After traveling for almost 8 months, last night we made it to Stockton, Kansas, finally, the pinnacle of just about anyone’s journey and here we were. We rolled into town at about 9 PM. We had been slowing down as we rolled through several towns, over the past couple of hundred miles, since about 5 PM and looking at the individual sole motels in each of the towns, eying them for acceptability for a nights stay. Some weren’t even open in these towns of only a couple hundred people and those that were looked somewhat scary and or nasty. I guess we have gotten used to the Comfort Inns and Holiday Inn Express’s of the world, so much so that looking at a small town; throw back to the 50’s (or 90’s) motel has little appeal to us. But regardless of the appeal, or lack there of, by the time we got to Stockton, we realized that we had no choices other than to keep driving with two kids who really wanted to get out of the car or to stay, like sleep, in the car or sleep outside under the stars with no bedding. Uh…… No thanks, not tonight!
So, I walk into the office of the long standing Midwest Motel, that has a little blue and white
rectangular “Come In, We’re Open” sign hanging from a small chain on the inside of the door and ask the woman proprietor, who’s house is attached to the smoke filled and stale smoke smelling front office, if she has a room available with two double beds in it. She tells me that she does and I can feel myself start to relax just a bit, realizing that we don’t have to drive on any further and perhaps that I wanted to get out of the car as much or more than the kids did. As she is messing around finding the registration form I look around the room and see that she has a large long table 
set up that displays her knitting and crocheting that she has for sale. All around the room, that is paneled with thick, heavy cabin like V-groove knotty pine boards, there are miscellaneous wood carvings and paintings of animals I imagine are indigenous to this area. My last glance brings me to the wall directly behind the desk she is standing at. It is filled with framed, signed promo shots from all of the stars that have stayed in this motel over the years, There are pictures of the Hager Brothers, famous from Hee Haw, Martina McBride, Lee Greenwood. The woman owner was very pround of all of the stars that had stayed at her establishment.Must have been a long while ago for Greenwood and McBride cause I can’t imagine either one of them staying here now. I asked her when they stayed here and confirming my thoughts, she could not recall the years. She is very friendly and pleasant to deal with and even with that I could not wait to get out of the smoke scented or stained room. At that moment, Megan walks into the office and asks the woman, the seeming juxtaposed question, if the room she is assigning us is a non smoking room. I am certain that she has not heard this question too many times before and more certain that it is of very little consequence to her if a room has been smoked in or not and even less if we decide to take the room or not for the night. But she is very polite to Meg and tells her that they don’t separate rooms by smoking or non smoking but that she is sure that Megan will find the room just fine. I, realizing that I probably should have asked that question too, before I started filling out the registration card and having the proprietor start the credit card transaction, asked her if we could just check out the room before she finalized the deal. She, of course, agreed and we went down to the room. It was, as expected, an OK room. Small and dingy but, clean and made up fine, it did not smell like smoke (although nothing could match their office area) but it did smell stale and old and those odors were exacerbated by the heat build up in the room from the days temperatures that reached 106 degrees. And with all that, still, we found it acceptable for a nights stay. We must be tired and certainly we did not know of any other options and besides that, we could honestly say that this was the first time on this trip and beyond when we had supported local small business with our stay and we knew that our stay was having a direct impact on this family and that felt great. Maybe Jasper was not so aware of the difference he was making for these nice people. As he sat down on the bed, with a puss on stated, “Let’s not stay, it’s too small.” Losely translated I think that means he was pissed there was no pool.
I went back to the office and completed the sale and received the receipt and the remote for the TV. I went back again, a few moments later, to ask if there was an ice machine so that we could fill up our small plug in to the car adaptor (that doesn’t cool when the car is off) cooler to allow us to keep things good over night. She told me that there was not an ice machine but she could give us a small bucket of ice. There was no presumption in her voice or on her face that I would even want that and she stood there waiting for my response. I said, “Yes, please!” She shuffled off to one room off to the side of her kitchen area and soon returned with a small off white (smoke stained perhaps) plastic ice bucket on a matching round tray and hen moved to, I assume her freezer to fill it with home made ice cubes. She came to the front desk and handed me the ice and told me to hang on a second while she got me two more towels and a face cloth.
I waited for her to go off and get those things that she had offered, but while I was waiting I started to think,”I would bet these towels are gonna smell like smoke.” In about half a minute she came back and handed them to me and I said my thanks and headed out the door and back to room number 10. On the way back I stuck my face in the towels and discovered, to my surprise, that the towels smelled like fabric softener. Things were working out just fine, as usual.
As I walked into the room I felt the coolness shooting from the loud, but effective, A/C and it was beginning to cut the heat in the room to a bearable level and saw the kids already on the bed staring at the TV. Megan was futzing about with the cooler and getting things out to begin to put together things for our night meal before we began settling in for the nights sleep. All seemed well in Stockton, Kansas for the night or at least in our little 10 x 12 section of it, so I headed out to the downtown area to one of the two gas station/convenience stores that act as the local supermarkets to pick up some Mayo and Milk for this meal. Upon my return the parts were put together and a makeshift meal of Tuna sandwiches, cereal and various raw vegetables was had and enjoyed by all. It was like camping in.
