I should have known I was in for a treat when I checked in and the girl at the desk described my room as "up on the second floor overlooking McDonalds." I wasn't expecting an ocean view -- as if there was one on the landlocked state -- but to tout the view of the Golden Arches?
The room was definitely a "sleep with a chair propped against the door" type of accommodation. I put towels on top of the sheets. There were no fewer than 10 holes in the carpet, which had to have been bought from a second-hand store. Despite this, there was a sign in the room -- laminated! -- which listed the prices of everything in case I decided to steal anything. And we're not just talking about the TV ($275), it listed the prices of the full and fitted sheets, washcloths, alarm clock, etc. I'd never seen anything like that in my life!
But the best was at 3am in the morning when I woke up during a nasty storm because water was literally pouring through the ceiling. I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I was dreaming, then I did what any seasoned New Yorker would do – I grabbed a trash can, put it under the leak, moved my laptop and suitcase to the other side of the room and climbed back into bed to sleep on my $10 sheets.
An hour later, the water was coming down from another spot, then another. Luckily, they gave me three $5 trash cans which caught the rain.
When I checked out a few hours later, I told the girl at the front desk that there was a major leak in my room. She just looked at me, then added it to a list of other complaints I assume she received that morning upon check out. On the list: an alarm clock wasn't working in room 212, a light bulb was out in room 106… Then she calmly wrote: "Water pouring through ceiling in 326."
Apparently the dam breaking above my head didn't classify as an emergency in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
For your amusement, the price list is below.
-Suzy Byrne of Irvington, NY
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