It has been sometime (since the 1990′s) that I have actually been to Virginia Beach, VA. I had a meeting with a SEO Guru and couldn’t decided whether to leave at 4am drive down the day of, and drive right back. OR…. Leave a day early, stay overnight at a hotel and then come back. The key issue was my budget. I have been on a Financial Fast at my Church, using Michelle Singletary’s Book 21 Days Financial Fast. And I am suppose to be frugal and penny-wise.
Anyways, I really want to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for my one day Boot Camp and decided to check and see what it would cost to stay one night.
I went on-line and somehow got an affiliate group that works with Hotels.com. The lady was so nice on the phone. But, I explained that I was on a tight budget but needed to be near – and I gave her the zipcode a certain location.
She then asked the key question, “How much are you willing to pay”? I cleared my throat and said, “Well, um about 45 bucks.” Waiting to haer her laugh out loud, she instead said “let me see what i can come up with”.
She found this budget Ramada hotel – right across from the water for $36. I said, “Your kidding, right”. My suspicious nature got the best of me and I calmly asked, “Are you sure I won’t get down there and then find out it $90 or somthing like that?” She reassured me, took my credit card and gave me a confirmation email and number. The customer service person also told me I would have a refrigerator, microwave and coffeemaker too. Oh and also breakfast!
Wow, I hit the mother-load today. Cool beans, yea I said it “cool beans”. So I hopped in my 2001 Pontiac Aztec, drove about the anti-nuclear demonstrations in DC that day, and went to Virginia Beach.
I have always enjoyed traveling via car. As a outside sales representative, worked and traveled via my car for many years. I love it. Using my GPS on my HTC2 touch phone (my 4th phone, another story, another time) got down to the water, found the hotel and met “Dre” at the front desk around 6pm. I liked Dre, young man, very pleasant and accommodating. Everything was as I had been told. There was a minor hitch with my credit card. It seems that the Hotel.com IT server does not transmitt to the Ramada accuratetly. So what they did is just re-do the reservation. No problems, everything went smoothly. Then after going to my room, I mentioned to Dre that I hoped to take a few pictures while down here. Then he said – if you can get up around 6:20am – and go out on the balcony – they sunrise is gorgeous. And so I got a wakeup call for 6:15am – and here are my shots from my room’s balcony:
