our chance to snag
a room for the night. We only needed to
sleep a few hours and get back on the road anyway.
To call this place sketch is a compliment. Upon entering the room, we noticed the
microwave set on a chair, with no obvious place for it to go. The two double
beds barely had space between them, and both touched walls. The shower head was
too short, even for me. The girls
crammed in one bed, and Rob and I took the one closest to the door; the sheets
felt like sandpaper. I laid next to the
window, mere feet from our van in the parking lot. With every random noise, Rob would make me
peek out the window to make sure our van was still there and not being
vandalized.
We all laid still and quiet, trying to summons sleep. Suddenly, we all broke the silence and
started laughing. Belly-ache
laughing. We couldn’t help but laugh at
the circumstance. How Goodland ,
Kansas was anything but good. How we were so tired but couldn’t sleep, and
were in this sketchy motel, with the sole purpose of trying to get a few hours
of sleep. Finally, our laughs quieted
down. And the girls asked me to
sing. I sang lullabies. Rob sang “Golden
Slumbers”. The girls and I sang “Bright”
and then we all sang “Oceans.” All of us. And it sounded perfect to me.
Yes, THIS is why Goodland is my favorite part. This is what the trip was about. Being together. Making the best out of a less
than ideal circumstance. Making memories. Because years from now, I will remember lying in a sketchy motel in the
middle of nowhere, with my four favorite people on earth, and how we laughed
and sang each other to sleep. This is
one of the stories that will be told and retold as we talk about our
#griswolding adventures. THIS is the
good stuff.