Frankly my dear, they sort of give a damn

Fort Worth North-Fossil Creek in Ft. Worth, Texas is a property next to a really big post office processing center. Its location right off the interstate makes it a bit of a challenge to leave the hotel because it requires a left turn on a busy street, but I solved this by turning right and driving down to the Liq-o-Rama parking lot a block or so down. Liq-o-Rama. It still makes me laugh as I type the name. Liq-o-Rama. OK. So it's been one of those weeks...

Now where was I? Oh, I was reviewing the hotel. Check in was smooth and the clerk at the front desk was pleasant and efficient. I was recognized as a platinum member immediately and my keys were ready and waiting. I was not offered an upgrade or any platinum perks other than a silver gift bag with potato chips, a bottle of water, and a (large) 3 Musketeers candy bar. It reminded me of breakfast when I was in college. Nothing wrong with that.

This hotel was either relatively new or recently remodeled and was in pretty decent shape. My room was a little too small for me, but like I said I wasn't upgraded. Maybe I'm just spoiled. The bed was comfortable though, and the room had plenty of electrical outlets.

One interesting feature was the little electronic "privacy/clean this room" switch on the wall. It lights up a little sign on the outside of your room. I've never seen that before. That means no one can steal your do not disturb sign off the door. I liked it.

I had a couple of issues. For one thing, the shampoo had been used. Now I know it was just soap, but it begged the question... What else was used? I figure the housekeeper didn't see it because the light was dim in the bathroom even if you turned on all three lights. There were three light switches in the bathroom, and none of the lights were heat lamps - just three lights.

I don't think the floor had been vacuumed. It didn't look like it. I was looking for a phone book and opened the nightstand drawer. In the drawer with the phone book was trash... including a used tissue. Gross.

The sound on all the TVs in the hotel was just weird. Some stations were really loud, some were nearly silent, and all of them were completely distorted when turned to NBC. It was extremely annoying. The desk guy told me they were trying to work it out with Direct TV. Later I learned (from a different hotel employee) that the hotel probably just didn't want to pay to get it fixed. But, since the batteries in the remote were dead it didn't make any difference anyway.

Not able to watch TV, I decided to go use the treadmill in the exercise room. The communal TV was turned to NBC.

There was no fan in the exercise room, and it was very hot. I'm not sure why they didn't have the air conditioner turned down as in most hotels. After 30 minutes on the treadmill I was glad to see a water cooler in the corner. I grabbed a cup, and the cooler was empty. That's the kind of experience that makes one want to go hang out at the hotel bar.

I went back to my room. The most interesting feature of the room was a larger-than-life picture of Rhett and Scarlett in a passionate embrace. It was totally out of character and in fact looked as if someone left their souvenir poster. But I liked it. Gone With the Wind is one of my all time favorite movies. It inspired me. "With God as my witness... I'll never go hungry again."

Especially since I had that big ol' candy bar.