West Coast, USA Reviews

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Good Points: The Comfort Inn was clean and our room was large and comfortable

Bad Points: Outside Ice Machines and Fishermen

General comments: Fishermans Friend - 'Comfort' Inn, Bishop

Arrived at the Comfort inn and discovered that there we were one of two guests checking in with the same name and that we had been charged his, higher, rate. The receptionist took over 30 minutes to sort the problem but when we saw the room it certainly seemed worth the wait.

Despite being next to the ice machine the room was wonderful and definitely the biggest hotel room we have ever stayed in, everything was clean and comfortable. Dave said ' I am going to sleep well here' (Little did we know!!)

In our room we discovered that the ice-machine was noisy and every time it refilled it sounded like someone was spraying a high pressure hose into a plastic bucket (this was the sound that all the plumbing fixtures made and you could hear them all several rooms away). After it refilled the chiller unit kicked in - this was louder than a jet engine on a 747, and when ever someone walked across the room upstairs it sounded like the elephant march from the jungle book.

We climbed into bed around 10.30-p.m. having decided not to run the air conditioner fan, as we didn't want it to disturb our sleep.

Although it was noisy I thought that it would be quiet over night when everyone settled down to sleep and I was right until 4 a.m. - the description hence is actual and I will willingly pay for you to stay in room 114 at the Comfort Inn in Bishop next Labor Day weekend should you want to put this to the test.

At 4 a.m. the first of a steady stream of fishermen started to fill his ice chest, to appreciate the size of these you need to think large bath plus lid and you will get some idea of what we are talking about.

As the chest is so big it stays in the truck and you fill it by dispensing the ice, scooping it into a bucket and then throwing it into an ice chest - you need to realise that the ice-chest is empty and in the back of a pickup truck so there is nothing solid underneath it to absorb the noise. Every bucketful added echoes so you get the pleasure twice, sort of imagine standing on a ladder and dropping 50 empty tin cans onto the concrete below - then repeat the action about 100 times.

It took him 16 minutes to fill his chest, no kidding. All filled up, with his truck right outside of our window, he started up. It had so much power that the beds vibrated, the windows rattled and the door burst open (no not seriously but I told my daughter that to get my own back on her - why, you'll see later!)

By 4.20 a.m. he was gone and I thought that we could settle back down and sleep, I was so wrong he was just the first of a continuous stream of people filling up their ice chests. Each time a bucket of ice was dispensed the water (remember sounds like a fireman's hose in a plastic bucket) hissed above our head and then the turbo engines kicked in.

By 4.45 I was really fed up, I couldn't imagine where all of these guests were coming from and I looked out the window only to discover passers by were actually pulling into the car park to fill their ice-chests!!!! (Seriously no joking)Made mental note only stay in hotels with internal ice machines in future!

At 4.45 p.m., obviously late risers, the people above us started to stir I hadn't realised it before but the room was obviously occupied by the hundreds, no thousands, of people made homeless by the latest floods in Korea. Managing to escape with nothing but the clothes they stood up in they were not going to take their boots off for anyone and so happy to be alive they were positively dancing to the bathroom to use the plumbing (remember the fireman's hose in the plastic bucket). Plumbed in facilities were obviously also a novelty as it sounded like each one of them used every plumbing feature several times.

All the while the fishermen were still filling.

By now our previous night's hotel the Mount n Lake Hotel in Wofford was beginning to look attractive. (see separate review)

At 5.15 a.m. Dave jokingly says ' I wonder what time the milkman calls' when honestly the garbage truck arrived. Opposite the hotel was a shopping complex and the garbage man clattered each bin into the truck and back onto the sidewalk with the maximum of noise before racing off. Not wishing to leave anyone asleep in the hotel he then reversed back down the road, truck beeping all the way, as was I, before screaming off once again.

All the while the fishermen were still filling.

Now the people up stairs were in full swing, it sounded like the original occupants had been joined by the refugees from the floods in India, China and Europe and were now having a party.

All the while the fishermen were still filling.

At 5.56 I was becoming hysterical, everytime I thought of Dave's 'peaceful' nights sleep I couldn't stop laughing and the tears were rolling down my cheeks. At this point I asked Dave whether it was open season for hunting ice-chest filling fishermen as I was ready to bag a few. I decided that I would mount the cute ones over my mantel and the others I would equip with electronic voices, like those novelty fish you get, and sell them to the trout.

All the while the fishermen were still filling.


At 5.58 a.m. Dave suddenly said now I realise what the bumper sticker 'Fishermen do it all night long' means.

All the while the fishermen were still filling.

At 6 p.m. Dave worried by my deteriorating mental state got up and made a coffee, I went to the loo, flushed the toilet, ran the taps and adopted the attitude 'if you can't beat 'em join 'em'.

All the while the fishermen were still filling.

At 6.15 a.m. the people upstairs finally leave, there were just 4 guests and they were the smallest, daintiest looking(obviously with very big feet) guests that you could imagine.

All this because the hotel was $20 cheaper than the super quiet Holiday Inn that we stayed in last time and it promised a deluxe buffet breakfast.

The Mount n Lake motel was definitely looking more appealing, at least the dogs waited until a respectable 7 a.m. before they ripped each others throats out. Even the campsites, were the tents were pitched so close together, on rocky ground with just two, take your own paper, catch whatever's bugs going, port-a-potties between 300 or more campers seemed appealing.

All the while the fishermen were still filling.

At 6.45 a.m. there were two people filling an ice-chest and it suddenly dawned on me that I could hear EVERY word they were saying and that simply wasn't right. At this point I looked behind the curtains and discovered that not only was the window open but that the insect guard wasn't in place either, that was why we could hear every sound. I closed the window and we were left just with the water filling (remember fireman's hose in plastic bucket) and the chiller unit (think 747 engine)

All the while the fishermen were still filling.

At 7.30 a.m. I was telling my daughter about the window and she said 'Oh I knew it was open' at this point I jumped on top of her, put my hands around my throat and tried to throttle her. Weak from lack of sleep I just didn't have the energy to finish what I started.

All the while the fishermen were still filling.


But at least now we were ready for our deluxe breakfast buffet, oh my what a disappointment, stale Danish Pastries and donuts, cereals, bread and English muffins washed down with orange coloured water (it wasn't juice and had no flavour so it could only be water) in the company of the gum chewing receptionist who snapped at guests trying to check out 'you'll have to wait as I got to clean'
All the while the fishermen were still filling.

After breakfast we made a hasty departure and guess what - the fishermen were still filling and there was even a motorbike with an ice chest strapped to it.

All the while the fishermen were still filling.

Next time I travel it will be with an 'out of order' sign, which I will attach to any nearby ice-machine that can't be unplugged, ear plugs and a shotgun. I won't be staying in any more Comfort Inns with external ice machines within 200 miles of a river.

One final note about 90 minutes into our journey to Bodie I suddenly realised that if I could hear everything that everyone outside was saying that they must have been able to hear my constant giggling, no wonder the lady in the next room looked at Dave very oddly, she obviously thought that he'd been hard at 'it' for the past three hours!!!

And I bet the fishermen were still filling

This was our second visit to Bishop - on our previous visit we stayed at the Holiday Inn and I can recommend it, internal corridors with internal ice machines, slightly more expensive but with a far better breakfast.

Whiskey Creek is a great restaurant which offers great food including fabulous steaks at a very reasonable price - their web address is http://www.thesierraweb.com/dining/whiskeycreek/

And Erick Schat's Bakker is a definite NOT TO MISS - they open very early in the morning (around 5 a.m.) - when I shopped at seven it was already crowded. Try their bread, donuts or pastries.

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