Greetings from Room 206 of the Rodeway Inn in Revere, MA. It’s just outside Logan Airport in Boston, so we’ll just call it Boston, shall we?

I’m here because I screwed up my flight reservations in and out of Manchester. I had originally booked travel on Orbitz in and out of the Manchester airport, with a Friday night departure, but I somehow skipped the “confirm reservations” step of the process, which meant that when I final-checked my itinerary just a few days before leaving, I realized that in fact I had no tickets. At all.

Problem.

So I had to book the cheapest flight I could find, which meant flying in and out of Boston and driving to/from Manchester. And it also meant flying out Saturday morning, rather than Friday night. So I’m staying in the cheapest hotel I could find near the airport and, well, you get what you pay for.

Dinner tonight was a can of honey-roasted peanuts and a Diet Pepsi because I turned in my rental car already and the only thing even resembling a restaurant near my hotel is a liquor store two blocks away, where all they sell is soda, beer, wine, champagne, hard liquors, and honey-roasted peanuts. When I was checking out, the 20-something hottie check-out girl cracked a joke about me having a slow Friday night. My snappy comeback was … nothing. What could I say? She nailed it.

Here’s the room:

And here’s the view:

And here’s me resolving to stay in a real hotel on my next trip. These last two places have shown me that I’m a spoiled business traveler — I have certain expectations that a cheapo tourist joint can’t meet. You get what you pay for.

Greetings from Room 122 of the Quality Inn in Manchester, NH. It’s actually in Bedford, which for some reason reminds me of the Rosanne show (set in Lanford, I think), but the client is in Manchester, so there you go. And here I am.

I’ve been here before, actually. In Manchester that is, not Bedford. Only it was actually a little town called Bow last time, but the client was in Manchester, so there you go. And there I was. The client I was here to help last time was one of the minions in the ClearChannel radio army, and their offices are just down the block from the client this time around. I thought about dropping in to say “hi” and catch up on old times, but then I didn’t because I’m antisocial like that.

One of the jocks at the radio station last time around hooked me up with tickets to see a Journey/Styx/REO Speedwagon show, which means that I had a better time last time I was here. This time around the high point was when I tried to go see Superman at the movie theater in the mall next door to my hotel and it was closed because their electrical transformer had been struck by lighting. Whee. And don’t even get me started on the “quality” of this hotel. Let’s just say that when a hotel uses the word “quality” in their name — like this one, the “Quality” Inn — they’re probably overcompensating for something.

Anyway, you’re dying to see what it’s like here, aren’t you? Sure you are.

Here’s the room:

And here’s the view:

Whee.