Prison must be like this
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 11/05/07
Drove into town to catch a Springfield Cardinals ballgame at Hammons Field, which is two blocks from the hotel (the LONE redeeming quality). Checked in about an hour before gametime and proceeded to room. The beaten-on, distressed, mishung door was the ideal indicator of what awaited inside. The smell of mold and old cigarette smoke (requested a nonsmoking room) was overpowering. The furnishings were hopelessly outdated and worn. Clean?...Told the kids not to touch anything as I returned to the front desk to request another room. When I explained the "situation," the front-desk staff reacted with disbelief. I was, however, given a key to a new room (after they noodled on the computer for 10 minutes), which I decided to inspect before transferring all our belongings. Same kind of door; smell of mold even worse. I returned the key to the front desk staff, which now acted totally annoyed rather than apologetic. With the game 20 minutes from starting, I hustled the family to the ballpark and stewed over the predicament. With two of us highly allergic to mold, I left the game in the fourth innning, returned to the hotel, informed them I'd be checking out ... and had the paperwork verifying as much TOSSED back at me as the clerk walked away with nary a word. Picked up the family outside the ballpark (still three innings to play) in order to get at least an hour of driving time in daylight as we made the 4-hour trip home. What a disaster.
