While on our
Titus Canyon,
Death Valley and
Mojave Desert trip last year, MOH and I managed to spend two nonconsecutive nights in one of my favorite resting spots: Baker, CA. (NOT!) We stayed in two different motels, the second night in a lovely place that was adorned by many of those "Signed, The Management" motel signs. The first one is a fairly standard — though perhaps overdone — version of the "Please don't back in, Aaaah" variety.
The "Please Do Not Leave Car Unattended While Pumping Gas" sign in the gas station attached to the motel, an also common sign, seems a little larger than usual.
Inside our motel room, we found this colorful and carefully taped agglomeration of signs. Ignore the brownish yellow one in the upper center — it's merely a hand-drawn fire exit map of sorts. You can also ignore the white Check Out Time sign: an average sign, with an average check-out time.
An unregistered-pet-fine sign — we saw a similar, though less colorful and more official-looking sign, at the motel we stayed in the first of our two nights. Unregistered pets in rooms are a notorious problem in Baker, one that apparently needs to be addressed in more than one language and with at least one exclamation point!
This sign seems a little unusual, not only for it's bright cheery green color and the quantity of items that need to be addressed, but also for some of the prices. A $50 blanket? Well, maybe. And maybe that's a good price for a small microwave. Probably one gets tired of running into either Vegas or Barstow to replace all these highly desirable items, thus the sign.
But what about this one: "SNAKE SPOTTED." Spotted? Yikes? When was the snake spotted? Immediately before the sign was put up some months or years back? Has it been spotted since? Why are there chairs out the back door for non-sign-reading
vagrants guests if there is a (one?) snake running loose? After seeing this sign, we immediately had to open the back door and try to spot the snake! I mean, for whatever reason does a person go to the desert, if not to see a snake?
No snake out the back door, but we did spy this long-tailed lizard.
While on our Titus Canyon, Death Valley and Mojave Desert trip last year, MOH and I managed to spend two nonconsecutive nights in one of my favorite resting spots: Baker, CA. (NOT!) We stayed in two different motels, the second night in a lovely place that was adorned by many of those "Signed, The Management" motel signs. The first one is a fairly standard — though perhaps overdone — version of the "Please don't back in, Aaaah" variety.
The "Please Do Not Leave Car Unattended While Pumping Gas" sign in the gas station attached to the motel, an also common sign, seems a little larger than usual.
Inside our motel room, we found this colorful and carefully taped agglomeration of signs. Ignore the brownish yellow one in the upper center — it's merely a hand-drawn fire exit map of sorts. You can also ignore the white Check Out Time sign: an average sign, with an average check-out time.
An unregistered-pet-fine sign — we saw a similar, though less colorful and more official-looking sign, at the motel we stayed in the first of our two nights. Unregistered pets in rooms are a notorious problem in Baker, one that apparently needs to be addressed in more than one language and with at least one exclamation point!
This sign seems a little unusual, not only for it's bright cheery green color and the quantity of items that need to be addressed, but also for some of the prices. A $50 blanket? Well, maybe. And maybe that's a good price for a small microwave. Probably one gets tired of running into either Vegas or Barstow to replace all these highly desirable items, thus the sign.
But what about this one: "SNAKE SPOTTED." Spotted? Yikes? When was the snake spotted? Immediately before the sign was put up some months or years back? Has it been spotted since? Why are there chairs out the back door for non-sign-reading 
No snake out the back door, but we did spy this long-tailed lizard.
7 comments:
Haha Those are some excellent signs!
Guess I was not overly impressed with Baker, although I didn't spend the night. How could you not immediately open the door to look for said signed snake. Too funny.
I wonder if it's OK to leave the back door open if the snake is striped?
--Howard
apparently you could take as many towels as you like.
Possibly the snake was already inside, perhaps, although we never saw it.
GeoJoe, still regretting not taking any (free) towels, although I don't think they were anything special.
Have you stayed at Tecopa Hot Springs?
GeezerD - I don't think so.
Post a Comment