For the last week and this coming up week I am/will be working on an article for my friends zine called "pigeonhole". He doesn't have a site set up for it so I have no link to share. The zine is free and we get to write about what ever strikes our fancy. This time I am writing about cool hotels, motels, inns, motor courts...Lodging, you get the point! I thought.. .wouldn't it be nice of me to share this info, and besides...I don't have anything else to show on here right now except a headless softie I was working on while taking a break from writing!
I actually got to stay here a few years back and loved it! It was so fun to get to sleep in a wigwam! Here is an excert from my article:".......I became excited when I realized that the furniture was the same as in the vintage postcards I had seen. I exclaimed to my mother-in-law,"LOOK, it's the original furniture!" She smugly says "yeah, and the original mattresses too" And she was right, the mattress were a little springish but hey ...We were sleeping in a wigwam!!!"
The Madonna Inn has 108 room of tacky, kitschy decor. This room is called the Buffalo Room...Yes, that's a huge buffalo head overlooking the bed.Oddly enough this room has no air conditioning... Makes me think of a hot sweaty smelly buffalo staring at me while I try to sleep.
This place is literally my dream come true...Well add a Drive-in movie theatre and I would just about never leave the premises! Vintage travel trailers restored and outfitted with early fifties decor along with a vintage record player,vintage records,vintage magazines,vintage dishes,vintage linens,vintage knick-knackys. VINTAGE! And not the fake cheesy stuff you see at "50's" diners. No poodleskirts, no images from the TV show Happy Days, no saddle shoes! The people who designed the insides were beyond that crapola!There also is a restored vintage diner on site that is open for business! I have a 1964 Airstream travel trailer and I would love to visit The Shady Dell for ideas.
This place is owned by Kate pierson of the B-52's and the decor shows it! Lovely! This probably sounds crazy but my favorite idea from here is that the toiletries were "picked up" from hotels Kate stayed in while on tour. I was wondering what would be good to do with all those little shampoos and shower caps! Open a bad ass hotel and save yourself some money...Well on the soaps and such!
FantaSuites are normal shaped hotel rooms in normal looking hotels but have been elaborately designed to transport you to another time or place....A fantasy! The one shown above is called "Lover's Leap". It is set up to look like you are in a park, the bed is in that huge god~awful ugly car. For some reason FantaSuites like to show people in the rooms and the people they choose as models make me feel icky and to get possible vaccines just from viewing.. I mean look at that couple! I don't trust anyone with a 'Ned Flanders'! Do you really want to think about them and their "fantasy".Ewww...No!
If these weren't boasted as novelty lodging, NO One would stay in them except homeless people..But yet here they are. They have been only updated enough inside to bring them up to the standards of having running water and electricity. The inside decor is very authentic looking but again...They look like a homeless person lives in them minus the empty bottles of Colt 45 on the floor!(see the website for interior views) As my mother-in-law would say" They expect people to PAY to sleep in those".
This is a snazzy hotel in California that has a less cluttered, upscale vintage look. This room is themed with pink and Marilyn Monroe prints. Apparently she actually stayed in this room a number of times.Red Caboose Motel ~ With this motel you get to sleep in a vintage train caboose! The whole town is all about some trains, it looks like it would be a really fun for adults and children to holiday at. Sorry no photo. Go to their site and see for your self!
Well back to the article. There are soo many more places I found but I don't have room to write about them all. The way I see it, why pay $XXX to stay in a boring conglomerate Motel 6 when there may be a really cool independently owned themed place nearby for the same $XXX. Maybe even cheaper than motel 6.
did you see the comments about the shackup inn!!! People are actually writing to make sure there will be room for them!!!!! i'll bet you'd have to check your room when you got there just to make sure no homeless people were there. Whoaaaa!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThese places are awesome. You never cease to amaze me in the wacky roadside kitschy places you find. One day when I win the lotto we will have a Dixie Doll road trip to stay in every last one of them.
ReplyDeleteDixie Doll Love,
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