Sugar coating doesn't always make it better

I don't like delayed flights. Especially when it makes me late for a meeting.

After my (late) meeting I arrived (late) at the Holiday Inn Airport West Palm Beach in West Palm Beach, Florida. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a room upgrade, but I was guaranteed for late arrival and was glad to finally relax after such a long day.

Sometimes I think I just step into some sort of an alternate reality or something. Delayed flight, late meeting... and, the room.

When I opened the door to my room I was overwhelmed by a smoky smell. I knew I had reserved a non-smoking room, and this was pretty bad. Interesting to note here, the halls smelled fresh. Usually it's the other way around. That's when I realized I was not in Kansas any more.

I went to the restaurant and the sign said to wait to be seated, but there was no one there to seat me. There were only about seven other people in the the restaurant, and finally someone in the kitchen saw me standing there.

I was pleased when I saw a low-carb dish on the menu, and ordered the low-carb blackened salmon with steamed veggies. When it arrived it came with mashed potatoes with gravy, and glazed carrots. The carrots were good, but that's probably because they were cooked in sugar. Obviously they don't understand the concept. Now I know why I usually choose to order appetizers and eat in the bar.

I went back to my room hoping the smoke would have dissipated, but it was still there and quite unpleasant.

Every time the people in the next room flushed the toilet the walls rattled. Loudly. And they flushed a lot.

I woke up the next morning with a headache. But now that I think about it maybe it was a sugar hangover from the previous night's carrots.

As I checked out of the hotel the next morning I told the desk clerk about the smoke, and he called the manager. The very pleasant young man was the same person that had checked me in the night before, so he obviously spent a lot of time there. He told me he had heard that complaint before and the hotel attributed the smokey smell to a ventilation problem. He said he wished I would stay and offered me a spray bottle of room deodorizer.

No one ever offered me a bottle of room deodorizer before, and though I was flattered I still went to the Crowne Plaza down the street.