Bates Motel...almost!

Early Friday morning, Jenny, Kayleigh, Jenny's friend Corina, and I left to head up to Rexburg, Idaho for Visit Day at BYU-Idaho. The trip up was uneventful. We stopped a few times along the way so Kayleigh could get out and run around. We took a few pictures at the Idaho Falls Temple then headed up to Rexburg. We drove around there for a few minutes then continued on to St. Anthony where we were staying that night at the Guest House at Henry's Fork. Sounds quaint, huh? This is where it all got interesting. First of all, if you don't know about St. Anthony, it's a small farming town of about 3,000 people just north of Rexburg on the way to West Yellowstone. There's basically nothing there...and I mean nothing. As we were driving into town looking at all of the dumpy stores and houses, I tried to be positive..."Maybe the motel will be this nice surprise...like a really cute Bed and Breakfast type." Uh, no. It was just as dumpy as everything around it. But, what do you do? We only had about an hour and a half to get back to Rexburg for Visit Day, which wasn't going to end until 5:30pm. I guess you could say the room wasn't really dirty, though we all decided that there was no way we were showering in that shower! The advertised "kitchenette" was a microwave cart with a microwave and a tiny refrigerator. My sheet had what I've decided was blood splatter residue (because it makes a better story), though Jenny was positive enough to suggest maybe someone spilled their coffee on it. The best part was that the deadbolt on our door didn't work. We shut the door and flipped over the little latch thing. You know, kind of like a safety chain, but it's a solid bar thing with a ball on it? We were beat and had all fallen asleep around 8:00pm. At about 10:00, someone tried to open our door! The door actually opened and caught on that safety bar. Jenny and I semi-freaked out. Corina and Kayleigh slept through it. After that, for the next hour or so, we heard doors slamming all around us. We put a chair in front of the door, not that it would do any good, but there wasn't much else we could do. I suppose we could have asked for another room, but would it have been any better? I doubt it. The next morning, we realized that we really had to slam the door to get it to stay closed. Jenny and I mulled it over and decided that the wind did NOT blow the door open in the night. Someone was seriously rattling the door trying to get in. It was much more creepy talking about it after the fact than it was at the time it was happening.

"Hello? My name is Kayleigh Mattison Hales."

Other than that, the trip went well. Kayleigh was so very good the entire time, especially considering she didn't get a nap at all that day. The student ambassadors at BYU who were in charge of Visit Day went out of their way to entertain her and to make sure Jenny and Corina enjoyed their time there. Jenny's still excited about going there, so I guess it was all worth it.