Days 19-22 - July 7-10 - Toronto Ann Arbor Chicago Motel grief

Renate and I have had incredibly bad luck with motels lately! 0 for 3.

0/1 Wednesday, July 7 we left beautiful, historic Roycroft Inn in East Aurora, which Brigit graciously arranged for us in her most recent home-town. We entered Canada. Toured Niagara there to see incredible views of the falls.

Then on to Toronto, where we tried, stupidly, for a cheap in-town place. I investigated while Renate sat in the car. Steep, steep ramp to enter and steps inside. OLD, OLD room. Did George Washington sleep there?

Our bad.

We suspected poor conditions, based on price, but we underestimated. Seriously seedy characters checking us out in car parked in front of the hotel while I used laptop and cell-phone to find lodging.

Using Hotels.com, we reserved two nights for a Howard Johnson's away from town and we drove to it. We had a confirmation # and an e-mail confirmation.

Around 8:30 at night, tired on arrival, we learned that they had no record of our reservation, and no room available.

It took awhile for the desk to ascertain that a reservation did exist for their hotel, but had not been sent to them by Hotels.com. Hotels.com called the HoJo manager who repeated what we said to them: no reservation, and no room.

Then hotels.com spoke to me again.

It took awhile on the phone for the "agent" to comprehend that having us "wait for about an hour for the confirmation to go through" would NOT be satisfactory.

I heard myself saying things to the agent like "You can confirm anything you want. You're not going to create a room" and - emphasizing need for handicapped accessible - I added "Are you going to provide a helicopter to lift us through the window?"

We refused further assistance from them after they DID agree to give full reimbursement on the credit card. Renate waits to see the bill.

We ended up several miles farther away, at a Comfort Inn in Pickering - far east of Toronto - late in the night, paying more money than we had hoped, and very tired. Nevertheless, a nearby bar had late-night food that we enjoyed and we were grateful.

0/2 Next morning, Thursday, July 8, we left Toronto, bound for Ann Arbor Michigan, with a reservation made - this time directly to the hotel, Victory Suites. 


Canada's QEW 401 goes pretty straight to Detroit, but I split off at London, Ontario onto the 402, more northerly and emptier route that returned us to the US from Canada's Sarnia into Pt Huron. We drove around Sarnia first, running into a summer festival.  The bridge was old and crowded, but had a beautiful view of Lake Huron. 


Serious stop-and-go traffic covered the length of the bridge, and we spent 40 minutes doing the last 2 miles before customs. 

Bridge from Sarnia, Canada to Pt. Huron, US.
Middle land was kept clear for FAST vehicles, an acronym for ???  Several cars used it, but 100's were in queue.

Lake Huron, on north side of the Sarnia-Port Huron bridge

Now I-94 would take us to Detroit. We stopped at Marysville to discover Burger King has pork sandwiches here! America! WhaddaCountry.


We never stopped in Detroit. Ignorance of where to visit, and fear of bad guessing. Curiously, we passed through Detroit the same day that Chrissy and family did, heading into northern Michigan for a vacation in a cabin.


I-94 turns west at Detroit and soon deposits us in Ann Arbor. We were pretty late arriving b/c of the border slow-down, many stops, and a few accidents on the rainy road. And, (I'm pissed that) Google's map places the "Victory Suite" at the wrong corner - which took awhile to realize, and to correct.

They had our reservation. The room existed but ... no remote control, awful TV picture, shower would not come on, and very dark room! Long story to getting remote that worked, never a good picture, extra desk lamp was brought in, and the shower spigot got replaced. That took awhile b/c they maintained that it was fine. It just wouldn't turn on without weird maneuvering

On the plus side, a Thai restaurant inside the motel was very pretty, and had good food.

Next morning, continental breakfast had only coffee and OJ b/c a kitchen door had been bolt locked and no one on duty had a key.

But we DID enjoy touring Ann Arbor, and enjoyed lunch at Oasis, a mediterranean joint on quaint mid-campus street.

Near our hotel, Renate had her hair done. She'd been unhappy with it since the soaking on Tuesday in Niagara on "Maid of the Mist". She had called places in Pickering but they wanted $45 for wash and dry! $25 near our Ann Arbor hotel.

We stayed another night (Friday) at the Victory Suite with crummy TV. We just didn't want to pack and drive again.
Dinner was cheap dinner: left-over Thai.

They found the key before Saturday morning's continental breakfast. (And I jogged to Subway, returning with an encore of 2 breakfast sandwiches. Egg!)

0/3 Saturday morning, July 10, we left for Chicago - actually for Morton Grove, Best Western. We opted for Best Western over Super 8 b/c we figured extra bucks would buy worry-free. Nice room, TV, BEAUTIFUL bathroom with large walk-in shower (preferred by Renate, but enjoyable to anyone). Enough foreshadow? The air-conditioner does not work. At all. It's hot in Chicago! It's hot in Morton Grove.

Sparing you MORE details, we will get a different room on Sunday. Meanwhile, desk-clerk sweetly brought tray of ice to put in front of the fan (i.e., "air-conditioner".)

It didn't do much. I went to K-mart and bought a fan that will aim at our bed instead of towards the ceiling. MUCH more bearable. And we are getting the room "comped" tonight. So can't complain too much. They tried what they could, though we're bewildered why they couldn't bring in an emergency repair guy. It's Best Western!

So we expect to be settled in new room sometime Sunday, July 11 after noon.