This morning the sun was shining in the bedroom and the traffic was whizzing by on the freeway and we weren't sure if this Doubletree Hotel provided the free small breakfast that all the Hampton Inns do and so we went down stairs to see what was available. We have to bear in mind that following yesterday's walk around the local streets there was no sign of any cafes or similar that we could go to instead of the Hotel. There was a small café where you could get coffee and a bagel and/or similar but as there was a restaurant in the Hotel we thought we would check that out.
So we arrived at 'The Fire' Restaurant and the receptionist asked di we want the buffet or menu but having looked at the list of stuff on the buffet we chose that. And started on the fresh fruit and yogurt and followed by the usual scrambled egg and accoutrements and Jennifer was there first. She started her food of scrambled egg and bacon and a couple of pancakes whilst I was collecting mine from the serving area. When I got back Jennifer mentioned that the scrambled eggs we cold and the other food was only luke warm. I then tried mine and would confirm that it was not hot and so as they charge about $20.00 for morning buffet I did not want to pay all this cash and have cold food and so I called over the waiter who immediately brought the restaurant manager. I told him that it is not acceptable to serve cold food when it should be hot and somebody should be constantly checking the temperature etc. He apologised and said he would check it out and would I like something from the menu, Jennifer was almost through her food but I was not prepared to eat cold food and so they brought me the American Breakfast with hot food and on a hot plate and with further apologies.
The good news is that when I came to pay the waiter said NO CHARGE as the manager had written off the bill. So it pays to complain.
We joined I-10 heading East on a bright but slightly chilly morning and once we go outside of El Paso the traffic slowly dropped off to what we might call an almost empty road and with an approved speed limit of 80 mph so we were skimming along it looked like that we would get to Fort Stockton to early so we started discussing perhaps cancelling the current Hotel and look for one about 100 miles later but this is not so easy as this is pretty barren area with small shacks and not towns for another 80 miles or so. We carried on and had to stop at a border control post where we had to show our passports, why they have a border post in the middle of nowhere beats me as it's still a long way from the Mexican border.
After leaving the border post area the hills and mountain began to increase around us and we also passed through a time zone where we lost another hour. We decided to stop for a comfort break which we found about 60 miles later,( see I told you this was barren land and you are not going to get me standing by the side of the road with the risk of being hit by one of these massive American trucks or dragged in to the hills by a huge Tarantula spider or a copperhead or rattle snake which can knock you off quite quickly)
Finally we saw a sign for a little town with a fuel station and so turned off the freeway in to the little town expecting a dump of a petrol station but we woz wrong as we came across and newish building and with a café where we decided to enjoy and ham and cheese toasties with fries, one portion between two was going to be enough. We used the time to check out other towns with Hotels but quite frankly there was nothing suitable and so we decided to stay at Fort Stockton at the Hampton Inn as booked.
After 70 minutes we arrived at the Hotel and investigated restaurants and cinema's (actually there is only one cinema with one screen) and the restaurants were not great and the fil showing was 'The American Sniper' which has very mixed reviews and so after a little discussion we settled on eating the rest of the cheese and biscuits and watch a film on TV if there was one.
The room is the standard Hampton inn room, quite spacious and reasonably well equipped and it serves our purpose. Tomorrow we have to decide where to stop en-route for the night before we reach our friends on Friday afternoon. We have two choices, one is San Antonio and the other is Fredericksburg but we will make up our minds tomorrow after looking at the weather forecast as the last two visits by us to San Antonio have always ended up in the rain and we don't want to be caught out again. Let's see what tomorrow will bring.
