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Wrong aroma in the motel can ruin a beautiful vacation

By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published July 22, 2006

We had succumbed to the beauty of a Montana trout stream, the joys of a 9:30 p.m. sunset and the aroma of a grilled steak wafting from a roadside diner, so we didn't arrive at our motel until close to midnight.

We lugged our 800-pound suitcases up two flights of stairs - okay, more like 30 pounds, but by the end of that long day in June, they felt like 800 pounds - staggered into the darkness of the room and clicked on the lights, ready to flop face-first onto the first bed we could get to.

Not so fast. The room looked as though a thrash metal band had thrashed it. Unmade beds, leftover room service dishes, wet towels, large, sandy footprints on the carpet.

My traveling companion was on the telephone in a minute, politely describing the scene and asking for another room (one doesn't "demand" a room at midnight in a popular vacation spot). Sure enough, the motel was hosting a huge convention and was packed to the rafters.

But, wait - there was an "emergency" room available. The desk clerk said he'd meet us in front of its door.

I was heartened to see the location of the new room - near the end of a hall and overlooking a quiet, grassy courtyard - and the large nonsmoking symbol by the door.

But when we opened the door, we could tell the previous occupants had cheated. The room was saturated with the odor of cigarettes. My eyes began to water, and my nose started to close. We flung the window open (it was 40 degrees outside, typical early summer in Montana) and turned on the air conditioner. I popped an allergy pill and made it through the night.

The next day, I bought candles, linen-scented room spray and two boxes of Downey dryer sheets and did everything I could to fumigate the room. The motel changed out the linens and wiped down the hard surfaces. I spread the dryer sheets between the mattress and bed sheets, stuffed them into air conditioning vents and put them all over the room. I sprayed the counter surfaces and burned six or seven candles.

But the smoke permeated the very paint on the walls and was not going to go away.

We survived, of course. Unlike secondhand smoke, cigarette odor hasn't proved to be fatal. So far, anyway.

Even so, I was delighted to see that in September, the huge Marriott International Inc. chain is banning smoking in all its 2,300-plus hotels and other lodgings. Not just the more than 400,000 sleeping rooms; smokes are also banned in the restaurants, meeting rooms, halls, lobbies, even employee work areas and places within 25 feet of any entry door.

And it means business, too. If the maid smells the telltale stink of smoke in your room, it could mean a $200 to $300 fine, plus any revenue the hotel loses while it cleans up after you, according to Bob Harbaum from Marriott's media relations office in Bethesda, Md.

So far, Marriott patrons have been 4-to-1 in favor of the ban, Harbaum said. Naturally, it's the smokers who are the a-ginners.

In truth, the smoking ban isn't just to benefit us nonsmokers. It's great for the smokers, too.

Perhaps if smoking becomes too inconvenient, they'll quit.

There's a lot more in Daytona than the beach and NASCAR.

There's the Seaside Music Theatre in the News-Journal Center on Beach Street, where former Stage West Community Playhouse (John Smith in Run for Your Wife) and Richey Suncoast Theatre (Charlie Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown) actor Justin Sargent is co-starring in the musical A Year with Frog and Toad. He plays the happy-go-lucky Frog.

Sargent got his start in theater quite by happenstance when he went to an audition for the musical Oliver! with his parents, Lyn and Jim Sargent, back in 1999. On a whim, Justin decided to try out; he won the plum role of the Artful Dodger and was hooked on showbiz for life.

Since then, he's been in dozens of musicals and plays all over Central Florida. Two years ago, he was one of only 12 students (out of 200-plus auditioners) to be chosen for the prestigious musical theater program at the University of South Florida for students headed for a life on the stage or in front of the cameras.

A Year with Frog and Toad is based on Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad books, which won a Caldecott Honor award. One was named a Newbery Honor book. The musical version played at Broadway's Cort Theatre in 2003 and received Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.

It opened on May 27 at the Daytona theater and will play until Aug. 19. The show starts at 10 a.m. and is about an hour long. Tickets are $10 for age 17 and younger, $12 for adults. For tickets, go to www.seasidemusictheater.org and click on "season" or call (386) 252-6200.

It was good to see good words for another Richey Suncoast alum, Derek Baxter, who stepped into the lead role of Nathan Leopold in the murder story Thrill Me at Suncoast Resort in St. Petersburg, when the original lead left after just one performance. (See the Times review on July 18).

Baxter played many roles at the now defunct Angel "garden cafe" Theatre and Angel Cabaret Theatre in his younger years and did a lot of work at Richey Suncoast, most recently as a charming, whimsical Linus in Charlie Brown.

[Last modified July 21, 2006, 22:12:39]