Back to Dallas

This year, Tony thought that we shouldn’t have such a long drive to Maryville to Vicksburg, and may be stay in Tuscaloosa, or Jackson, or? The trouble has been finding a road motel (with the room entrance off the parking lot, not down a hallway and with elevators). They just don’t build them like this anymore. And why we’ve been staying at the Best Western in Vicksburg. I pulled out my laptop and got on TripAdvisor to read some reviews (how we found the Best Western). Started in Meridian – in between Tuscaloosa and Jackson. Nothing terribly great. But then when I looked at Tuscaloosa and Jackson, the reviews weren’t much better. Found four possible Wyndham properties and rolled the dice on the Baymont in Meridian – it was also confusing because the picture of the outside on TripAdvisor was brown – on the Wyndham site, it was a pretty, white building. We’ll see when we get there.

https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/baymont/meridian-mississippi/baymont-inn-meridian/overview?checkin_date=%7B%7Bci:MM/dd/yyyy%7D%7D&checkout_date=%7B%7Bco:MM/dd/yyyy%7D%7D&adults=%7B%7Bna%7D%7D&children=%7B%7Bnc%7D%7D&rooms=%7B%7Bnr%7D%7D&iata=00065402&cid=fe:bu:20180128:tabl:pp:bayus:46931&tel=18003370300

And this is one reason we trailer. Line of luggage.

Passed a cowboys semi in Georgia.

Later than normal start, stopping at Shell one last time to gas up and get Breakfast sandwiches (that $3/each is a bargain). Kat gets to try, finally. We take 321 all the way to 75 since it’s a four-lane highway most of the way to Kingsport. It’s interesting on the drive to see all of the roads we traveled on by bike on Monday. Different perspective. First stop is in Georgia to fuel up. Then to Tuscaloosa to check out the T-town HD dealership(https://www.ttownhd.com/) – we were hoping to get Elephants, or Saban. No, but Tony did get Bear Bryant houndstooth pattern on the back of his. Last stop before we get to Meridian. Note that T-town HD doesn’t have the best of brands or tshirts. They did say that they were waiting on orders to come in since they’ve been closed since March.

Checking into the Baymont, the reception/lobby looked pretty nice. Check in was easy. The outside of the building matched TripAdvisor NOT the pretty, white building that Wyndham has on their site (that is misleading, www.wyndhamhotels.com). Our room is at the end, so easy to park the truck and trailer to see it. The room – well, I’m not one to write awful reviews on TripAdvisor, but I did. And, what a surprise that I didn’t get a survey to fill out from Wyndham or Baymont like I do each visit to Best Western.

IT WAS AWFUL. Smelled stale, water stains on the walls and floorboards. The TV/cable didn’t have a menu, and we had to rely on the printout on the desk (and I completely forgot to put this in my TripAdvisor review – the channels kept breaking up and it was hard to find anything to watch). The bathtub had a patch over the faucet – and, they marked with a marker “cold” and “ho” – not “hot,” but “ho.” At least they have laminated wood flooring and not carpet, or it would have been worse. The sheets looked on the yellow, not white side. The door wouldn’t completely lock, and had a gap at the top (we put a chair in front of it to sleep). The next morning, I made coffee, and the mismatched brands looked like Baymont was picking them up like I take amenities home to use – and the coffee maker spit and leaked. Can also see from the outside of the door with all of the chipped paint, that the building was white back in the “good days.”

A makeshift dining table for Tony.

Front door that wouldn't shut properly.

Water damage.

Yuk.

Nice patch. And the labels were "cold" and "ho."

Front door not so "pretty."

Coffee maker that had a spitting problem.

One positive was that McAlisters Deli (https://www.mcalistersdeli.com/) was in walking distance and I picked up to go for dinner. They have good salads and sandwiches and Tony and I thought it was pretty good – big portions.

Definitely won’t be coming back to Baymont in Meridian. It’ll be interesting to see if Wyndham or Baymont reach out to me after the review. Probably not. I was even tempted to reach out to Wyndham corporate/investor relations about the awful experience at this property. Oh well. We did pass by a motel in Clinton to check out (Quality Inn: I wrote down the name on a piece of paper) – nope, they had worse reviews than Baymont! In fact, nothing very positive about any of the properties in Clinton. Guess I need to do some more research before next year (or, we may be back at BW/Vicksburg).