No room at the inn/campground

[bdhszy1]

Have you ever been touring, and planned on stopping in a town or area only to find out there is some sort of "event" going on? A couple of years ago I was looking for a campground in the Laughlin NV area when they were having their rally. Last year going from NJ to FLA with a plan on stopping in NC, but not knowing there was a NASCAR race there, left me struggling for a motel room. Who the hell ever heard of the 127 yard sale? Don't try to take that route on their big week. How are you suppose to know about every turnip festival or mullet toss?Anyone else had this problem?

[DogBoy]

If you plan to stop in a specific town, check the city website or the local chamber of commerce website for events.

[traveler]

It's happened to me, too. Which is why now, when touring without a set itinerary, I begin looking for campground or room early, like before 5:00 pm.

I prefer to avoid riding at dusk or in the dark, and getting caught with no place to stay has forced me into just that, seeking refuge.

Motels and campground personnel can often find you a place if they are full, so I always ask. B&Bs have at times served as a last resort, sometimes turning out better than expected. Cost is prohibitive though.

Camping rough, in a field or cemetary, is always an option. I usually have a variety of maps with me to help in planning or finding a last minute alternative. County parks proved to be a bonus on many occasions, but are not always indicated on maps.

Bike shops can also be a source of info. Local or state police have even given me recommendations for camping, as have waitresses in cafes.

I've even stayed at RV campgrounds when nothing else was available or nearby. They'll often provide a place to pitch a tent, but you'll need earplugs to sleep. Bright lights, generators and yapping dogs are all too prevalent in such places.

I once spent five months riding the country, never having reservations anywhere. I always managed to find a place to stay (usually camping), some good, others not so much.

[sagerat]

My three classics:  every motel from Page, AZ to Kanab, UT (that's about 150 miles, IIRC) being full as we came in at 11 p.m.  Reason:  Filiming of the movie "Maverick."  We ended up sleeping in the back of the truck somewhere in the Utah desert.

Hitting Elko, NV and discovering another to reason to despise cowboy "poetry" (more like drivel and doggerel) is that it sucks up all the motel rooms.  It's a looooong way to Battle Mountain, NV, from Elko, which is where the first vacant room was.

Redding, CA, was hosting a girls softball tournament and all rooms were taken.  Ended up in either Dunsmuir or Yreka.

On the plus side, I got the last room in Ely, NV after riding my GS from Phoenix.  No special events, just highway construction crews had eaten up most of the lodging capacity.  

I still prefer to have the freedom of not having a schedule than trying to make town X due to a motel reservation, but admittedly it can backfire.  

[JIMLARCH]

Who needs an Inn?  Find a parking lot.  Get your inflatable pillow (not the blow up doll) out of your luggage, inflate, rest against motorcycle (let bike cool down first) place head on pillow, then sleep.  Don't forget to swallow Robaxacet first.  

[Orson]

as a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type, it happens to me a lot  

Like traveler, I start looking for a room around 5:00 P.M. and usually get one.

[jetapumper]

Riding back from Newport, RI to Fargo, ND. 3rd day was a long one. Niagra Falls, NY across southern Ontario to Luddington, MI to catch the ferry across Lake Michigan. Just made the 7pm ferry. Into Manitowac, WI about 10:30pm. Started the hunt for a room. Little did I know there was a Fudge Packers preseason football game in Green Bay the next day. Not a room available for 30 miles in any direction! Ok, on to Appleton, WI. The State Lions Club convention that weekend in Appleton! No rooms anywhere! By now it's 3am. Asked the guy at a motel front desk if he'd mind if I slept next to my bike on the grass next to the parking lot. He said sure. Passed out for a few hours then continued the trip next day.

When you're that tired, you don't need no stinkin' pillow!

[Grumbler]

<...> as have waitresses in cafes.

Wouldn't mind if a comely waitress took me home with her.
Could be quite a memorable experience. :-)

[falcofred]

Happend to me in Charlottesville VA. back in 96, the Olyimpic Torch was passing through there, and when we finally did find the last room in town, it was at a real seedy dump.
Then snowmobiling in Ontario  back a few years ago we pulled into Timmons only to find a huge hockey tournement and an Indian Triabal Chieftan meeting. Not a room in town, we were beat, it was late, and we had to get back on the sleds and ride back to Cockran for a room. Arrived at bout 1:00 am.

