I mentioned that the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory was going to be my final tourist activity of Louisville, but it ended up being so underwhelming that I decided to tack on one more activity before I left—the Big Four Bridge.
The Big Four Pedestrian Bridge spans across the Ohio River and connects Kentucky to Indiana. It stretches alongside the two vehicular bridges, one of which I took to get from Indiana to Kentucky.
After making it to the other side, I explored the Big Four Station a bit, which was a small park with a little manmade waterfall and some sculptures. I also walked to a very small local frozen yogurt shop and got myself some dessert—a swirl of candied apple and salted caramel, topped with some gummy bears and whipped cream.
After enjoying my treat, I walked back on the bridge to the Kentucky side.
After wrapping up my week in Louisville, I drove to Knoxville, Tennessee.
When selecting my hotel in each city, I usually look at things like location, price, guest ratings, and year of construction. I like to find a good balance of a low rate at a new hotel not too far away from the main tourist attractions that also doesn’t have too many complaints by former guests.
As you can see, one of the things I don’t consider is the type of room and what’s inside it. This is because there is a baseline of what I expect from a hotel room—a parking lot for my truck, clean sheets and towels, disposable bath amenities like shampoo and conditioner, and a desk where I can set up my computer workstation. I have never seen a hotel where I wasn’t able to have this, so I never really considered it as something I had to keep in mind.
Until now.
This is my hotel room at the Aloft Knoxville West. It has very hip decor that may appeal to a zoomer, but you may notice it is missing one very critical piece of furniture: a desk.
I went back down to the check-in desk and informed the customer service representative that I am currently living out of hotel rooms and need to set up a full computer workstation in my room. I asked if they had any foldable tables I could bring into my room, or any other suggestions for my situation. Her response was that they had no tables or desks they could let me borrow, but I could use the tables in the lobby.
I did a double-take, wondering if she was actually so stupid as to imply I should set up a computer tower, two monitors, a keyboard and mouse, a webcam, dual speakers with a subwoofer, and a microphone in a public area. I was considering making a comment, but decided against it, and went back to my room to strategize.
That little coffee table ended up being larger than I expected, and if I set my monitors up so a third of the stand is hanging off the edge of the table, I can erect my monitors side-by-side. I also set up my keyboard and mouse on the coffee table, but it’s not very stable, so every time I type, the table shakes and it gave me motion sickness looking at my monitors. I removed the coffee maker from the little compartment that houses the refrigerator, removed the refrigerator, and moved the compartment over to the seating area to use for my keyboard and mouse.
This is obviously extremely uncomfortable, but the only alternative seemed to be to use the bathroom countertop (which in that case, I would have no chair). I considered switching hotels, but because it would be a short-notice booking, I wasn’t able to find many good rates.
I learned my lesson, though—I definitely want to stick with my regular Fairfield Inns, SpringHill Suites, Courtyards, and Residence Inns from now on, with Elements being a decent alternative if the price is right. After this experience, I am definitely going to be avoiding brands like Aloft and Moxy that try to make my stay more fun and social. I’ve found that hotels with just the core essentials with no extra bells and whistles are the best ones.