We left Ottumwa yesterday afternoon after church. We made some really good connections with the folks at North Gate and hope to see some of them in Kosovo one of these days. Since we were flying out of Chicago at 10am for Salt Lake City, the next stop on our little tour, we decided to book a hotel an spend the night in the Windy City. The alternative was to leave Ottumwa at about three in the morning, something I really didn’t want to do. Incidentally, if you’re not familiar with Hotwired I’d definitely check it out. We booked a room at the airport Westin, which normally go for $199 a night, for only $75.
We left Ottumwa about 3 o’clock, hoping to get to the Westin at around seven, in time for the girls to swim at the pool. However, after a wrong turn at the Iowa-Illinois border which sent us on I-74 South towards fabled Peoria, we ended up checking in slightly after 10PM. Not quite what I had in mind.
Our stay at the Westin was one of those good-news/bad-news deals. I haven’t stayed at a hotel in the US for a long time, over four years in fact, but the Westin had a strange combo of luxury and el-cheapo. The room was fabulous, the internet was $9.95. Seems like internet ought to be free at a hotel like this, it was at the Super 8 in Ottumwa. In fact, there was free Wi-Fi in the lobby, which we took advantage of from our 3rd floor room. The refrigerator didn’t work, but if it had, there was a sensor on it that began billing you if any bottles were “moved,” not taken out, but moved. We were trying to cool some venison sausage from grandpa so we had to order up a new fridge. In the morning I would a USA Today newspaper to our room which was sweet, but it was .75, though it was free in the lobby, along with the Wall Street Journal.
Anyway, we really slept well and the beds and bathroom were excellent. We’re on our way to SLC!
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