I've been staying at hotels all of my life, even when I was a little boy my parents would parade around the country on random, last minute trips and stay at places such as the what-was-once the glorious Holiday Inns - they were really a fine affair and much fun to stay at. Obviously, a lot of people have been staying at hotels all of their lives - but in the last few years with this job I have I have been afforded on occasion to stay at what I would consider "finer" places - Marriotts to be specific about it - and medium caliber properties as well. 

They don't really put you up in low budget places, plus my company has corporate contracts with a lot of the chains and get reduced rates.  I know because I have seen how much it costs them and it's a pretty penny less than what you and I ordinary Janes and Joes would pay.  Having said all of that and having spent a good deal of time staying at Motel 6's in the past - when they were cheap - I can say that often times, even when it's on my dime, the idea of paying a bit extra for a better place to spend the night is usually well worth it. Now, I only spent $70 on this place, I am still in great wonder how well they take care of this place and the attention to detail they give and still giving lower rates than anything else around, yet being comparable to higher end hotel properties.  

Oh, I woke up early, btw, hence a bit of extra time, I went to bed early as well.  Anyway, I saw a Motel 6 yesterday advertising rooms for $59.95 and had to laugh, really laugh.  Those are bottom of the barrel brands.  They used to take care of them better than they do now and back in the day, I was only staying at them on vacation. In other words, they weren't a destination per se, they were just a place to hang your hat for the night and then get up the next day and move on with the agenda.  They weren't great, but they weren't terrible either.  Now, IMO, they're just terrible.  They used to be the cheapest thing around.  Like a 1/3rd to half less price than most anything else around, which again, back then, was quite appealing working with limited vacation budgets that I had to work on for months trying to get the cheapest everything for - everything.  Disneyland visits were Motel 6 - but then a place called Alpine Inn - and buying a portion of bulk tickets on Craigislist, using however many days of them up and then giving them back to the owner so they could sell the rest of the time off to someone else. 

It really saved a lot of money, including eating at least some meals out of the back of the car or going off Disneyland property to eat lunch somewhere cheaper.  I wouldn't do that now - at least currently - simply because of the money I am making, worrying about finances hasn't been a thing for quite a long time actually. That's a nice feeling.  It's given me the option to save more money and start investing.  A little late in life I guess to start investing, but now better than never.  

It just amazes me that the price of everything has gone up, yet in many cases, the quality or quantity of everything has gone way down.  I call that corporate greed in many instances and it's appalling to me to see what they can get away with.  Hotels are definitely no different.  As with Motel 6, the prices have gone way up but the quality has definitely gone down.  I wouldn't stay at one now unless it was somehow a last resort. I'd honestly rather stay in my truck overnight than in one of those s***holes.  

Alright, enough of that. In about 25 minutes I'm leaving here, heading to the plant where I will be for several hours.  The goal today is at least 400 miles of driving. The minimum to make it back on Wednesday is 200 miles.  That's if I have enough hours left on my 70 clock to make it back. It's going to be very tight, that I can assure you of.  I'm still not convinced I will make it back before Christmas, just really won't know for sure until the last day of driving and seeing what I've got left in hours versus miles to drive.  And that, only if I don't have a mechanical break down, tho I can go into off duty mode and save my 70, if it's bad, well, it will be days in the shop. Take a truck to Peterbilt and you aren't getting out of there the same or even the next day.  Just doesn't work that way.  

As it stands, the truck has been idling for 20 hours so I need to get down there and do a regen on the DEF system - they get clogged up or something after idling too long and it has to idle up the engine, create a lot of heat and burn it out of there.  Othewise? You won't be going anywhere very fast.  

Anyway, I best get this show on the road. A regen usually takes at least 10 minutes and I want to get this day started.  

G'day.