Beth did a fantastic job planning our route and where we’d stay each night. She’s much better at this stuff than I am. She’d arranged hotels, made sure they were pet friendly (our nearly-as-old-as-Yoda cat was traveling with us), and generally made sure we could both eat and sleep as we traveled. Our first night would be spent in Denver.

Except we didn’t.

Not only did Beth arrange all the hotels but she kept track of confirmations. And when she didn’t get a confirmation on the Denver hotel, she called the 1-800 booking number for the major hotel chain (choosing not to name them even though we’re still really really pissed and haven’t received our REFUND!!!) and was assured that everything was fine and that they’d resend the confirmation.

And then we arrived at the hotel. And then they said that they had our reservation. And that they were full. Even though they had our reservation. But it was ok, because they would be happy to refer us over to low-end-scary-sounding-motel over on the other side of town.

So we went and looked. And then we moved on. Because it was truly scary.

A different 1-800 booking service recommended another chain that was only slightly less scary sounding, but assured us it would be fine. And it was late and our kids were tired. So we went.

They had a pet policy and they had a room for us. It turns out, though, that not all pet policies include cats. But they were totally cool and made an exception. Thank you very much!

But we got to the room and the air conditioner had this horrible chemical smell. So I went and talked to them at the desk. I was really sorry to trouble them and was really grateful that they’d been great about the cat thing. But could we please have another room because of the air conditioner chemical smell?

Yes, we could. Awesome. I got the key, and they suggested I check out the room before moving the rest of the family. Good idea.

Because there was already someone in that room. WHAT??!? Yes. They gave me a key to a room that was already occupied.

So we left.

We found a room 30 or 40 miles West of Denver. They didn’t take pets, so we had to leave our our nearly-as-old-as-Yoda cat in the car. But we checked on him often. And we had a place to sleep. And the beds were soft.