My favorite quote from lileks.com in the section about retro futurism:
Nothing says yesterday like yesterday’s visions of tomorrow
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Once they get moldy, that smell never comes out.
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Drain the pool, no more humidity problems, and now you have an indoor skate park.
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Just the place for an SCA based on a Mad Max world.
Hm. I wonder if preppers could be sucked into that? They’re playing it already, so why not have “social” gatherings and sell them merch? (“I killed the guy who only got this t-shirt”)
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I stayed in a Best Western in Boise a couple of months ago that was very similar. I was there on sudden business and my hotel reservation fell through, and there was a big regional youth sports tournament going on at the time so all the hotels were full. The only place I could find a room was the Best Western right next to the airport for about 3x the normal price. It was obviously a U-shaped motel that had the center courtyard covered up in order to try and make the inner-facing rooms feel like a hotel. But it was weird because all the outer-facing rooms were still open to the outdoors like a regular motel. And there really wasn’t anything of note in the center courtyard anyway: just a few stairwells to the upper floor and some fake plants.
By far the most expensive motel I’ve ever stayed at.
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I remember staying at one in the early 80’s. I think it was one of the only family vacations I had as a child. I always sort of wondered what happened to them but was too young to give it much thought.
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Burning Man World.
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Halfway between Dallas and Denver on Highway 87 north of Amarillo is a dusty little cow town called Dumas. The Dumas Inn was a Holiday Inn Holidome and I have fond memories of staying there on family road trips in the glory days of the late 70’s (it was next door to the K-Bob steakhouse). It had putt-putt greens, video games like asteroids and centipede, fake palm trees and even a tiki bar. It was an oasis in the hot Texas panhandle for wary travelers.
I tried to re-create the magic with my own family staying there sometime around 1996-97 but by then, the place was just rundown and sad. It’s long gone now. Always best just to let your childhood memories stay memories.
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I remember staying at one in Arkansas as a kid on cross-country trip. Space age Arkansas! I think there was a miniature golf course along with the pool.
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Inertia! How the fuck does that work! 
Ah, any mention of motels, hotels or holiday inns triggers this lovely earworm.
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They concept is now like a Great Wolf Lodge here on the East Coast. Pools are more separated from the lodging but still an indoor year round usable space. Especially in paces where it is cold in the winter.
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Stayed at one in '82 during a senior trip. I remember the smell of chlorine everywhere and a nice hot tub next to the pool.
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My wife tells me she stayed at one of these in Seattle in 2015. No pool though.
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I did. The place had fallen into independent ownership by then, and I was paying for a room weekly. I could score a gram, a gun and work on my short game within a few feet of my front door. Marvelous place. it was torn down in 1998 or something.
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in the 1970’s Holidomes in the American Midwest played host to a Midwest Bluegrass Circuit. hell to keep instruments in tune
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Oof that hurts my brain. I suppose that could be a legitimate way to write “ugly in a pleasing way”, but from the context what I think they were trying to say was “aesthetically displeasing”. Or just say “unaesthetic”.
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I didn’t stay in them, but attended events in several Holidomes: a sci-fi con, a pool party, and another bash where I don’t remember the details. There was a Holiday Inn converted to a Holidome the next town over from where I grew up. It was sandwiched between the toll road and another interstate to catch weary travelers, and was known for its New Year’s Eve blowout parties. Last time I passed through, it had been demolished and rebuilt; it was now a La Quinta with a very different footprint.
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Stayed at the one in Lawrence, KS a couple of times when visiting relatives. I bet they’re all over KS and MO.
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After and upgrade to Auckland airport in the early 00s, one snarky journalist said “It’s a good thing it looks like the future; when the future gets here, it won’t look dated.”
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