22 February 02025 (Day 4): Postcard from Laughlin, NV

 In retrospect, the sign on the door of the motel where I was staying last night designating the building as an official public nuisance, as certified by the Albuquerque Police Department, should have been a bigger red flag than it was.

Of course, that designation is only earned for an unnecessarily large number of calls to public safety officials, and what I saw didn't rise to that level.

In the room where I was staying last night, the following novel features were not in the brochure:

  • The overhead light fixture was ripped from the ceiling and placed on the coat rack.
  • The smoke detector, hair dryer, and iron had vanished.  One of those had the potential to matter.
  • The only shower supply present was a tube of moisturizer.  There were also no Kleenices*.

Minor irritants, each, and if I'd discovered them all on my arrival, it might have been possible to do something.  By the time I made the last discovery, I was too exhausted to care very much--plus the front desk was only occasionally staffed, and I didn't like my chances for finding someone who could do anything.  Moving rooms seemed like too much effort.

While I was trying to check out this morning, I saw a sign on another room's door advising folks not to enter, for it was being "monitored and surveillanced".  Another case of "the fewer questions asked, the better".

Fortunately, it was a one-night stay, and I've moved on in space and time.  But tonight's lodging got a very through inspection when I got here.

Updates:

  • The license plate game is up to 38 US states.  I also found my first Mexican state today.  Mexican license plates can be tough to decode: while all of the ones I've seen have the same basic character pattern XXX-XXX-X with the hyphens, any reasonable license plate frame is likely to cover the geographic identifier.  Today's find was from Sonora as we were both leaving a parking lot and moving much more slowly than standard highway speeds.
  • In the reverse license plate game, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona have all checked that box.  I'm only a few feet into Nevada, so that one will have to wait.

Onward to Las Vegas tomorrow, to stay put for a few days.

M-->

*--Abusing a trademark with a nonstandard plural is kind of fun.

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