Friday, October 16, 2009

How Good Can It Get?

I don't often blog twice in one day. I'm not sure what is prompting me to do this now, today, as I relax in a motel room miles from home. We'll see where this goes.
We are staying in a place in the Branson area where we've stayed several times before, usually with other family. It's not an elegant place by any means, and in many respects is much like a place one might have found in times past along Route 66. Green is the color scheme for all rooms, accented by brown paneling. Some walls are paneling that is painted an off white. There is a need for shaving the bottom of our entrance door so it doesn't rub on the green carpet, as well as making repairs to the window lock (it doesn't), tightening the toilet seat, cleaning up everything in general, and making the bathroom bigger than four by five feet (literally). Feminine charm is notably absent, but the rooms and the neighborhood make for a very good “nothin' box” experience for men.
There's some pretense here. The little diner down the road talks of “elegance” in dining on the front of the menu, while on the same page stating that they open at 7:30 (ish) in the morning and close at 9 (ish) in the evening. The diner really no more than a house, it seems, converted into a restaurant of sorts where they not only sell food, but also various knick knacks, glass ware, preserves and jellies, and whatever else they can put on a wall or stuff in a corner.
A sign at our motel talks of a “convention center” that consists of a metal building out back with a bare-bones open room area of about 30 by 30, a couple of restrooms and a game room that has older games in it at a quarter a whack. My guess is that some of them don't work very well. Parking is non-existent and the path back to the building is overgrown with grass and weeds...
To each his own, I guess. We see what we'd like to see. But that's part of the charm of this place. The pretense is obvious and the expectations are minimal. So is the price. A hundred bucks and change for a four day stay isn't bad at all. And we are warm, comfortable, and have the Internet. What can go wrong? Besides, Kilarney's is just down the road a piece. How much better can life be?

No comments: