[Rockhounds] Accommodations

[Lawrence Rush]

Well, I'll add my strangest accommodation story, too.

We were on a week-long collecting trip in a nearby state, and decided to 
stay at a slightly run-down motel to save a few dollars. It was clean, but 
did seem to have a lot of traffic coming and going. On the first day, since 
it was late in the afternoon, we spent some time investigating the rock 
cliffs just behind the motel, when we were approached by 2 men who started 
asking a lot of personal questions. Turns out they were detectives and when 
we told them where we were staying, they advised us to get out, since that 
motel was a known drug dealers gathering spot, the police had it surrounded 
and they were planning a raid there shortly. But, the owner must have been 
suspicious, because when we returned, our bags were out on the sidewalk. The 
owner told us he had made a mistake, and didn't have any more room for us! 
That was OK with us and we were happy to get out of there! Later in the 
week, the place was closed and locked! We asked about it at a nearby diner, 
and were told that it was common knowledge about the drug dealings, and the 
State Police had rushed the place with drawn guns, bull-horns, the works! We 
were happy that a coincidence allowed us not to be involved in a police 
raid, and were a bit more careful in the future about where we stayed!

Larry