[OhBuoy]

We are still itching, eve without evidence of bites. My clutch cable decided to go on me (did not know it was the cable until it snapped completely when I took the car off the trailer at home), so we decided that since we were not going to get any rest and did not have a place to stay that night, we would head home. There is really more to the story than the bed bugs as well. When we first arrived, they tried putting us in a "ionized" smoking room. My older son could not even step in the room the smell was so bad. When my wife made an issue of it, they indicated that I agreed to it. Given the choice of smoking or not, I would have stayed home or been at another hotel. There is no way that I would have knowingly agreed to a smoking room, and the reasons go much deeper than personal preferences. Those of you that saw me walking with my younger son on Thursday night would completely understand. We were already unloaded, but were prepared to pack up and hopefully find something when they offered us another room. They actually had nerve to anotate our record that they felt that we were not truthful about the non smoking issue. The other room smelled much better, but when we went to bed that night, you could smell the smoke on the linens. On thursday night, our youngest son was walking on the floor in his bare feet. His feet were black after about 1/2 hour. He had been in the car all morning and had a bath the night before. Also, Maggie found mold growing on the bottom of the basket that the wash clothes were in while she was organizing things for our stay. With the whole bug incident, we found one on one of Tommy's cloth diapers that he carries with him, as well as a pillow. When we would kill them, they would leave a fresh blood mark. We noticed many small greyish black marks all over the sheet that was on the mattress, much like the color that you see on your work tee shirt after you cut yourself on an aluminum panel or drive a drill through your finger in the garage. You know, old blood that has been washed. These obviously were old marks, and I would be interested in the odds that the same sheet made it back into our room.

OCC, you did another wonderful job this year with the show. That said, even after not comming for two years and feeling left out, this experience, along with the break ins and some other minor issues has me not jumping to book a hotel for next year. Usually, I am among the first to book if I know I will be able to make it. This was our first pleasure trip in 2 years, even though we have traveled as at least a part of the family to Cincinnati many times in the past year. This was a far from pleasurable experience, no fault in any way to the OCC.

A suggestion if I might is to find a hotel or two that want our business. If none do, then there is something to be said there. We can fill at least one hotel (not everyone at the hotels was with LCS). Lets have them be on top of reservations and want our business. It is obvious some of the hotels do not know what this brings, others do not want us. The Hampton has always been accomodating when we stay there.