On the Road Again

It is a nice sunny day today the temps up to 10C about 50F with very little wind. Went through Minneappolis/StPaul or I should say around it, just driving the ring road was stressful enough, 6 lanes of traffic lots of merges, exits etc. and we went through during the middle of the day so not as busy as it could have been but of course people do stupid things in any big city anywhere. Just driving about half around to our exit was just over 20 miles. It is one of those areas that also have all kinds of smaller cities around it, so when you look at the population at Minneapolis it is deceiving. Didn’t remember it being so busy the last trip we made through there. Anyway, we made with no major problems and of course everything is well marked and we had the Tom-Tom on so no wrong turn’s lol. Did an average on fuel usage and we have averaged 12 mpg so far so we are happy.

We are at the Albert Lea Inn, a nice hotel with free breakfast, laundry etc. They also have room service at a reasonable cost; we had a good meal last night and actually ordered a real breakfast this morning, eggs, bacon, and hash browns! Did some laundry here today, Woody is folding it as I type this, gotta love that eh! Was very cheap to do laundry here, 50 cents to wash, and 75 cents to dry. The last hotel we did laundry in cost us 1.25 to wash and 1.50 to dry! Just happy some places have laundry and we didn't have to go hunting for a Laundromat.

Staying another day due to snow warnings, haven't got too much here but have no way to know about the rest of the route to our next destination of Iowa City, Iowa, the forecast all the way was for snow so not taking any chances. Looks good for leaving tomorrow though and it better be because this hotel is fully booked for the weekend, a big blue grass festival going on!

When we arrived we had booked into a Super8, got here about 3:00, nice and early, then after checking in found our room was absolutely disgusting so complained and they moved us to a different room, looked okay but then when we went to hang our coats the coat hangers were filthy, then checked some more and it was dusty and dirty so we spent some time (using their phone to find another place to stay). Made a call to Super8 customer care to report them and then checked out. The desk clerk could hardly speak or understand English guess that should have been our first sign eh! We got our money back and the Manager said, yeah this happens a lot and the owners don't care, they have never even seen the place! Can you believe it! Must be just using it for tax write off. We will be more careful after this, sure is too bad because we have always been able to count on Super8 for a certain level of service and cleanliness.

Be warned, don't stay at the Super8 in Alberta Lea, MN!