[Scratch33]

Was riding in PA a couple years ago and wound up late in the day in Williamsport where, unbeknownst to us, the Little League world series were going on.  Wound up staying in Bath NY after exhausting anything closer.

[zer0netgain]

Happens too often to me.  Usually when I'm desperate to get off the road for the night too.  I wind up going way too long to find any port in the storm.

[Nitro]

Yep....once..ended up very tired, backtracking 75 miles in the dark from Stanley, Idaho, ..YUK!...after that always took a mini tent just in case! Also get on the road at 6 every day and stop before 6  (5pm in the busiest tourist area's) and have never had a problem since . Never needed the tent since I took it!
And no thanks for reservations, I don't even know where I will end up till mid afternoon most days, that would put  me on a schedule and them days are over.

[Snowdog]

A couple of times I've had to travel rather further than I intended to find some overnight accommodation. Both in the US, in Europe I've always found somewhere fairly easily, I just start looking around 4 or 5 o'clock when I feel I've ridden enough.

In 1984 I was taking a driveaway car from San Francisco to Columbus, Ohio.  I had completely failed to note the significance of it being the 4th July weekend. I had intended to stop somewhere on the west of the Rockies, but ended up getting to Denver before I found a bed for the night, and then only because the air con wasn't working in the room and nobody else wanted it (I got a discount though).

The other time was on my tour after the 2004 National. Out in the boondocks of Texas, there just wasn't anywhere. Eventually I came to a run down little motel in Rule (a one horse town who's horse had long since passed on). I don't know who was more grateful - me for the bed, or the motel owner for the custom.

[BRPtourer]

Labor Day weekend, traveled from NV, through ID, MT, Yellowstone, into Wy. Three days without a proper bed, shower, etc. Stopped at the police station in Douglas, WY, and said I need a shower and a bed for the night, anything cheap around here? Dispatcher directed me to a little old place down the street, said she didn't know how nice it was but it is cheap. The lady at the desk said she had a room for $42, cheap enough I figured, probably a dump though.
I walked into the room and it looked recently painted, and was spotless clean, large comfy bed, full kitchen, stove, oven, full size reefer, microwave, the works! Bathroom had a full size tub, shower, and a marble sink. All for 42 bucks!
In the words of Mr Calihan "Do ya feel lucky...punk?" Well I did that day.

[Baz]

After years of travelling for a living, I always make reservations.

I used to get to some pretty small towns and sometimes even a pee wee hockey tournament will sell the place out. I once had to stay 1.5 hours away from where my customer was, due to a spring salmon run.

[Snowdog]

After years of travelling for a living, I always make reservations.

All very well if you know where you're going to be. I don't exactly over plan my trips. I know where I'll start on the first day, I know where I'll finish on the last day - everything else is totally flexible.

[traveler]

All very well if you know where you're going to be. I don't exactly over plan my trips. I know where I'll start on the first day, I know where I'll finish on the last day - everything else is totally flexible.

I always know where I'm starting from   but when roaming about the country, I rarely know where I'll end the day. No reservations for me on such trips.

[goto]

I did it once in Durango just after Labor Day... even though I had missed going to the 4 Corners Ralley once before , I completely zoned it in 2002.  Got REAL lucky, called the wife, she did internet magic, got on a phone and I had a room.

Second time ALL campsites full at Zion.... just kept riding, next town rooms available.

The third time was in Missoula, on the way to Glacier NP... the hotels up by the interstate were full and had been booked for a while (no... I have no idea why), but back south through the main part of town there were many openings.

But it is all good.

[Orson]

After years of travelling for a living, I always make reservations.

tsk tsk...disgraceful    

In 30 years, I've been left out in the cold only one time.

It wuz in New England during fall leaf watching season. Who knew that wuz a tourist event?   All the rooms were full in Vermont & New Hampshire.

Finally, in desperation, I went to the Nassau, N.H. Police Station and begged to stay in their reception area as it wuz below 30 degrees outside. Only problem wuz that parents kept coming round to bail out their drunk teenagers...so, didn't get much sleep.

