Hotels and Motels, Chapter 3

This chapter is about bed and breakfast inns, you know, B&Bs. My wife and I have stayed only in three of these hostelries; two in Missouri and one in New Mexico.

From outward appearances the B&B in New Mexico seemed appealing and interesting. First, the establishment carried a name that integrated two languages—French and Spanish. And then the look and feel of a Mexican hacienda made the outside of the building fit in its environment. This restored building has a long history going back to the early days of New Mexico and if you stayed there you could capture that period and live in it.

Inside tile floors, stuccoed walls, and vigas and latillas in the ceiling clinched it for the prospective guest. Vigas are large beams usually made of tree logs and latillas are saplings placed over the logs to form the ceiling. Over the latillas mud is caked into the open spaces and then earth is placed over the mud and foliage usually grows on the roof. In today's New Mexico and southwest style vigas are still made from tree logs but latillas are usually slats of a fine wood and they can be used on multistory homes or buildings. Most early New Mexico homes were made of adobe or, where available, stone and ordinarily kept to a single story.


 The atmosphere, certainly better than a motel on old U.S. 80, helped the guest be in the spirit of the southwest. However, the dear cost of a night's stay dampened the desire to experience old-time New Mexico. I do not remember the nightly tariff but I do remember paying over $100 when we could have stayed at the Mission Motel on old U.S. 80 for about $50.

Well here we were soaking in the costly ambience of New Mexico. We planned to enjoy being there, regardless of cost; however, sleeping on beds as hard as concrete took away any atmospheric benefit. We tossed and turned, pulled the covers off of each other all night. When morning came we arose from the penitential bed exhausted.

The second B in B&B is breakfast. In the three such places where we have stayed it would have been better for us to have gone to a McDonalds for a McBiscuit, or whatever they sell for breakfast. Usually the lady of the house fixes breakfast as she would for her children rushing them out of the house for school. This makes everything "homey." Describing the breakfast is difficult. Yes, yes, there were eggs and bacon—cold and greasy. Coffee tasted as if it had been brewed in the stone age; in fact, if it had and we had been there, the coffee might have tasted half way reasonable.

As our stay came to an end I longed for the Dublin Motel. But, the New Mexico B&B with the combined French and Spanish name could be rated superior to excellent, or vice versa, compared to the two in Missouri.