Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

We arrived home from our road trip earlier this evening, having driven 770 miles over the past week. As road trips go, this wasn’t a grueling pace. Regardless, I learned some things about road trips that will be useful in the future.

When I was a teenager and my family took a road trip, I always lobbied to stay in a motel with a swimming pool. Whenever possible, my mother obliged; and I would make a beeline for the water as soon as we checked in. It made me more agreeable for whatever the rest of the evening held in store. Only one of the three hotels we stayed at had a swimming pool; Earl and I did use it, but we certainly didn’t miss it when we didn’t have it.

We DID miss our Internet, which just goes to show how hard it is to leave home without it. Each hotel we stayed at was of a different vintage than, say, our home. The first was built in 1880; while it has been updated to include air conditioning and indoor plumbing, Internet access was spotty at best. I grumbled, but didn’t realize that things would go downhill from there.

The second hotel was built at the end of the last century, but it was designed to replicate a Swiss chalet. There was no Internet access, except for a small computer with a dial-up connection near the front desk. It was for guests to check their emails, but it wasn’t the sort of thing I could download files on and take them with me in the morning. The last hotel we stayed at didn’t even have that, and I had to resort to a local Starbucks for my online fix.

So my list of “must haves” for road travel these days includes: wireless Internet access in the room, preferably free, but I’ll ante up if necessary. I also want a quiet room, not one near the boiler or kitchen or front desk. I’d like an in-hotel restaurant too, although I may choose to eat elsewhere. But just knowing it’s there is comforting. And, finally, because Earl’s hand and a hotel clicker are one continuous limb, I’d like televisions to come with a jack for a headset. You’ll notice I didn’t mention a swimming pool at all.