Ironman Curling

Once again I'm in Winterpeg. This time for overnight since the Hudson Bay got in a couple of hours late, 10:50am, and the eastbound Canadian doesn't leave until 1225pm tomorrow.

I opted to stay at the Hampton Inn. Yes, again it's a bit out of my budget, but it's one of those things where I can save money up front. It's a stone's throw from the train station. So close, in fact, that I actually rolled ALL my luggage down the street and saved the $5 cab ride. It's also within walking distance of places like the photo where they are having their winter festival and people are actually curling OUTSIDE! Oh the humanity!

When I first walked through the doors the front desk clerk quoted me a rate of $115 a night. After I showed my AAA card and said I was planning to check out early the next morning she quoted $89 for the night. Again, the AAA membership more than paid for itself.

So, $90 Canadian for the night....converts to about $80 USD. Free Internet....another $7-8 savings. Continental breakfast included.....subtract another $8-10 I would have had to spend somewhere else. Add all those up and the room ends up really costing me about $50...swimming pool and spa included. A $50 hotel room would have been further out of town, add in taxi, breakfast, taxi back, no sightseeing, no internet.....it would have ended up costing me more. Lol...well maybe my economics don't add up, but it gives me some way to justify spending almost $100 a night just to put my head down. And after 4 days splayed across two train seats I deserve at least one comfortable night in there.