Conserving Money by Staying in Newcastle, Wyoming

After seeing the high prices for motels in and around the Black Hills National Park I thought I would try and find a cheaper place to stay by finding one of those old, run-down motels on the side of a country highway. I headed west out of the park and into Wyoming. The first town I came to was Newcastle. This was a small, industrial town. Lots of mills, some were abandoned. I went to the local grocery store to get some dinner and asked a local where a really, really cheap place to stay was. She suggested The Stardust Motel.

Pulling up onto the gravel driveway of the motel I read the half working, neon light sign that said vacancy. The "MO" in motel was flickering on and off. I suspected the place was built in the 70's and got the feeling of a highway horror flick from the same era. I climbed off my bike and let my now soggy jeans dry out for a minute and prepared to negotiate with whoever was working the front desk. I opened my wallet and and took out all of the cash except for $15, which was what I estimated to be half of what the room normally cost. I slowly entered and walked up to the front desk and was greeted by a nice looking 35 or so lady. In a haggard voice and a tired look on my face (that part was no act) I enquired as to how much for her absolute cheapest room. She flatly stated $35. I responded, "Ma'am, I've been riding for 5 days now from Chicago, its been a long day and I don't have much money. I could really just use some good luck and a cheap nights sleep." I then pulled out my wallet and opened it wide enough so she could see that I was offering all that I had. She said I was crazy to expect to get a room for that price but quickly enquired as to what kind of a bike I was riding. Turned out that the lady was the owner of the motel and also the new owner of a Honda Magna V45, the same as mine. She said she was having some electrical problems and I suggested that it might have been a fuse and that I could change it for her... which got me thinking. "Do you have any chores I could do to help earn a room?" Long story short, she took $10 as collateral and said she would have some chores for me in the morning then retrieved her bike for me to start working on it.

As I checked the fuses (all were fine so there was nothing I could do) her 18 year old, small town born and raised son came along and made small talk. After some bonding with the youngster I tossed him the keys to my bike and I jumped on his mom's bike. He gave me a confused look and I told him "show me the finer parts of this town." And away we went on a classic country cruise around his tiny town and down his old time looking main street.

The next morning I woke for my chores. These consisted of moving a large refrigerator and desk and weed duty. The weed duty was no small task. The tool for the job was a pressurized 15 gallon tank of Round-up weed killer strapped to an ATV. I sprayed every weed around that whole motel property. I would drive 10 feet spray the area the host could ready, then drive another ten feet and repeat. It took about 3.5 hours. When I was done it was already 1:30 and I had wanted to be on the road by 10 am. The owner, Shelly, paid me 10 bucks on top of my collateral and treated me to lunch at the all you can eat Pizza Hut Buffet. All said and done I think that she got her money's worth of work out of me. After a few pictures and goodbyes I waved goodbye as I rode south for the capital and the Colorado border.

Country people are always the most friendly. If you ever find yourself traveling in a manner similar to mine, get off the interstate and look around. The only thing you will find on the interstate is traffic and tourist traps.