Possum Philosophy: A salute to independent owners who remember the little extras make a difference.
BY ROBERT CAHILL
Columnist

&ldquo;Nashville Cats, play clean as country water, Nashville Cats, play wild as mountain dew
Nashville Cats, been playin&rsquo; since they&rsquo;s babies, Nashville Cats, get work before they&rsquo;re two.
Well, there&rsquo;s thirteen hundred and fifty two Guitar pickers in Nashville, And they can pick more notes than the number of ants On a Tennessee anthill
Yeah, there&rsquo;s thirteen hundred and fifty two Guitar pickers in Nashville, And any one that unpacks his guitar could play Twice as better than I will&rdquo; &mdash;The song Nashville Cats by The Lovin Spoonful.

DATELINE: Near the Airport/Opryland area in Nashville, Tenn., capitol of the Volunteer State as Tennessee is known, as well as home to the world renowned home of country music, the Grand Ole Opry and the theme park extraordinaire Dollywood founded by the reigning &ldquo;Queen of Country Music,&rdquo; Dolly Parton.

Over the years I have traveled a good bit to various conferences, meetings and training sessions through my employment, and a fair amount simply for pleasure. As I have grown older, I still very much enjoy the travel, I just don&rsquo;t enjoy the often long drives. Thankfully, Terry is a good driver particularly when it comes to navigation of strange cities. So we share the driving duties, which is good.
I have stayed in all types of accommodations as well, and paid from low to high room rates. As a young college student years ago, some buddies and I loaded up in a 1960 Studebaker Lark convertible with bad tires, a little pocket money and even less good sense. We drove all night down to Orlando, Fla. We meant to spend the first night on the beach though we almost spent it in the local jail when we accidentally strayed on to some private beach and set up camp there. The officer who hauled us in wanted desperately to charge us with vagrancy. Fortunately, we had all gotten paid from summer jobs and had a little traveling money. We ended up sleeping in the car for the night then found a room for the next couple of days. It was I think in the neighborhood of $25 per night. A lot of money to us back then, even after we split it, but we did have fun.
I have also been on the opposite end. I traveled to Chicago once, work-related. My buddy Gregg Harris had a few days off so he came along to help drive. We stayed in a hotel on the &ldquo;Miracle Mile,&rdquo; the stretch where all the huge businesses are headquartered. We were a couple of doors down from Oprah Winfrey&rsquo;s headquarters. It had twin towers on opposite street corners. There were 36 floors in each tower, plus an additional five floors underground, extending beneath the road. It had a full-sized shopping mall, bigger than the Bristol Mall about two floors under the road. Within its confines were nine different bars and, I believe, six restaurants from fast food to fine dining. The room we stayed in was $280 per night, more than most folks&rsquo; monthly mortgage payments at the time in Smyth County, I would guess.
Through my travel over the years there has been an increase in competition for the travel dollar. This has generally benefitted travelers. There had been a rise in accommodations and niceties, more free things such as free breakfast buffets or, in some places, free afternoon cocktails in the lounge. With the huge rise in the public&rsquo;s use of computers, laptops, notebooks, iPads, tablets and smart-phones, the demand for access to the Internet grew correspondingly. Upscale hotels and motels rushed to offer high-speed Internet access as a draw, most at no charge.
The rooms grew fancier even in the less expensive accommodations. It is a trend I found enjoyable as it meant most of us average folks got a little more bang for our (at least in my own case) very limited travel bucks.
Recently, I have noticed the trend beginning to change in some ways. The less expensive motels and hotels are still looking for small perks that will draw the public. Even in the older smaller facilities, such items as large screen TVs and free wireless Internet connection (Wi-Fi), are advertised prominently. 
However, just a year or so ago, I came along on one of Terry&rsquo;s business trips to this same conference here in Nashville. We stayed in a high-dollar facility, well known as an upscale chain. In some ways it was, in others, not so much. It had a fantastic lobby area, a great free breakfast buffet cooked to the individual guests&rsquo; tastes. On the other hand, the rooms were average at best, and they charged $10 a day for their Internet connection. I was amazed at this fee. Also, while there were two TVs in the suite, neither was the flat-panel type now all the rage in televisions.
On this trip to the conference, we were again booked into a more expensive facility. It is also a name brand and usually known for decent rooms with plenty of amenities. Boy was I surprised (and disappointed). This particular place looked great from the outside. It was large, topping out with I think 14 floors. Our room was on the 10th floor. The lobby was nice, not exactly plush but nice.
