Re: lodging in Lone Pine - Since I was a kid, and even to the current day, we have always stayed at the Best Western Frontier on the south side of Lone Pine and have always enjoyed it.
Re: who's online - Now there is a CaT, a Moose and a spider online! What a menagerie!
Add a bulldog - we're zoo-bound.
And on the lodging piece, I can't avoid weighing in since I've been a General Manager with Marriott for almost 25 years. For $66, the Dow Hotel wasn't bad - for just me, who was gone 12 hours a day and used it just to sleep and re-supply my pack each day. That was sorta the idea. It would never have worked for my family in a vacation environment. Even though it's the Dow Hotel, it's a motel, and my expectations were not high.
The one thing that bugged me, though, was the nonchalant service. Other than one clerk (Justin), I was all but invisible to the staff. No "Good morning", or "Hello", or any other greeting at any point during the day or night. I was there a week, and was dumbfounded at the staff's approach to the guests. Being somewhat of an expert in these matters, it frankly pissed me off. If I saw
one of my staff members ignore a guest
once, I'd snatch 'em baldheaded, as me dear mum used to say. An entire property's culture of seeing the guest as a necessary evil - well, let's just say I'll be staying at the Hostel with Doug the next time I'm doing Whitney solo.
And speaking of service and Lone Pine, what is up with the chick at the Mobil mart?! The one with the Bon Jovi do, granite face and foul mouth. I went in there every morning for coffee and ice, and all but one she was letting the f-bombs fly at full-volume, promising to kick somebody's ass. At first I was taken aback, but after a few days I considered it free entertainment.
