Many of you left-coasters probably know about the Madonna Inn in California between SF and LA. When I was a tot my family stayed there, and we were simultaneously appalled and delighed by its tackiness. I think we might have stayed in the Yosemite Rock room, although I’m remembering something more like a Shell Grotto that doesn’t seem to be among the room choices anymore. At any rate, the place seems to have expanded since my time, and added some amenities, and there seems to be less Pepto-Bismol Pink coloration about the place, although they have retained sufficient pink trim on the outside for sentimental purposes – I definitely recall the whole exterior drenched in Pepto Pink, and many people talking about the Pink Hotel when I was growing up in SoCal.
What I remember most about our trip, though, was the checkout. This was in, say, 1978, a time by which many credit cards had been in well established use, in large business such as hotels. My stepfather pulls out his American Express card, and the hotel cashier says “Oh, we don’t take credit cards. Mr. Madonna doesn’t like credit cards.”
Oh. We had to delay checkout and go get cash, and my parents never tired of telling the story. Imagine. A hotel that didn’t take credit cards. Presumably this has changed, because now they take reservations online.
Anyway, some of my favorite rooms: The American Home (“tastefully decorated”? Bwah.) Carin, the honeymoon suite. “There are gold cherub lights suspended from the ceiling, and lovebirds adorn the bath.” Do you need to know more? The Caveman Room, which kinda reminds me of Graceland’s Jungle Room – it’s the bedspread The Crystal Room – it’s very, very pink Irish Hills are very, very green What’s Left: “The decor of this room was actually produced from odds and ends leftover from our overall decorating project. See for yourself! If things don’t match it was intended that way! Room is furnished with a king-sized bed. This room does not have air-conditioning.”
The Madonna Inn is in my college town, but somehow we never got around to staying there (in college it was too expensive…we thought about it recently but looked at the rooms and the cost and said…no…we’ll go to the Garden Street Inn for our theme-room needs instead.)
Even so, I’d still rather stay at The Gobbler–too bad it’s not around anymore. A few years ago at Gen Con we were all set to make a pilgrimage when we found out that it was no more.
I remember checking the place out many years ago as a stop during a road trip. They have that famous waterfall urinal in the lobby men’s room. I had to take a pee really bad but all of there were these three couples in there checking it out and taking pictures. After waiting and staring at them for a while I finally whipped it out and did my business. I hope that it photographed well.
There are some more crummy pictures here
SloDope was a long time ago, wasn’t it? We should have another one - maybe enough time has gone by that they won’t remember us at the Madonna Inn.
There are a couple pictures of the urinal mentioned in my link - Yes, I went into the men’s restroom and took them myself.
When we stayed there, about seven years ago, we had some sort of boring Wild West room. However, I did go to the bathroom, check out it was empty, and invite my wife and daughters in for a look. The men’s restroom is much better than the women’s.
I’ve been to better theme rooms at other, shall we say more adult, motels though.
