Destination: U.S.A. : America All the Way : Motel to Motel, on a Budget

America is a big, fat country, and when driving across it, there’s no finer scenery than a motel marquee at sunset after a long day on the road. For two weeks, I followed a silver strip of asphalt across the country, sleeping at motels with paper bathmats and eating at the sorts of restaurants where Jello figures prominently on the dessert menu.

The challenge each night of this low-budget crossing: to find a motel room priced at no more than $40. For the most part, I stayed at major chain motels, though there were a few nights I bunked in homespun quarters with single digits on the door.

These were not the kinds of places one usually sees chronicled in newspaper travel sections, where the talk is of cozy, antique-filled B&Bs; with $150-a-night rooms, or luxury hotels with kowtowing service, chandeliered lobbies and rates that only people with bank accounts the size of Bill Gates’ can afford.

But on my recent drive from California to Baltimore, I wanted (and needed) places where regular folks stay--places that were inexpensive, yet clean and comfortable. That’s how I ended up searching the horizon for low-budget motels every evening about dinner time.

Econo Lodge, Super 8, Motel 6, Travelodge--all were mile markers on my journey from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Denver and eastward through the flatlands to Baltimore. I drank from plastic cups, dozed to the sound of leaky toilets and dried myself with towels the size of postage stamps. But there were a few surprises too: complimentary newspapers and continental breakfasts, free local phone calls, fax and copying services, in-room microwaves and nonsmoking rooms. One night, though, I sure did wish for earplugs.

Even so, such accouterments! Green plastic fly swatters at a Best Western room in Abilene, Kan., a silver disco ball at a Comfort Inn lounge in Triadelphia, W.Va., and a handprinted Do Not Disturb sign at the Route 66 Motel in Atlanta, Ill. And such art! Native American maidens, floral arrangements, lush countrysides--all peering at me from the bland but friendly walls of my highway homes.

In all, I drove 4,411 miles in a 1986 Honda Accord loaded with the contents of my life: clothes, office files, a computer and a Remington bronze of the Scalper. I had lived in Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe for three years and was now moving to Baltimore on a fall road trip slung across America’s belly, Interstate 70.

With the exception of a $65 room at a Days Inn in Boulder, Colo., I kept within my budget. My average room rate with tax: $40.93. For one thing, I learned that you can talk yourself into a discount at almost any motel. A group membership--the Automobile Assn. of America, the American Assn. of Retired Persons, the military, a corporate affiliation are a few examples--is usually good for at least a 10% discount. Also, rest areas, gas stations and truck stops often stock booklets with coupon discounts for food and lodging in their regions.

I found that this is a fine time to be checking out the nation’s supply of economy lodging--the motels where you usually park in front of your room. It’s the fastest-growing segment of the industry, which recently redefined “economy” to mean a room rate cap of $46 and no significant public spaces such as conference or banquet rooms.

Figures from Tennessee-based Smith Travel Research, which tracks occupancy rates for the U.S. lodging industry, show that chain motels with an average room rate of $45 posted a healthy 64.3% occupancy level in 1994, with occupancy rates increasing steadily since 1990.

Each month, the market research firm D.K. Shifflet & Associates surveys 30,000 U.S. households about their travel habits. Figures for 1994 show that almost one-third of travelers stayed in economy lodging and, like me, most of them--77%--got there in their personal vehicles. According to Shifflet, there’s been a 20% increase since 1990 in the volume of travelers who drive their own wheels to motels.

The romance of the road must be catching.

Almost everyone gets nostalgic about their family road vacations during summer, and I’m no exception. My first long highway journey was in 1966, when my family drove our ’61 Peugeot from Ohio to California, dining in Howard Johnson’s restaurants along the way. I was 10 years old and survived the trip by drawing an imaginary line down the middle of the back seat and forbidding my 4-year-old sister Barbie to cross. On my most recent trip, I saw a Howard Johnson’s (the hotel segment of the corporation has dropped the ‘s in the name but the restaurant still uses it) in Pennsylvania that reminded me of earlier journeys . . . or ice cream sundaes, to be more exact.

My dad says he paid about $20 a night for rooms back then.

Now, lifetimes later, I seem mostly to fit the profile of the economy-motel guest: Sixty-five percent are between the ages of 18 and 49, and 40% earn annual salaries between $25,000 and $49,000. Forty-one percent are college graduates and 60% are male. Fifty-seven percent say they are leisure travelers.

Certainly, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the economy sector is reaping the benefits of penny-pinching vacationers and corporate travelers who are trying to do things on the cheap.

“In the ‘80s, everything was me, me, me, and people wanted to stay in upscale lodging for status’ sake. Then the recession hit and our habits changed,” said Doug Shifflet, president of the Virginia-based research firm. “The entire economy sector has experienced more growth than other parts of the industry. Customers have become quite value-conscious, and some of the newer economy product is almost as nice as in the mid-range level.”

It was Motel 6 that popularized the small, economy chain motel when a couple of Santa Barbara real estate developers opened their first $6-a-room motel in Santa Barbara in 1962. The interstate highway system was spreading like crazy at the time, and California was involved in one of the biggest real estate booms in history--a perfect synergy for the birth of the drive-up chain motel.

Now, despite the homey, All-American sounding commercials narrated by Tom Bodett (“We’ll leave the light on for ya”), Motel 6 is owned by a French services and lodging group and operates 770 motels in the continental United States. In 1993, 33 million guests stayed at a Motel 6. Since 1990, the chain has almost doubled its number of locations.

