"Our Knoxville Journey" West Knoxville by askgriff

So Becki booked us the cheapest hotel she could find. Which is fine... and I can't complain TOO much because they do offer a full-service, 24-hour CB Repair shop... and free vittles every mornin.

** UPDATE: In three words... "NO FRICKIN WAY!"

We booked our airline tickets, rental car, and hotel through Travelocity.com. The web site for the Knoxville Travelodge says, "Newly remodeled rooms." Riiiiight. If they were remodeled by John Carpenter... and then lived in by a family of 18 hillbillies with oozing, open sores. It was gross.

Not ONLY did they not have our no-smoking room with two beds (the only room open was a smoking room with 1 bed... stuff splattered on the wall (which could have been dried blood)... something smeared and dried on the chair... and something black growing in the bathtub. The smell of smoke was overwhelming. (And looking at the rooms, if you WERE lucky enough to get a no-smoking room, you would be between and under smoking rooms on all sides.

Not only that, but when we checked in, they charged our credit card $294 ($49 a day)... even though we already PAID for it through Travelocity. We got them to credit our account back (we assumed) so we called Travelocity to let them know.

Travelocity said they could't find us another hotel in Knoxville for the same price. WHA?! Becki told them, I can see a Motel 6 and a Days in across the street! Nope... wouldn't work. Finally we get them to credit us back as well so we can rent our own hotel. Or so we thought.

Attempting to check into the Motel 6, we discover that the strange activity in our bank account (charge, credit, credit) has caused our account to be frozen. Normally no big deal, except that our "charge card" is taken directly from our checking. :)

Travelocity says that we will be credited back... in 3-5 business days. <sigh>

Thankfully we withdrew $300 cash to cover food and travel expenses... but here's a little-known fact (at least it's something *I* didn't know)... you can't pay for hotel rooms with cash! WHA?!

So there we were... hadn't slept in almost 34 hours... no hotel... no access to credit cards or checking account... hotels wouldn't take cash... Becki's in tears... I'm falling asleep...

Thank GOD we have family (my aunt and uncle) who moved from Ukiah to Knoxville 7 months ago... and they were happy to let us stay with them.

More about that next...

• Pros:beautiful area, lakes, rivers, trees, fishing, restaurants, shopping, everything you could want and more!
• Cons:Knoxville Travelodge -- it really sucks.
• In a nutshell:I love this place. It's 10 times better than I even imagined it -- but I haven't experienced the humidity yet.