Literally.
Daniel and I are in the habit of making spontaneous decisions when traveling. This is the age of technology, so what is there to be afraid of?
We have had our handheld GPS for over six years. We originally purchased it to make a 72-hour trip {each way} to Durango, Mexico for a wedding. It came in handy. Our Spanish - not so much.
In 2005, prior to moving to Charlotte, we took a 5-week trip to Hawaii and PNG. Our sole plan in Hawaii was to camp the entire 7 days {including New Year's Eve}. We did not take into account that there would be predictions for a crazy storm and no campgrounds were allowing people to camp.
So we used our GPS to call {what seemed like EVERY} hotel on the island. And somehow managed to find a room within walking distance of Waikiki Beach on New Year's Eve. I have to be truthful and share that we did get a couple of incredulous comments like, "What do you mean you didn't make reservations ahead of time? This is Hawaii. Don't you know that it is New Year's Eve!?!" Oh well. We ended up with a good deal with a good view within walking distance to the beach.
On other occasions we have used our GPS/cell phones to find lodging - like the year that we drove to NYC to buy our Pathfinder on July 4th weekend. To say we love our GPS is an understatement, it has saved us more times than we can count.
This weekend, we left Charlotte after work, planning on driving about 4 hours before stopping somewhere in West Virginia. The goal was the Charleston area. I printed off a list of some pet-friendly hotels and we hit the road.
I mentioned to Daniel that maybe he should go ahead and start calling as soon as we were on the road. He was tired from driving in from Chattanooga that morning, so he decided to nap instead. Fair enough.
About an hour from Charleston, we decided he should go ahead and start calling. We were both feeling tired. We were in Princeton, WV and there were several hotels so we stopped to get gas and he called every hotel listed in the GPS.
All were full.
He then used the Google directory by phone and found a Ramada Inn with a room. When we looked up the address we realized that it was 30 miles away. In the wrong direction. He had not actually made a reservation so we decided to keep driving.
Next town up, Beckley. He called every hotel that he could find a number. "Hi. Do you have any available rooms for tonight? Ok. Thank you anyways." Over and over and over. It was late and we started to get loopy about the fact that every hotel in West Virginia appeared to be booked. Occasionally he would find a room, but it was a smoking room or they didn't allow pets.
He called places for over an hour. He finally found one in Comfort, WV. It was going to be 15 miles out of the way {each way}. He made a reservation, but kept calling places to see if we could find something closer - I asked him if he was a glutton for punishment. No luck with any of his calls, so we pushed on to Comfort.
Comfort is in the middle of nowhere. We kept joking that it was probably a hole in the wall dump, but we were so tired we really didn't care. We were in the middle of nowhere and could not fathom how a hotel would be out here.
We arrived at Comfort and were pleasantly surprized to see a brand-new hotel standing behind the one gas station. By now it was close the 1AM. Daniel went inside to check in and found out that the hotel existed for the rail road employees - we are assuming this is related to coal mining. We have never been so thankful to 1) arrive at a hotel and 2) that it was actually nice.
Let it be noted that the entire time we were driving and looking for/calling hotels, Daniel kept mentioning that this would be much easier with an iPhone...
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