We left Cape May around 7am Friday morning, and the weather suited my mood, rainy. I was sad to be leaving. We had such a great time, it was hard to leave, and I do miss those
Laughing Gulls.
We knew we were going to be spending Friday night on the road, somewhere outside of Buffalo, so we could get one more good morning of US birding in, before heading home.
It was a good travel day, because of the rainy weather, and we expected to be at our destination late afternoon, unforntuatley we got caught in a huge traffic jam in Philadelphia that was part morning rush and part accident, that added about 3hrs to our travel time.
We arrived at a hotel around 7pm outside of Buffalo. We were all tired and just looking forward to a hot shower and turning in. We had had a late lunch/early dinner at Cracker Barrel, so food was not needed.
Now, I am going to give you an abbreviated tale of the next part of the evening, mainly because I don't want to relive it, but I do hope it will educate a few.
I have been doing bed bug checks when traveling for years, and that night was the first time I had ever found evidence of them. Found live bugs actually. It kinda shocked me. I was so tired, as we all were, but after finding them in Jim and Lynda's room too, we were outta there. We both got refunds and Rob even took a bug to the front desk because the only girl working there said she didn't know what they looked like.
We went to another hotel, and hat's off to Betsy who was working the front desk, because she actually let us go up and inspect the rooms before signing in. She was also very forth coming with information about their preventative maintenance routine regarding bed bugs when I asked. I actually wish more hotels were like this, it's makes for a better nights rest.
After searching our rooms, we all felt assured and checked-in for a much needed good nights rest.
If you don't search your hotel room when checking-in, I suggest you start. You do not want to take these critters home with you; the cost of getting rid of them and the loss of sleep.
Here are a couple helpful websites;
How to
search a room and the
bed bug registry, check reports before booking.