Update On Americas Best Value Inn Fiasco

Back in early September, Veronica and I were just starting our vacation..our much anticipated Baltic Capitals Cruise.
Veronica and I had booked a room at Americas Best Value Inn, Norfolk Airport Area in VA.
Upon checking into the hotel and entering our room, we found the room to be really dilapidated, filthy and there were bugs and flies throughout the room. The toilet had bugs crawling on the seat.
Veronica and I promptly left the property but not before Veronica went into the lobby and told the desk manager just how bad the room and overall property was.
The desk clerk offered her another room but we were not interested at all. The property was really in poor shape and the photos that were depicting the property were not even close to being an accurate representation of what it was like.
Because we had booked through Priceline or Booking Buddy or one of those type of web sites, we knew up front that we would not be able to get a refund from neither the hotel nor the booking agency.
We ended up walking away and spending the night just up the street at one of our favorite hotels...Country Inn and Suites.
A blog entry was made about this bad situation back in September. Here is a link to that blog entry...  AMERICAS BEST VALUE INN - NORFOLK AIRPORT AREA 5725 Northampton Blvd Norfolk, VA



Yesterday I received an email from the Manager of the hotel. Here is a portion of the email...I left his name out because it just wasn't needed for this blog entry.

Dear Sir

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that was caused when you checked in at ABVI Virginia Beach. As the manager of the property I was unaware of the situation, that may be because my front desk employee did follow policy and offer to switch your room. At this point I would like to offer a 50% discount of the rack rate towards your next stay and hope that you will give ABVI another chance. Once again, very sorry.

Now after reading this email, I wrote the Manager back and told him just how bad the room was and what an embarrassment the hotels condition was in. I also advised him that I had contacted the corporation that gave him licensing rights to use the company name and logo. I had advised them what had happened and what the dismal condition the room and property was in.
In closing of my email to this Manager, I told him that he could have offered me a week free stay at his hotel and that I would have turned him down. There is no way that I would ever return to this hotel and strongly advise those that are looking for a decent hotel, stay elsewhere.

This place is a dump.

  AMERICAS BEST VALUE INN - NORFOLK AIRPORT AREA

5725 Northampton Blvd

Virginia Beach, VA 23455

The Seasons Are Changing And So Am I

As I get older, I have come to realize even more, that my body does not like cold weather.
My body works better and I feel better when the temperatures are higher.
It is so much easier for me to go for my walks in the Summer. I just throw on a pair of shorts, grab my Ipod and something to drink, flip on my shades and out I go...feeling full of life and having some pep in my step.
It has started to get colder here. By colder I mean that I am out walking and it is 40-45 degrees out in the morning. So yes, it is colder than what is has been, but no where near what it will be and that thought alone sends shivers up and down my spine.
Yesterday morning it took me 25 minutes to figure out the right combination of layered clothing that would keep me warm outside along with allowing my thighs to pass by each other without having the sound of cloth rubbing or the feeling of wearing a cumbersome and loaded diaper.
I have also realized that the human body standing upright is not very aerodynamic. I have lost a bunch of weight but I feel like a full sail on a schooner as I try to walk against the 15-20 mph Northerly winds that are blowing directly at me, off of the bay.
I know that it will get worse as I get older and also as we get deeper into the cold weather season.
How I long for my youth again or how about a hut on a tropical island and a chimp bringing me a umbrella drink.
Hey Jimmy Buffet....if you happen to stumble upon this blog entry...give me a call. I know that you have the answer to my problems.

Gimme Coffee And No One Gets Hurt!!!

I am not much of a coffee drinker during the Summer months. Coffee and hot humid weather aren't a good mix for me. I usually get a queasy stomach, so I tend to stay away from the ole coffee during the Summer months.
But once it starts cooling down a bit, that's the time I start getting my java mojo on.
On the other end of the spectrum, Veronica tends to drink coffee year round.
We each have our own coffee preferences.
Veronica likes her coffee strong and I am a real wimp...I like my light and sweet.
I started drinking Chicory coffee. Kind of like what they drink in N'Orleans. I am sure that the instant Chicory coffee that I drink is much milder that the "real" stuff, but for me it does just fine.
When I feel real adventurous, I will use my French press and put some real ground chicory coffee beans in it and let it steep for a while. I don't get adventurous too often though.
Usually when we make a pot of coffee, we usually have some left over and throw it down the sink.
I mentioned to Veronica the other day, that I was thinking about getting one of those single shot coffee makers.
I had never really looked into these types of machines, so I had to do some research to figure how reliable they might be and how they work.
After doing my research and talking it over with Veronica, we decided to get a Cuisinart single cup brewing system.
We ordered it online through Amazon.
It works the same as any of the Keurig or Breville systems, just a different body style.
Not only do the sell over 200 types of coffees,teas and iced teas/coffees and hot cocoa for this system but it also came with something that they call a "My K cup". This "My K cup" is basically a cup that you load whatever ground coffee that you like to use and the cup fits right into the machine, just like the regular K cups that you purchase do.
So you can either use your own ground coffee or use the K cups that you can buy.
The "my K cup" stores in the side of the machine.
This machine holds 80 ozs of water and will make 5 different sizes of coffee that you want...you can use between 4, 8, 10, 12 and 20 oz cups. All you have to do is turn the unit on, decide what kind of coffee you want and pick that K cup, open the top front loading area, put in the K cup, close the top of the loading area, click on the size/amount of coffee that you want and then click brew.
It also has a hot water feature for when you might want to just make instant coffee or steep a teabag.
The machine is rather quiet and so far has done a great job.
I just got done making a cup of coffee and it worked really well along with producing a good cup of coffee.
We went to Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday and bought a bunch of different styles of K cups.
Now we won't be wasting coffee nor will I have to stand around and wait for the microwave to heat up my massive mug of water...usually takes 4 1/2 minutes on a high setting. My coffee mug holds about 32 ozs.
Plus we can each have own style of coffee to drink without one of us having to drink the other ones style from the communal coffee pot.
Below are photos of our new brewing system. We also got a nice K cup holder to hold the individual K cups. I think this holder can handle 32 K cups.

Here is the little beauty along with our new K cup holder to the left of it.