Greetings from room 316 of the Braden/Tampa Hampton Inn.

Ya know, there’s a series of commercials for the Hampton Inn chain that’s getting a lot of airplay lately — the “Bedheads” campaign (cast with an annoying collection of perky 20-somethings). They’re playing up how comfortable the bedding is at the Hampton Inn; how great the feather pillows and down comforters are. Well, I’m here to tell you: they are great. The pillows, that is. I don’t really care about the comforter (but it is quite nice — much nicer than your standard skanky polyester motel bedspread), but I do like me some Hampton Inn pillows. Every time I’m packing up at the end of a trip, I’m tempted to stick one in my suitcase. So in this case, go ahead and believe the Bedheads hype.

This particular hotel, however, apparently hasn’t gotten the Bedhead memo. Here we have the skanky polyester bedspread and weird synthetic blend pillows from the pre-Bedhead days. Sleepytime won’t be the glorious experience it normally is. Sigh…

Anyway, here’s the room…

And here’s the view…