Red River Inn Silt-Rifle

It’s clean, the staff are friendly, and I’m glad to have a roof over my head. The place isn’t fancy or modern, and the walls and ceilings are a bit thin, though the air conditioning has a fan that helps cover the noise. They seem to keep things modest so it stays affordable. If you need extra luxuries or breakfast, go somewhere else and pay a lot more. Hotel breakfasts are never that good anyway, and they’re a breeding ground for germs.

It was a long weekend. We paid for a cheap place and got what we paid for: ants in the room, a bad smell, and a bed that felt like it came from the 60s. I could feel the springs and ended up turning the mattress around myself. There was no coffee or free breakfast, and after our hikes the parking lot was full. I got lucky when someone pulled out as I was looking for a spot. I couldn’t sleep because it sounded like someone kept rattling my door handle all night. Our room was near the front desk, and from midnight to 5 a.m. we could hear the staff talking and joking.

Clean, convenient, and easy to get on and off the highway, with reasonable rates. The front desk guy, Bharat, was incredibly generous. After the Palisade peach experience, he let us keep 25 pounds of peaches in his fridge overnight. He also gave us a tea kettle since we’re coffee snobs and needed to heat water for our Aeropress. Best of all, the cleaning products didn’t have that nasty smell that makes it hard to sleep.

The location worked well for the places we planned to visit, but the property was run down and our room was dirty. Our reservation was for three, yet there were only two sets of towels. When I asked for more, I was told I had to return the dirty ones first. I was shocked and said I had no intention of stealing the threadbare towels with holes in them. I just wanted enough for all three of us to shower. The alarm clock and phone on the table between the beds were visibly dirty and sticky, and the phone cord was broken. The lobby coffee tasted like pale brown water, and the hard beds had springs poking us all night.