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During a typical day’s drive, my mind stretched into the far reaches to ponder the great mysteries of life: Where are the mates to all the single shoes discarded along America’s highways? Why is blue-colored window washer fluid clear when it hits the windshield? After the rigors of such a day, I’d be pretty tired come sunset, and that’s when my search would begin for an off-ramp with clean sheets and cheap eats.

I chose my spots based on curb appeal, proximity to a restaurant as most economy motels do not have on-site dining, the room rate and my level of fatigue.

However, it is possible to plan ahead: Most chains have lodging directories that you can take with you and all of them have toll-free reservations systems.

At the Comfort Inn all-you-can-eat buffet in Triadelphia, motorists David and Sharon Dillman told me they usually pack Holiday Inn and Comfort Inn guides. Their criteria, according to David: “It’s got to look clean, doesn’t smell and is quiet. Plus we like an on-site restaurant and friendly people. And my wife likes to open a window.”

The Dillmans, who own a hardware store in Grant Park, Ill., had seen a Comfort Inn TV ad in New Jersey the night before offering a 30% discount with advance reservations for people age 50 and over. The clerk at the reservations desk in Triadelphia wouldn’t give him the 30% rate, so Dillman walked 20 feet away to the lobby pay phone, called in his reservation and walked back to the desk to collect his room key at the reduced price.

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Economy motel rooms seem to have a familiar sameness: a double bed with a floral bedspread, a table and chair, a dresser with TV, small bathrooms with cruelly lighted mirrors and a drive-up parking spot. Few have clock radios, so it’s a good idea to pack an alarm clock. Although not many provide toiletries, most will loan out hair dryers, irons and the like from the desk.

One of my favorite motels was the Super 8 in Wells, Nev., off Interstate 80. Welcome mats were outside each room, and my large quarters had a king-size bed, a couch with coffee table, a table and chairs, a small refrigerator and microwave and cable TV. The shower dripped, but it was a good deal for $39.40, including tax.

It has been 20 years since Super 8 offered single rooms for $8. Nationwide, its 1,204 properties have an average room rate of $38. All the properties are franchised, but they’re subject to a tough quarterly checkup by corporate inspectors who assess the motels’ exterior, parking lot and the cleanliness and quality of the rooms.

“We have stuck with the basics--impeccable cleanliness and friendly manners,” said Robert Weller, president of Super 8. “It may sound corny, but our watch phrase is ‘clean and friendly.’ ”

Wells, a highway traveler’s stop in the middle of the vast Nevada desert, has a casino and a wonderful truck stop. That’s where I discovered the all-hickory tire knocker, priced at $3.99, that truckers can knock their tires with so that they can identify their tires’ own special ping . If the tire doesn’t sound right, something’s wrong.

I understand the importance of such sounds. Drive these kind of distances alone and car sounds become as familiar as the beating of your heart. I know every rattle and wheeze of my Honda, which proudly finished this ambitious journey at just over 130,000 miles. I carry a tool kit in the car, though on this cruise the most important contents were Windex and paper towels.

I get a kick out of a road trip--arranging a still-life from salt and pepper shakers on a green Formica tabletop at a truck-stop restaurant; cash register promotions for “Tooth Pick Packs That Hang Anywhere” and billboards such as this one near Winnemucca, Nev.: “Winnemucca: One Traffic Jam Every Decade.”

Road travel also keeps one up-to-date on who’s sponsoring the litter removal programs on our nation’s highways--groups such as Cowboys for Christ in Warrenton.

It’s fun, too, to travel in places where California license plates still create something of a stir and where you pay after you pump.

To get the true measure of a place, though, it’s important to venture off the interstate. That’s where you’ll find wonderful old roads with such names as Lick Hollow and Pig’s Ear, both in Pennsylvania, and Secret Town, Calif. On U.S. 40 through Pennsylvania, I stopped at a couple of old road tollhouses to read the rates: “Every led or drove horse, mule or ass, 3 cents.” In Abilene, I loved the “Jenny 4 Homecoming” banner--black, painted letters on a white sheet--slung across a tidy lawn on Buckeye Street. A 1995 calendar from John’s 66 on Buckeye now hangs on my fridge in Baltimore. I also keep the sprig of sage on my dashboard that I picked in the Nevada desert, and on really hot days I can still pick up its raw scent.

I have a friend who talks about starting something called the Society for the Preservation of the Long Way Home, and if he ever organizes it, I hope to be a charter member.

One trucker I met, 56-year-old Bill Uselton, said: “The thing about the road is that it’s always changing. I just love the ride.” I feel that way, too, but it is reassuring to know that at the end of another day of driving, someone’s left the light on for me.

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Motor on In

Where to stay: Toll-free numbers for economy motel chains I used:

Best Western, telephone (800) 528-1234.

Comfort Inn, tel. (800) 221-2222.

Econo Lodge, tel. (800) 424-4777.

Super 8, tel. (800) 800-8000.

Travelodge, tel. (800) 578-7878.

A sampling of other economy motel chains:

Days Inn, tel. (800) 325-2525.

Red Roof Inn, tel. (800) 843-7663.

Holiday Inn, tel. (800) 465-4329.

Howard Johnson, tel. (800) 446-4656.

Quality Inn, tel. (800) 228-5151.

* Driving tips: Taking the bumps out of a highway trip. L2