So, we got off to a late start - like leaving my house at 8:30pm or so. A quick trip to the store to get some snacks, then off to see what kind of trouble awaited us. Traffic was fine, except the part that I dreaded - rightfully, it turned out - in New York, before we got on the George Washington bridge. I'd driven through this part of the Bronx once before: a trip to Sesame Place with another family, in two minivans. I managed to see the EXACT SAME GAS STATION this time that we stopped at the last time. To say it was weird is an understatement.

Our stop for the night was a hotel to be named later in Edgewood, MD. It's to be named later because, despite me calling Thursday night to confirm and double-check the reservation, they got it wrong. When I called, they said that they had a King non-smoking room set for us. I corrected them and told them it was to be a double queen non-smoking room - and the person I spoke to said they'd take care of it. They didn't. The woman at the reception desk looked in the computer and couldn't figure out what the problem was, and asked if I had called to make a change to the reservation on the 8th of this month. I didn't. She also didn't see any indication of me calling on Thursday night, which cheered me up no end. Besides offering a double queen smoking room - NOT acceptable - she was able to get us a king non-smoking with a sleeper sofa. Guess who ended up on the sofa? Me. To say that I was unhappy with the arrangements is an understatement, but considering it was 1:30 in the morning, I just wanted to go to sleep. Like, now. So we took it. The woman at reception said she'd tell the manager so they could look into it, and then provided us with sheets, a pillow and a blanket "just in case" the sofa bed wasn't made.

As the photos below attest, it wasn't made.

I also found the "no-smoking" sign AND the ashtray, in the same room, to be a nice "yin-yang" kind of indication of the night. Messed up.

In the morning, I talked to the day shift supervisor - who was aware of the problem, and looked at the computer again. She said that I had talked to her when I called, and she made the changes - so she wasn't sure why the reservation change didn't take. Since the manager isn't going to be in again until sometime this week, I'll have to wait and see if the call me. If not.... I'm not sure. I want to give them a chance to do "the right thing" but I'm not really sure what that would be..... Time will tell, I suppose.