No Country For Safe Motels?

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No Country For Safe Motels?

Posted Feb 18th 2008 12:00AM by Mo Rocca
Filed under: Mo's Videos, Mo Rocca, No Country For Old Men

I just saw No Country For Old Men. It is a powerful and sobering statement on the role of chance in our lives. The Coen Brothers are at their best. The acting is superb.

But dagnabbit, I have had it with movies that depict motels in the American Southwest as killing fields. My goodness, you'd think that no one ever gets a decent night's sleep in motels anywhere near the border, with the gunfire spraying from room to room, usually after the check-in guy has been dispatched.

It's too bad because I used to love family vacations, barreling into motel rooms (oftentimes with my stuffed bear Sam) in sleepy towns, after eight hours in the car. All that has been ruined by the terrifying image of motels in movies like No Country. (Hotels are generally spared the bloodletting.)

Or maybe Southwestern motels are slaughterhouses. Truth be told, I've stayed in plenty of motels, but never in that part of the country. There was only one way to find out...

I called back with one other question...

So what do you think? Is it safe?

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Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 3)

Previous 15 Comments | 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

16. ***Mo,

2am.

*KNOCK!* KNOCK!* KNOCK!* KNOCK!*

"HOUSEKEEPING!" (pause)
heh heh heh heh........"I mean Pizza!" heh heh heh***

"I mean Landshark..."

gabrielle at 12:36PM on Feb 18th 2008

17. Oh Mo

What fond memories you've dredged up! We spent our 1yr anniversary night sleeping in our clothes, on top of the towels, on top of the blankets...praying that the flimsy chain lock would keep us from inevitable death and dismemberment in the bowels of Delaware! Ah! Good times!

Get well soon!

DameBuddyBoo at 1:54PM on Feb 18th 2008

18.
Roccats!
that's not a minibar!
Mo, can I have a quarter for the magic fingers?
Finn, that's MY concealed weapon!
Yes Blayze and JQ you can jump on the beds here-not at home.
uh oh another dead hooker? Housekeeping!

Andrea at 2:57PM on Feb 18th 2008

19.
PS-I'll bring the dixie cups

http://www.wbns.com/?sec=consumer10&story=sites/10tv/content/pool/200802/968455863.html

Andrea at 2:57PM on Feb 18th 2008

20. Ha!!! Laugh away, Mr. & Roccats... I actually have some experience in this particular field... Mo was TIC, but I used to get prospective guests calling my B&B w/ very similar questions (albeit more in tune w/ the NE region of the country - like, "Do butterflies bite?" or "Is snow poisonous?"). I particularly enjoyed the woman who asked me if we had indoor plumbing. I pointed out that being in the outhouse *was* technically "indoors", & that we kept a fresh roll of toilet paper next to the kitchen door for each room. She actually believed me & said she still wanted to book a room for her & her mother.

Then there was the darling mother of a middle-aged man who wanted to book a room for her son & his girlfriend (@ his request). She called me 50 (no kidding) times, w/ 50 (also no kidding) questions. When the young(?!) man saw a bottle of wine on the counter to accompany the crostini I had made, apparently that freaked him out. He & his GF left in the middle of the night, & left the room closed up - I thought they had stayed out all night or taken a cab back from the casino (common here) - didn't know they were really gone until 1 p.m., when I was finally brave enough to knock on the door. When I processed (Mommy's) credit card, it turned out that he had called her in the dead of night, saying there was all kinds of drinking going on (we were asleep, & they were my only guests that night)... She instructed him to come home... So he did, & they tried a chargeback. Unfortunately, they were (obviously) not bright, & left a note in the room, stating that their plans had changed, so they were going home... In "CasinoSpeak", that means, "We went to the casino, gambled all our $$$ already, so there's no point in finishing out our stay."
On the flipside, we had oodles of folks I thoroughly enjoyed the company of.

Incidentally - Mr. Rocca & I appear to be on the same freaky health schedule... I am on Day 9 of my nasty cold/bug... I've taken DayQuil, NyQuil.. All the quills - feel like a porquipine, & nothing has touched this. This is my 1st time in front of a puter in 2 weeks (?!)... Catching up here is probably not an option @ this point.

