Motel 6. And 6. And another 6.

Well, I hereby withdraw any past recommendation for the Motel 6 chain, is any exists. It's not that we got mugged or they stole my credit card number, at least not yet. It just wasn't worth paying for. 

See, we pick up those traveler's coupon magazines at McDonald's and rest stop information centers. They're super handy for saving ten or twenty bucks per night on hotel rooms. So we popped in at the Illinois welcome center after passing through Minnesota and Wisconsin. "$29.99," it said, with free internet access and continental breakfast! Whoo hoo! 

Except the key card didn't work. No biggie, we just exchanged it. 

And then my laptop couldn't connect to the internet. Turns out there's a computer terminal stashed away in the lobby which is their free access. Hmm. Oh well, could be worse. 

It was late already, so into bed we went. Hey, wait a minute, that's not a bottom fitted sheet. There's a top sheet tucked under the mattress, which of course came completely off over the course of the night. 

And the pillows were worse than useless. I'd rather rest my head on a garbage bag full of ping pong balls. With spikes. 

At least there'd be breakfast in the morning, right? Wrong! No continental breakfast. No explanation, either. But there was at least coffee. Thank goodness. So we went out to have a delicious and hearty fast-food breakfast. Yum yum. 

We came back to the hotel with the intent of taking a shower. There were two towels, thankfully, but unfortunately pulling them off the towel rack sent the rack tumbling to the floor. Piece of junk, anyway. 

Oh, and there was no shampoo/conditioner. 

So that's pretty rough, right? Then add the fact that the temperature didn't get above 0 until, well, we're still working on that, actually. 

On the plus side, apparently all the McDonald's around here are ridiculously upscale. I don't get it. Widescreen LCD televisions, upholstered furniture, exquisite light fixtures, all kinds of touches to go with the cherry wood accents. Weird. 

We're about to leave to visit Jane. We'll head southeast to Chicago to have some deep dish pizza, and then its on to Kalamazoo for some of these. If there's time we'll drive through the Purdue campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, and probably spend the night somewhere in Ohio. Or thereabouts. 

We're running out of money, but that's what we're used to, so its no big surprise. I hope to be able to catch y'all up when we get to our hotel tonight, but no promises. In the meantime we've got to go. Jane's waiting.