knighton

Of Human Dignity

Nov 8, 2006

Tonight I am in The Sticks, WA. Upon checking into my hotel (and I use that term very loosely), I climbed the stairs to room 204 only to be met by a cloud of cigarette smoke. It seems that some of the rooms on the second floor of this particular establishment allow for smoking. Yuck! Fortunately, the clerk kindly upgraded me (!) to a room on the non-smoking first floor. The new room has a jacuzzi surrounded by mirrors. And handicapped railing in the bathroom. And a half-height closet rail. And no desk. Very classy.

The Sticks must be on tribal lands because a casino shares the parking lot with my "hotel." This probably explains the smoking accomodations on the second floor.

There is food in The Sticks. If you like fast food. What looks like it might have been the one decent place to eat is shuttered and bears a crooked, dust-covered "For Sale" sign. And while I could eat at McDonald's or Taco Bell or *shudder* The Golden Corral for dinner, I have standards to maintain. And HDL below 70 to protect.

The good news is that while The Sticks lacks fine decent dining establishments, it does have a Super Walmart - which every respectable rural town MUST have. Tonight's sad and lonely menu: Healthy Choice vegetable soup, Lean Cuisine Chicken Fettucine Alfredo (complete with apple cobbler dessert) and fine boxed wine. (Did you know it comes in single-servings?)

I got carded, as per usual. And then, someone called me "ma'am." Ah, irony.

But, there is a silver lining in The Sticks. A Starbucks. With a drive-thru. *sigh*