Once the meal was complete and Meg began the clean up and getting the kids ready to get into bed, I headed out, once more, to go to the laundry mat in the next building adjacent to the motel, that is by default left open all night, meaning no one locks the door on purpose and did two loads of clothes using Dr. Bronners Peppermint soap as a substitute for laundry detergent. While the machines were doing their thing I read my emails and shot one off to my tenants back home about an issue that has been occurring there, regarding the folks next door, since we left. Even though it was now 11:30 PM it was good to have some alone and quiet time in the car by myself and on the computer, When the laundry finished I folded and made my way back to the room and settled into bed. As I did, Meg got into the bed having woken up when I came in and relocated herself from the kid’s bed to ours. Before I fell asleep moments later it was the beginning of a brand new day in Middle America. I was glad to be where I was, next to my wife in a bed, in the midst of the ones I love in somewhere, Kansas.
So, I walk into the office of the long standing Midwest Motel, that has a little blue and white
rectangular “Come In, We’re Open” sign hanging from a small chain on the inside of the door and ask the woman proprietor, who’s house is attached to the smoke filled and stale smoke smelling front office, if she has a room available with two double beds in it. She tells me that she does and I can feel myself start to relax just a bit, realizing that we don’t have to drive on any further and perhaps that I wanted to get out of the car as much or more than the kids did. As she is messing around finding the registration form I look around the room and see that she has a large long table 
set up that displays her knitting and crocheting that she has for sale. All around the room, that is paneled with thick, heavy cabin like V-groove knotty pine boards, there are miscellaneous wood carvings and paintings of animals I imagine are indigenous to this area. My last glance brings me to the wall directly behind the desk she is standing at. It is filled with framed, signed promo shots from all of the stars that have stayed in this motel over the years, There are pictures of the Hager Brothers, famous from Hee Haw, Martina McBride, Lee Greenwood. The woman owner was very pround of all of the stars that had stayed at her establishment.Must have been a long while ago for Greenwood and McBride cause I can’t imagine either one of them staying here now. I asked her when they stayed here and confirming my thoughts, she could not recall the years. She is very friendly and pleasant to deal with and even with that I could not wait to get out of the smoke scented or stained room. At that moment, Megan walks into the office and asks the woman, the seeming juxtaposed question, if the room she is assigning us is a non smoking room. I am certain that she has not heard this question too many times before and more certain that it is of very little consequence to her if a room has been smoked in or not and even less if we decide to take the room or not for the night. But she is very polite to Meg and tells her that they don’t separate rooms by smoking or non smoking but that she is sure that Megan will find the room just fine. I, realizing that I probably should have asked that question too, before I started filling out the registration card and having the proprietor start the credit card transaction, asked her if we could just check out the room before she finalized the deal. She, of course, agreed and we went down to the room. It was, as expected, an OK room. Small and dingy but, clean and made up fine, it did not smell like smoke (although nothing could match their office area) but it did smell stale and old and those odors were exacerbated by the heat build up in the room from the days temperatures that reached 106 degrees. And with all that, still, we found it acceptable for a nights stay. We must be tired and certainly we did not know of any other options and besides that, we could honestly say that this was the first time on this trip and beyond when we had supported local small business with our stay and we knew that our stay was having a direct impact on this family and that felt great. Maybe Jasper was not so aware of the difference he was making for these nice people. As he sat down on the bed, with a puss on stated, “Let’s not stay, it’s too small.” Losely translated I think that means he was pissed there was no pool.I went back to the office and completed the sale and received the receipt and the remote for the TV. I went back again, a few moments later, to ask if there was an ice machine so that we could fill up our small plug in to the car adaptor (that doesn’t cool when the car is off) cooler to allow us to keep things good over night. She told me that there was not an ice machine but she could give us a small bucket of ice. There was no presumption in her voice or on her face that I would even want that and she stood there waiting for my response. I said, “Yes, please!” She shuffled off to one room off to the side of her kitchen area and soon returned with a small off white (smoke stained perhaps) plastic ice bucket on a matching round tray and hen moved to, I assume her freezer to fill it with home made ice cubes. She came to the front desk and handed me the ice and told me to hang on a second while she got me two more towels and a face cloth.
I waited for her to go off and get those things that she had offered, but while I was waiting I started to think,”I would bet these towels are gonna smell like smoke.” In about half a minute she came back and handed them to me and I said my thanks and headed out the door and back to room number 10. On the way back I stuck my face in the towels and discovered, to my surprise, that the towels smelled like fabric softener. Things were working out just fine, as usual.
As I walked into the room I felt the coolness shooting from the loud, but effective, A/C and it was beginning to cut the heat in the room to a bearable level and saw the kids already on the bed staring at the TV. Megan was futzing about with the cooler and getting things out to begin to put together things for our night meal before we began settling in for the nights sleep. All seemed well in Stockton, Kansas for the night or at least in our little 10 x 12 section of it, so I headed out to the downtown area to one of the two gas station/convenience stores that act as the local supermarkets to pick up some Mayo and Milk for this meal. Upon my return the parts were put together and a makeshift meal of Tuna sandwiches, cereal and various raw vegetables was had and enjoyed by all. It was like camping in.
Once the meal was complete and Meg began the clean up and getting the kids ready to get into bed, I headed out, once more, to go to the laundry mat in the next building adjacent to the motel, that is by default left open all night, meaning no one locks the door on purpose and did two loads of clothes using Dr. Bronners Peppermint soap as a substitute for laundry detergent. While the machines were doing their thing I read my emails and shot one off to my tenants back home about an issue that has been occurring there, regarding the folks next door, since we left. Even though it was now 11:30 PM it was good to have some alone and quiet time in the car by myself and on the computer, When the laundry finished I folded and made my way back to the room and settled into bed. As I did, Meg got into the bed having woken up when I came in and relocated herself from the kid’s bed to ours. Before I fell asleep moments later it was the beginning of a brand new day in Middle America. I was glad to be where I was, next to my wife in a bed, in the midst of the ones I love in somewhere, Kansas.
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