Oh, &... JG... Thought of you this weekend... 1 of the by-products of my ailment(s) was that I had to miss the Eagle Festival in Essex - as we discussed, they are indeed nesting right now, having mated over the last few weeks. Faith Middleton did a live (radio) broadcast from the CT River Museum on Saturday. I could never have w/stood the cold, though, w/ all my toxic boogers rampaging as they are.

Yum(?!)
Sherry

S.L. at 3:43PM on Feb 18th 2008

21. 19.
PS-I'll bring the dixie cups
xx

hey, no backup singers! they must be in their seventies by now anyway. Besides it might disturb that nice Mr. Barrow next door along with his lady companion.

Clif Kuplen at 3:45PM on Feb 18th 2008

22. Aw Mo

Just reading some of the reviews of the Ranch
On Priceline.

“…and he never stopped scratching at the door…”

“…most of the guests spend time at Lake Amistad—on the bottom.”

“Great! Free T-shirt with every room. Says ‘Texas D.O.C.’”

“…and the tattoos on the sheets were priceless.”

Anyway, everything should be in order.

Remember Roccats, we meet Mr. Norris on 277 and convoy
In from the North.
Stay on the odd channels, start in the basement and switch every time.

Sherry: You are assigned "Eagle 1"

JG

John Giza at 4:01PM on Feb 18th 2008

23. Mo,

sorry you're sick!

"Nina and I had a great stay there! The minibar was a little anemic. The shower curtain had odd messages scratched in them-but otherwise we stayed in and watched "Murder,She Belched" on the tube!"

The Zagats at 4:31PM on Feb 18th 2008

24. Doug:

A little sense of urgency.

This is no country for lunch.

Will is already on the roof.

JG

John Giza at 5:08PM on Feb 18th 2008

25. Okay...

"Please" Doug,

get the background checks on the maid service.

John Giza at 5:11PM on Feb 18th 2008

26. oh blast AOL!

ah, clem at 6:10PM on Feb 18th 2008

27. I wouldn't be surprised if you did see coyotes in Del Rio - aren't they all the way up in Central Park these days? Stay away from bushes and you won't have to worry about the rattlers.

This past November I stayed a night at a Motel 6 in the Rio Grande Valley and a month later the credit card I used was compromised. Hmmm.... Use cash as much as possible. You can keep it tucked inside your boot - good to wear in case wading in the bushes is inevitable.

mo-NEEK-a at 6:19PM on Feb 18th 2008

28. Del Rioville
Nibblin’ on Spongebob
A pickle-less bathtub
All of the Roccats covered in sweat
Close to the border
We fear the marauder
A night in the Southwest we’ll never forget.

Spending one night here in Del Rioville
And Lake Amistad is just a short walk
Mike says “we’re cool,” but no swimming pool
No amenities: “Our guests are honored in chalk”

I do know the reason
They fish them in season
It is the easiest way to dispose
But shoes made of concrete
don’t suit my Ped-Egg feet
And how would I look in water stained clothes?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MUTf5qvS0Lo

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xz7vliYMgKo&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=e38pHUgROPs

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zqQTODR3kR8

JG

John Giza at 7:06PM on Feb 18th 2008

29. Dear Mo,

How I wish I could be a fly on the No-Pest-Strip
hanging over the reception desk,
and hear what Mike is telling the night shift clerk about "Mo".

BTW, I have no fears or concerns for tonight-I sleep in an iron lung! You Roccats simply wheel me in front of the door. You'll get used to the mirror that reflects my smiling face.
Ande' and I have the second shift-we'll take turns reading A.K. quitely to each other. Forgive the east coast accent....
and FINN don't use the negative pressure cycle to vaccuum up your crumbs this time! I felt like a snow globe!

ah,Clem who travels with Lysol at 7:07PM on Feb 18th 2008

30.
We stayed in a Motel that had been the site of some of Ted Bundy's ...work.

I think that stuffed bear Sam knew more than he was letting on-bears are like that

Andrea at 8:51PM on Feb 18th 2008

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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.