Pennywise Inn

just another place really…

We booked this hotel for two nights for a family vacation because it was cheap. When we checked in, the clerk seemed surprised that we were staying for more than one night. To give the positives, the people who worked there seemed nice, and the motel is located right outside the marine base gate. The pool was refreshing, and a motel employee went to the trouble to offer us pool towels. There was a fridge and a microwave in the room which was handy. The rooms were old but seemed reasonably clean. Our problem was bugs. I removed the bedspread from the beds as I always do in motels since the bedspreads do not get washed often. When I pulled the spread off the bed against the front window wall, a smattering of dead bugs came with it, sprinkling all over the blanet underneath. Believe it or not, I still determined to give the place a chance — my husband disposed of the bugs and we went to dinner. When we returned to go to sleep, the same type of bugs were alive and flying all over the room. My husband gamely killed as many as he could before we went to bed. In the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of a cricket chirping LOUDLY. I opened my eyes and one of the flying bugs was crawling across my pillow toward my face. My husband found the cricket in our room in the bedspreads we had put aside in the closet area. The two inch critter had crawled out and perched itself on the spread to sing it’s little song for us. We cut our losses and checked out early the next morning, informing the front desk of our early departure, but not getting into the bug issue. When I received our credit card bill, I saw the motel tried to charge us for the second night, which I had to fight through Priceline. Without the bug issue, this would have been an average motel for an average price. Unfortunately, the bug situation completely overshadowed any merits this place may have had. Since Barstow is somewhat of a depressed town, I recommend staying at one of the big chain motels.