Inter-National Lampoon's Extended Stay Vacation

Fresh off the hills of losing my childhood home, my family and I set our sights on finding a new place to lay our heads. Because of rent being too damn high, we settled on spending some time in a pair of extended stay hotels until we could find a place of our own. 

The very first hotel we stayed in was sort of nondescript but it did have a few more amenties that tbe other hotel didn't. It had a big fridge and a kitchen stove whereas the other place just possessed a mini fridge which we kept loaded with all sorts of goodies.

My brother always said that the hotel felt cold to him and I would agree to a certain extent because you never really saw people sitting around and chatting like they did at the other spot.

The customers would come, (no pun intended) handle a little business and then bounce.

Now this particular hotel wasn't all bad. They did have an all night buffet of cereal, community milk and orange juice which was pretty doggone good I might add.

One time, they had some Domino's Pizza sitting on top of the microwave and I strongly thought about asking the man at the front desk if I could have a slice or two or ten.

A man's judgement gets awfully clouded when he's hangry. 

Another cool moment was when I saw the cleaning lady with her young kids riding underneath the cart. 

One of the young lads was playing one of the Super Mario games on a handheld.

Aaaah! What it must feel like to be young and carefree!

We stayed there and few nights and then moved on to a hotel that was a little cheaper. We thought we would see if we could get a little more bang for our buck. 

The next hotel was real fun. 

The front office folks were topnotch and the patrons were pretty cool too. The cleaning ladies were nice; They were somewhat lazy when it came to getting them to change our sheets on a consistent basis but they were cool. 

They had this one woman with braces who smelled amazing. You always knew she was on shift because you could hear her getting her groove on from the 1980's soft rock pop hits she used to play on her phone as she cleaned hotel rooms. 

The free breakfast was also outstanding. 

Now, they were only supposed to start serving food at 6:30 am to 9:30 am but the cafeteria would always be open 30–45 minutes ealier.

My brother and I would get up as early as we could so we could get down there and have a nice feast. When we would get done, we would take a boatload of food back to the room, store it in the fridge and save it for later.

The hotel also had a fitness center which means no barbell in sight but they did come equipped with a yoga mat, medicine ball, 4 treadmills. The treadmills were state-of-the-art with built-in televisions too.

That threw a man like me for a loop who's still stuck in the 1960's when it comes to a lot of these "modernized inventions."

My idea of treadmills comes from back in the day when I would watch my grandfather walk vigorously on it while my grandmother would tell him,

"Man, you're going to kill yourself." His reply, "You're just mad because you can't do it" in an out of breath tone as his tongue hanged outside of his mouth.

I take it as her way to supply my grandfather with the proper motivation akin to what Mickey did for Rocky. He'll knock ya into tomorrow, Rockkk.

As impressive as those treadmills looked, I had no use for them. I've just never been a treadmill guy. For cardio, I would just walk around the building daily as the sun glistened against my baby soft skin.

Now I did put those dumbbells to good use.

My arms felt like they were bigger then ever from doing bicep curls and tricep kickbacks. I felt like I could've won the Mr. Olympia.

Also, I was consuming tons of calories from all that Chinese cuisine I was enjoying on a regular basis. Prior to this, I was never an avid eater of chinese food but I grew to love it especially that chicken & broccoli with rice. 

There was a spot close to the hotel that we were staying at where we used to frequent daily. 

My brother and I would head down there to pick up our food, bring it back to the room and watch tv. This hotel just had basic cable with a one movie station but we would sit there and binge-watch tv shows like Young Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld and even some episodes of Friends while we enjoyed our meal.

By the way, the name of the place was called Bamboo China Cafe if you want to check it out. 

Their food is subperb and is worth the trip.

Their food shits all over Panda Express which to me is a little on the overrated scale of the fast food game.

All due respect to the fine folks at Panda Express but their food wasn't really that good. I would say that it was okay at best and pales in comparison to Bamboo for sure.

After a great meal, I would head outside and take in some of that beautiful weather we were having at the time. They had this real nice patio right outside the cafeteria where I would often sit and look up at the sky. 

I live for those beautiful blue skies and pretty clouds. 

Most days, I would past time just by doing that. It would put my mind at ease too. It was a great stress reliever for me.

At night, you could catch me poolside where I would lay and look up at the stars and just think about whatever was on my mind at the time.

I would often think about my grandmother and all of my other relatives that have passed on and wonder to myself what they were doing and do they think about me as much as I think about them. 

I would just sit there and dream and map out a way in my head to make my dreams come true.

I touched on the beautiful scenery earlier and I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the lovely ladies that they had working at the front desk. They were definitely a beautiful sight for sore eyes. 

That was another reason why I got up so early so that I can check out those fine babes working the front desk. 

The main host, Vicky, was truly amazing. 

I mean, this woman did everything from checking the guests in to chasing down garter snakes and did it all with a smile on her face. 

Now that's what I call premium service. 

Whatever they're paying her, they need to triple it.

The people that visited the hotel where some of the most warmhearted people that you could be around. You would see people from all facets of the world and wonder what their story was.

For instance, there was a young woman I met when I was there and she was just so kind. Now it didn't start out that way because she stayed to herself as a lot of us do when you don't know a person.

That all changed one day when I held the door open for her. After that, she would go on to befriend me and my family.

She was always looking out for us and helping us in whatever way she could. My brother said that,

"She was either an angel or a stalker."

I'm hoping it was the former.

I never did get a chance to say bye to her. I hope she's well wherever she is because she really was a sweetheart to us.

I also have to give a quick shoutout to all the truckers that came through in those nice big rigs. My brother and I would see them pulling up all the time as we were chowing down in the cafeteria. 

One time, I saw a family of 3 get out of one those big rigs with their pet and brought the dog in the cafeteria to have breakfast with them. The dog was mean-muggin' and sniffing folks as they walked by. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again,

"The dogs are eating better then the humans."

Overall, it was a such a great and much-needed positiive experience. After dealing with all that death, it was just nice to live again instead of worrying about, "when the next shoe was going to drop."

I'm thinking once I get things settled the way that I want them to be that I might head back down there and stay awhile. Hell, I wouldn't mind staying there for a year.