The trouble started with our arrival. The facility offered a discount to the Tennessee Health Association conference attendees so most of them booked rooms there. Terry&rsquo;s boss had reserved three rooms for us, her fellow nurse and himself. Most other groups had done the same. As they arrived, they were being checked in. Terry&rsquo;s friend and her boss rode together and were about an hour behind us as we got away a little earlier than Terry thought she would. 
The young woman helping us asked to swipe Terry&rsquo;s credit card, and Terry said our reservations had already been paid by the corporation. The lady explained it was for any incidentals we might want while there, and Terry said that was fine. However, just as we were completing our check-in, the manager, at the time a young man looking to be about 24 or 25 and acting rather impressed with his own importance, dropped what he was doing, which was checking in other guests to run over and insist he would need to see the card that was being used to pay the fee. 
We explained again about the corporate card and that it would be about an hour before the gentleman carrying it and the other member of our party arrived. The manager would have it no other way so we sat in the lobby for roughly an hour before Terry&rsquo;s co-workers arrived. Another group had the same situation, and they were not happy either.
Finally, we got checked in. We had a ton of luggage with us as we normally do, so I went to get one of the luggage carts to unload the car and transport everything to our room. They had one (yep one) and just as I started for it another guest grabbed it and headed out the door. I asked the manager where the others were, and he gave me a song and dance about it being so busy with people checking in (which it actually was) that they were probably all up on the floors. However, in the entire time I was there, I saw only two of these useful carts. When I told him I needed one, he reluctantly said he would have to send someone to gather them. However, he never did so. I was a tad PO&rsquo;ed at his entire job performance, but Terry asked me to not say anything.
The actual accommodations were not what one would expect either. They did have free Internet access, but it was far from the high-speed service listed in their information packets and not very reliable either. And that was it. They had coffee service but only enough for one cup of regular and one of decaf (Yuck.). The room floor looked less than clean and the bed was like sleeping on a plank. Even the TV looked at least 10 years old.
There was no refrigerator nor microwave oven, which have become fairly standard in even the less expensive motels and hotels. No free food or drinks of any kind, including none of the complimentary coffee found in most lobbies. And, the food prices were ridiculous. The least expensive menu items for their food service (omelets on the breakfast menu, hamburgers otherwise) ran in excess of $12. Yes, $12 for a hamburger!). And, as I said, that was the very least you could get by paying (plus an automatic tip of 20 percent added to every food purchase). It looks like the big name hotel chains have decided to charge their guests far more for far less in the way of amenities. 
To make matters even worse, Terry&rsquo;s co-worker was in a room next to ours. She had gone to bed and went quickly to sleep. Fortunately, she had not only locked her door but also slipped the chain latch as extra security as she was by herself. Sometime around 2:30 a.m., she heard a noise and her door came open as far as the chain would allow. Suddenly she heard a man ask, &ldquo;Is there anyone in there.&rdquo; She yelled yes and grabbed for the light; he slammed the door shut. She got up and peeked out but whomever it was had disappeared. Apparently the folks at the desk had a late arrival and issued him keys for the room she had already in, not even realizing it was already occupied. This bothered her quite a bit. 
However, all is not lost for the American traveler. On the way home, Terry and I decided to spend a night in the Gatlinburg area, which cut our drive home by about a third. She was in meetings all week and as neither of us could sleep in the bed in our room, we both were a little tired. Besides, we both like the Gatlinburg area. It is really beautiful this time of year. We found a motel online that looked decent and had reasonable prices. It was independently owned. When we arrived, we were totally surprised. The folks were very nice, the room was at least as large, if not larger, than the one in Nashville, and it was spotless, clean as a pin. It has a fantastic bed, really comfortable. It has a refrigerator and microwave, a nice flat-screen large TV. And, yes, it also has a free breakfast buffet. 
All this for roughly two-thirds the cost of the big chain hotel in Nashville. Long live the independent hotels that still believe in making the traveler feel welcome to woo their business, rather than trying in every possible manner to empty the pockets of their guests.

A freelance journalist, Robert &ldquo;Rocky&rdquo; Cahill writes regularly for the News &amp;amp; Messenger. His Possum Philosophy column appears in each Saturday edition.