Across The USA by Dodge
Chapter 8
Phoenix and Motels
Back to Phoenix. As it turned out, the motel I stayed at there wasn't in the most savoury neighborhood. It looked OK but you can't judge a motel by its bricks or something like that. The place must have been on the fringe of a black area and after I booked in I noticed a motel across the road had been burnt out while there were four or five other vacant buildings nearby. Phoenix is into urban renewal but it hadn't quite reached as far as the place I stayed at.
There were cars (and taxis) coming and going all hours of the night and I've got my suspicions that some of the activities going on there weren't exactly legal.
The motel was called the "Super 7" which is part of a motel chain. However, the TV had "Holiday Inn" engraved on it, the shower curtains were "Best Western" and the 'phone was from "Motel 6".
Anyway I got better at picking motels after that and there was only one other (no, maybe two) dodgy place I stayed at. [That was in Denver which I'll get to later. And was that an experience!]
Basically, my policy for picking motels was the same as you do in Australia if you've never been to a town before. Just drive until you see a motel -- if it looks OK stop. In some places I trusted the judgement of my travel book while in other places I just stopped where I stopped. I certainly didn't stay in the four star places. Why pay $100 when you can pay $20-$30 and see the real America, not just the touristy places.
One funny thing that sticks in my mind from Phoenix was in the downtown mall called The Arizona Center (which was very impressive, architectural wise) about eight blocks from my motel. There's a small chain of fast food stores called "Hot Dog On A Stick" and they serve mainly hot dogs, as the name implies, and fresh lemonade. Anyway, one of the funniest sights I've ever seen was a girl that worked there jumping up and down in a metal bucket to crush lemons on a kind of pogo stick contraption. [That doesn't sound funny written down so I guess you had to be there.]
Since then, back in Australia, I saw a song on Rage one night and the video clip featured one of these Hot Dog On A Stick stands! Good song, actually.
Chapter 9
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