See If This Is You.....

If you're a coffee drinker you are familiar with this practice.

Last weekend we took ThatOnePrincessDaughter up to Logan to get moved into the dorms for her first semester at USU. We planned to stay overnite and pre-booked a room at a lovely chain hotel that claimed to be "just off-campus." Well, if you have ever been to Logan, Utah, you know that the campus is stuffed up on the hill, and the "town" is down the hill, surrounding the obligatory Main Street thing present in all small towns. Anyway, I digress... The hotel could not have been further from the campus if it were actually OUTSIDE of Logan... but that's okay, everything is within a 10 minute drive, so no big deal...

So if you are a coffee drinker who travels, you know that your first and primary objective upon arriving in a new place is to scope out your options for good coffee tomorrow morning. You begin to compile a list of your options, and then you rank them according to the likelihood of actually have coffee that you would actually drink. Usually, the list looks like this, ranked from lowest possibility of actually drinking it:

1. The hotel room coffee maker. You know the one, with the little pre-packed filter pack that looks like it has enough coffee in it for one or maybe two cups, but the coffee maker is for a four-cup serving. Couple that with the little "convenience" pack of condiments like powdered creamer, and not enough sweetener, and you are looking at a sad event. Just whose convenience are we talking about here.

2. The hotel "serve-yourself breakfast bar". Unless you get up at the crack of dawn, you are destined for disappointment here too. That's most likely the situation even if you DO get up at the crack of dawn. You're looking at a giant pot, 40 cups maybe, made by a 19 year old who only knows how to follow directions, but not how to make a good cup of coffee.

3. Gas Station Coffee. Ummm, ECCKKKK! It's either recycled car wash water, or recycled oil change oil, whichever service the gas station offers.

4. IHOP. Generally, their coffee sucks. But it will do in a pinch, and is a better choice than options 1 and 2 above. It'll wash those biscuits and gravy down fine, if need be.

5. Albertsons with a Starbucks sign glued to the front of the store. While this isn't as good and consistent as a regular Starbucks, because although it is starbucks coffee, it is usually manned by the little lady who was either late for work and lost the lottery, or the one who lipped off the boss yesterday. Often not even coffee drinkers, just Albertsons employees.

6. A local coffee shop advertising "ESPRESSO" on a neon sign on the front of the building. This is usually a good choice.

7. A local Starbucks establishment. While there are those who don't like the Starbucks, I am not one of them. You know what you're going to get, and it is what you order every time. And besides, the CrumbleBerry coffee cake is a pleasure for which one pays in calories for about three days, without even worrying about it, it's THAT good.

So there it is, the little gymnastics we go through for the opportunity to find a good cup of coffee. Some might call this slavery to an addiction. Well, okay then.