[Cageless-in-Seattle]

July 2005, I was returning home from my trip to Pennsylvania and stopped in Minot, ND.  It turned out that the ND State Fair had just started and nonsmoking hotel rooms were hard to locate.  The desk clerk at the third or fourth hotel I stopped at made several calls and found the last nonsmoking room at a hotel about five miles away.  

My return home was not planned, just stopping wherever each night.  I never thought to consider state fairs when selecting a location to spend the night.  

[ragtoplvr]

When I enter the state I think I might be spending the night in, I try to detour to a interstate.  I know, I hate interstates too, BUT at or near the border there will be a rest area state info center.  Ask the staff there about places to stay, they are there to help and they have been good to me.  Once in Iowa there was some stupid race going on, they must have made about 50 phone calls for me, all rooms were full, and found me what was about the last available room in the central part of the state.  Oh and that room was far from free, 115 for a super 8!.  But it was going to rain.  And hail, flood, tornadoes.  That room was cheap at 2X the price, but do not tell super 8.

rod

[swingset]

First and only time it happened to me (I usually plan well), I tried to get a room in Upstate NY when I was travelling years ago, and everything was flogged for some festival that was going on in the area. Ended up going into a restaurant to grab a bite, look at the map and figure out where to go. Talking to the waitress, who was mighty cute, she offered to let me set up camp at her place which was close by. After going to her place and setting up camp in her back yard....talking to her the whole time, we hit it off and I ended up crashing on her couch, where we sat and shared a few drinks, watched some TV, and made out for a while. Ended up staying with her for the whole weekend.

Good times, and no it was never a "dear Penthouse forum" letter. Nice time, nothing freaky, just a pleasant weekend with a cute girl.

[bomber]

happens all the time with motels . . . . who knew that the Mississippi river had become a tourist trap? ;-}

it wouldn't be so tough if chain motels would reach back into the past and adopt a habit from lil roadside joints -- a Vacancy/No Vacancy sign -- you could just keep riding, instead of making multiple stops

[PatM]

Always start looking by 4 - 5 PM. I do get caught once in a while. I guess you never learn.  

[Geoff]

I got burned twice while looking for a motel. First time was during a trip to Sturgis. My riding partner and I thought we'd wing it. Big mistake. We wound up in some Bates Motel lookin' place a few miles off the interstate. Second time happened in Green Bay, Wisconsin the nite before a Packers game. When I told one desk clerk I had no reservation, he laughed like Joseph Stalin after he enslaved most of western Europe.

[mlinkibikr]

Years ago my buddy Dan and I rode up to Smoky Mountain National Park - figured we'd just camp there. Had no idea it was fully booked ... we found a campsite where the occupants said we could sleep, but the Ranger came by, saw our bikes, and threw us out. This after our 4 beer post ride workout - so now we have two slightly tipsy bikes finding our way in the pitch dark down the hill ... we spotted a pasture, stashed our bikes and slept on our ponchos. Woke up wet and cold, and completely surrounded by a herd of curious cattle.

Second "oops" was a long, hard, hot day culminating in Sun Valley, Idaho. To my dismay the town was "sold out" for some ice skating competition. It was a long and numbing ride back down that mountain to the chain hotel on the interstate. I detest figure skating to this day.

Planning is only important when you fail to consider it.

Dave.

[Snowbird]

it wouldn't be so tough if chain motels would reach back into the past and adopt a habit from lil roadside joints -- a Vacancy/No Vacancy sign -- you could just keep riding, instead of making multiple stops

Yeah, good point. Only the mom and pop ones have those nowadays.

I think anyone who travels without a rigid agenda is going to encounter problems finding a room sooner or later. It's happened to me recently in NH. I finally found a room at about $60 more than reasonable, but the alternative was to get onto the Interstate at night where fog was setting in. Keeping $60 in my pocket was not nearly so attractive compared to the potential for death... so I made the wise choice and paid.

It might be a good idea to pack a tent and a couple of blankets.

[GoneRacin]

Since I ride alone, I just wing it. If I have to crash on a park bench overnight, Its no biggie. I have stealth camped several times just because I couldnt find a motel. Most churches dont mind if you get out back in the woods. I always carry my tent with me on trips just for such occasions.