I can’t resist writing about Patsy’s new adventure this week in Green River. I have been babysitting a motel, the Budget Inn for the Sah family this week.
In between taking care of the motel, I have been getting my articles written for the newspaper as well as gathering news in Green River.
I am discovering I am quite old and really can’t burn both ends of the candle as well as I could in days long past.
The Sah family went to Washington D.C. so their son Kunal could participate in the National Spelling Bee. We watched parts of the bee on TV and it’s really amazing how well those students can spell and how hard they work at it.
Anyway, me being of not right mind, volunteered to babysit one of their two motels, so the mother Sarita could accompany Ken and Kunal to Washington. I drove Sarita into the Salt Lake airport on Tuesday morning early and then returned to Green River that day to relieve my sports reporter Gary Arrington of the motel as he took the Monday night shift.
In talking to Sarita on the way to the airport she said she tries to rest in the afternoons. Now after three nights of off and on sleep I can see why rest is needed in the afternoon. But, instead of resting I have been fluttering around writing and of course I took my son to the Green River golf course and we golfed while I should have been sleeping. I am paying for this craziness with a bit of sleep deprivation but other than that I seem to be holding my own.
It’s incredible the people I have met in my short stay. The first night two separate couples from Florida stayed here. We have had people from California, Colorado, El Salvador, Tennessee, Chicago and last night a man from New Zealand who had just been through Arches National Park.
Also, last night a young man who is traveling by horseback from California to New York to raise money for children with cancer stayed at the motel.
We have such a magnificent opportunity to show off our beautiful state. Some of the people are just traveling by in route somewhere else, but there are some who are vacationing in the area.
The couple from Chicago had been to Zions and Bryce Canyon and were on their way to Arches this morning. They were amazed by the variety of landscape in the state of Utah and fascinated by where we live.
They said in Chicago they are just surrounded by tall buildings and mundane landscapes. They are rich in cultural arts they said, but lacking in the natural beauty of our area.
It’s been such fun to get a chance to talk to these people from all over the United States. Some of the people like to check in and talk for awhile. Some are all business and just want to get a room and get some sleep.
People come in all hours of the night and they are usually the ones that just catch some sleep and are back on the road again. The tourists are traveling at a more leasurely pace.
Then there was the man from California who was just returning from Kentucky where he had to place his mother in a rest home. He was driving a cool red 2002 Corvette and he told my son and I he had it up to 125 mph a time or two on the trip back from Kentucky.
Since being here I’ve realized even more the importance of training the people who work at the motels and the convenience stores to be able to answer questions about local attractions. People have asked directions and wondered where to eat and it’s good to have the answers when people ask questions.
Most of the time it was me asking the questions, I had to know where they were from and where they were going next.
Well my last guests from the 4 a.m. check in just left, I promised them a free breakfast up at the other motel, the Ramada Limited so I hope I don’t get fired for that one. But, then again I guess you can’t fire your volunteer help, maybe just show them the door.
I’ve been giving military discounts, senior discounts, promises of free breakfasts and other such amenities. Ken said you have to do what it takes to keep the guests happy. So far so good. I haven’t lost a customer yet, although a couple came in from California the other night and the man became ill and they rushed him off to Castleview hospital to see what was wrong. Of course, we gave them most of their money back, since they weren’t able to spend the night.
Well, I’m off to throw in the laundry, take my son to lunch and maybe get in some nap time before we head to Price for a ball game, when the babysitter has to find someone else to babysit for awhile in my absence.
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