Howard Johnson - Gothenburg, Nebraska

We booked our hotel room using Reward miles, but when Hubby went to check in he was told they didn’t have any rooms available…even though the miles had already been deducted from our card. So after some discussion the hotel clerk said she DID have ONE room available, and she would let us have it. It was THE BRIDAL SUITE! Yup…that’s right…After 43 years of marriage we FINALLY got to have a “honeymoon”!

Ironically, our original honeymoon 43 years ago was spent driving this SAME ROUTE…to Oregon where we would be living. And we had NO Honeymoon. Ever. We simply drove non-stop to Oregon and went to work!

When we finally stopped laughing at the irony of the situation we “checked in”…to our “love nest”.

So what does a Howard Johnson “Bridal Suite” look like, you ask…

And THIS was where my hotel adventure was supposed to end. A sweet story and some funny memories. My blog post would be finished.

But our night took a VERY different turn.

At 5:30 this morning we heard loud noises outside the window of our room. We were both dazed and confused for a minute…but suddenly we realized someone had ripped the screen, slid open the window and was beginning push back the curtain to climb through the window! I yelled something (I’m not sure what) and the person backed out and ran away. Just like that. We were terrified but unharmed. I alerted the front desk and we tried to go back to sleep (unsuccessfully I might add) and waited for daylight.

I had the opportunity to review the camera security footage in the hotel manager’s office when the local police arrived later this morning. We saw the man approach the hotel and we saw him run away. But the footage was not clear enough to identify the man. It was surreal and sobering to stand there and watch this video of the man approaching our window, knowing what he was planning to do.

Officer Randolph was NOT happy to hear that no one (neither us or hotel staff) had dialed 911 even though the intruder left. It was a poor decision on our part. Lesson learned.

TRAVEL TIP: We will NEVER sleep in a hotel room again without making sure the windows are LOCKED. And our cell phones will be charging BY THE BED…not across the room.

After giving our statement to the police, we packed our bags and left Gothenburg. But before we left, the hotel manager informed us that the miles spent for our room would be credited back to our account. She was extremely upset by what happened, and she assured us they had never had an incident like that before.

We headed many miles down the road before we stopped for breakfast. We had lost our appetite…and we were almost to Colorado before we regained it.

Breakfast in Paxton, Nebraska…coming up.

And let’s have a side of African safari to go with it!

Details tomorrow…And a GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP TONIGHT…

Thank God our “Honeymoon” is OVER…

And Thank God Even More that we lived to tell about it!

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