Just doing some venting here.

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I'll try not to make this a long-winded post, but I just got back from The County and it was one of those good news-bad news weekends.

The good news . . . I was able to get in several miles of snowmobiling in.

The bad news . . . We cut our trip short since it was pouring out when we left. (Subliminal message -- Don't go to the Crown Park Inn.)

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The bad news . . . The (insert really bad swear name here) at Crown Park Inn gave away my reserved room. After a 4-hour ride (9 hour ride for my brother-in-law and his friend) we arrived at 11:30 p.m. (when I made my reservation I told them we would be getting in late) to find the frazzled hotel clerk sitting there and before I could say anything she announced, "We don't have any rooms." No problem thought I, "I have a reservation that I made this morning" to which she said very condescendingly, "Sir, you don't understand. We have no more rooms. We over-booked." Well, excuse me . . . but isn't the whole point of calling ahead to reserve a room on your credit card to insure you'll have a room. Needless to say I was a bit upset (and tired) and the most "help" she could offer was to call up two hotels and tell me they were full and then offer the use of her phone to try calling other hotels (which were also full.)

The good news . . . At 12 midnight Chief Wiggim (a non-sledder incidentally, but one heckuva nice guy who had a buddy do some geo-caching with him a year or so ago) gets a phone call from yours truly wondering if he would mind having three people stay at his house. I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH ABOUT HOW THANKFUL I AM FOR FOLKS LIKE CHIEF WIGGIM AND HIS WIFE-TO-BE. They went out of their way to blow up an air mattress, pull out some blankets, etc. Because of the Chief I was able to a) not stay in the truck for the night, b) have a place to stay on Friday and Saturday and c) get some great breakfasts . . . and I even got a good deal on some new wheels for my quad.

As for the Crown Inn . . . I make this solemn oath. I will never reserve a room there even if it was the last room in town. It was bad enough that they gave the room away, but the issue that really ticked me off was the clerk's attitude.

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The good news . . . The trails seemed to be holding up well and on our trip back Washburn was firing up their groomer. As always, County trails are nothing short of incredible.

The bad news . . . As we left town it was raining hard and when I returned home the 3-4 inches of "base" that was still here when I left on Friday was completely gone. This was almost as disappointing as the fact that the Crown Park Inn apparently routinely "over-books" and gives away hotel rooms.


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The good news . . . No one ran out of gas or oil and there were no break downs (except for Mark2 . . . Mark1 being my brother-in-law . . . since Mark2 was about ready to have a melt down when he learned that the Crown Park Inn had given away the hotel room . . . as it was he called the clerk a not-so-nice name).

The bad news . . . I learned the hard way that it never pays to rush things when you're filling up. Even if there are six other sleds waiting in line to gas up, take the time to make sure everything is all set and ALWAYS make sure the gas cap is on . . . unless you enjoy having your groin area burn as though it was on fire for the next three hours . . . and having to make sure no one smoked too close to you or risk going up in one big Richard Pryor-like fireball.


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The good news . . . I got a great price on some new ITP aluminum rims which should make my Honda ATV look like a pimp mobile when I put them on this Spring . . . just need some fuzzy dice now . . . and if I ride my ATV up in Caribou I will not be getting a room at the Crown Park Inn since they really, really ticked me off.

The bad news . . . My wife doesn't know that I bought them and will probably be rational and see them as a "non-necessity." Ah, what does she know . . . heat is over-rated and I could afford to lose some weight so I guess I don't have to grocery shop this week.




By the way, did I mention how I really dislike the Crown Park Inn?