Sleeping with the Green Giant
Written: Sep 11 '03 (Updated Sep 13 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: They have a recliner chair. Breakfast right next door. Right off the highway.
Cons: Some of the decor is, well, hideous.
The Bottom Line: Sleepy little town with a homey motel, affordable, accommodating...what else do you need if you're just looking to get some shut-eye?
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| treeseed's Full Review: Super 8 Motel Blue Earth |
Jaszi29 and I just got back from a Labor Day weekend in the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota that stretched into a nine day vacation due to a sinister catalytic converter. On the way home to Wisconsin, in order to cut our drive from Rapid City, SD in two, we decided to stay at the Super 8 in Blue Earth, Minnesota.
We have stayed in many Super 8s around the United States and I've never found one that I thought was great but they are usually adequate...as a place to crash. With the Bellagio in Las Vegas being a 5 star hotel, in my mind, and the seedy flop house where drunks pay by the week at the edge of town being a 1 star hotel..I'd have to say Super 8 Motels, in general are 3 star...usually.
Since, you can see that I am not overly fond of the Super 8 chain, you may be wondering why I choose to stay there so often. I have serious back problems and for many years I have been unable to sleep lying down on a bed. I have to sleep sitting up in a recliner chair. Sadly, the better the hotel, the less likely they are to have a recliner chair for my use. Handicap showers are a definite plus for me, too. Super 8 usually has a recliner chair and less frequently, has handicap showers. They are one of only four major chains, for love or money, in this country, that have recliners. Since Jaszi29 and I are usually looking to catch some zeeze and not so much looking for luxury anyway, we find them helpful at times.
The Super 8 located in Blue Earth, Minnesota at 1120 North Grove Street is a pretty good Super 8...not the best I've stayed in and far from the worst. It is smallish as they go, having only 40 rooms. Non-smoking and smoking rooms are available. This time I had to stay in a smoking room because there were no non-smoking rooms available with recliner chairs. They have two floors at Blue Earth Super 8 and no elevator between. I stayed on the first floor, right next to the lobby. There were no problems with noise even though it is a 24 hour front desk. The desk clerk was very friendly even when busy.
There was no handicapped shower available at this site. The bathroom is large with crafty decorator touches, unique to this particular Super 8. There is one Queen size bed with a gaudy bedspread circa 1980, a writing desk and chair, a small colored TV with cable, chest of drawers, night table, and recliner. The recliner chair was comfortable and well-padded unlike some granite ones I've slept on before. The carpet seemed new. The whole room was spotlessly clean as were the lobby, the parking lot and grounds.
The owners of this Super 8 are very much into arts and crafts and the lobby is filled with crafty decorations, floral swags, chunky wooden shelves and furniture, cutesy little plaques and knick-knacks. There are hand made doll clothes for sale in the lobby as well as a few other craft items. It kind of gives the motel a folksy welcoming feeling...like you're in someone's home. However, this handicraft stuff, at times, goes horribly wrong as it did in our room. Over the bed, in our room, rather than the usual motel/hotel "art" there was a 6' x 3', painting that had been applied directly to the wall that featured HUGE god-awful looking flowers and fruits in a swag-type arrangement in the shades of burgundy, military blue/gray, taupe, and mauve. The plums were the size of soccer balls! Hideous demonic blue lilies the size of wash tubs hovered over Jaszi29's head. Yikes!
There are extra blankets and pillows available if needed. (Believe it or not, some places don't have extras.) Jaszi29 says the mattress was comfortable. The air-conditioning worked fine and was not too noisy. There was a soda machine and a snack machine. There was a place to do your own laundry. There was a small breakfast seating area and they offer a complimentary light breakfast that includes home baked rolls as well as the Super 8 Coffee Plus Continental Breakfast that features juices, cereals, coffee and milk. We did not eat the breakfast but it looked fine.
The on-line description of this motel says they have a pool, but we did not see one anywhere and we almost always swim if we get the chance. If you need a pool, ask them about this because I don't think there is one.
Right next door, a literal hop, skip and a jump is a Country Kitchen restaurant and their cook makes PERFECT eggs, hash browns and pancakes, even late at night. There's a Pizza Hut across the road and a Mickey D right down the road from the Pizza Hut. A short drive into Blue Earth, a mile maybe, you will find a classic drive-in with carhops called the Cedar Inn. There are two bars in town...one a quasi sports bar and one that is located in a family dining establishment called Hamilton's. There's also a place on Main Street called Andy's Oriental Restaurant that looked small and dark from the outside. There's a supermarket. There is a small, older Wal-Mart on the same access road as the Super 8. Main Street is completely deserted on a Friday night at 8:00 except for three or four teenagers hanging out with their bikes. There are no cars moving along the street and everything is closed except for the supermarket, the restaurants and the bar. Blue Earth is a pretty, sleepy little Midwestern farm town not a tourist attraction. The typical farm smells perfume the air, even at the Super 8.
Blue Earth also has a small fairground where their number one claim to fame is located. This is a gigantic statue of the Jolly Green Giant that towers over the trees. When we saw him he was still wearing his biker leathers that were put on him to attract the Harley set heading to the Sturgis rally in South Dakota. He is visible from the Super 8 and beams down benevolently upon its sleeping patrons.
Super 8 motels do not exhibit any kind of consistency from one to another so it is essential to phone ahead if you require certain things. They are reasonably priced, usually convenient to the highway, usually near other national chains, usually pretty comfortable. This Super 8, while not the Ritz, was very accommodating and pleasant and with the wall art and the Giant, not lacking in comic relief. I'd stay there again if I was passing through.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
treeseed
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Location: Little Chute, WI, USA
Reviews written: 165
Trusted by: 187 members
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"All good things are wild and free." _Thoreau
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