On the Road in the Southwest

I’ve done a lot of traveling in my time.  Hundreds of thousands of miles.  I’ve slept under the stars and in five-star hotels, eaten meals from delicious to unidentifiable and have had ample opportunity to hone my demands for creature comforts.  Bottom line:  coffee on awakening.  Preferably close at hand.

As we speak, Nyel is wandering around a spiffy downtown hostelrie (“upscale boutique hotel” says their hype) in the heart of a major Southwestern city looking for coffee.  He’s wearing the complimentary bathrobe and clutching the magnetized key card that will let him back into not only our room but the wing of the hotel in which it is situated.

Our room comes equipped with all sorts of amenities – an obscenely huge flat screen high definition television, bottled water at $3.25 a pop says the discreet notice, an in-room safe, a small empty refrigerator and a king-sized., pillow-top bed.  Oh.  And air-conditioning which is probably a blessing since it is 105° temperature outside.

Close to Home in Long Beach, WA

All that is very good and well, but the bottom line is:  there is no in-room coffee.  No microwave.  No coffee-maker.  No little packets of French Roast or Decaf.  Nada.  And, though they call themselves a “hotel” there is no room service.  Instead… there is an alcove off the lobby with a bank of pump pots “available twenty-four-seven” said the gorgeous young person at the reception desk (which is also gorgeous – all polished rock and fake petroglyphs and nearby water treatments.)

At five in the morning (our usual wake-up time), I think I’d sacrifice even the A/C for a handy cup of coffee.  This whole set-up seems inhumane.  What are they thinking?  Obviously they are not catering to a Northwest crowd.  If I fill out that usual end-of-stay evaluation, I don’t think I’ll have anything kindly to say.  Overnight accommodations without easy access to morning coffee must be some kind of evil oxymoron.

Besides… I just heard that new dietary recommendations from some ‘officially sanctioned group’ include eight ounces of coffee a day!  Finally someone has their priorities right.  Too bad this place hasn’t received the memo.