Saturday Night, Meeting the Turcotte!
Sometimes, when some situations happen, we say “It’s a small world!”. Well, we had that experience in Bismarck, ND. After driving through Montana and making it to Bismarck at around 12:30am local time (which is Central Time) and more than 14.5 hours of travel, we started hunting for a place to stay for the night.
I am not that picky for a hotel, but when you drive for over 14 hours and expect to do so the following day, you try to find a good, comfortable place. Moreover, we are looking for not too expensive places that have free Internet and free breakfast.
The previous two night we slept in Courtyard Marriott hotels. I stayed in a Courtyard for a while when I moved to Seattle and always liked the Marriott hotel brands.
On our arrival to Bismarck, we decided to head toward the East-end of town where we had seen many signs for hotels. And we found a Fairfield Inn, which is the low-end of the Marriott brand, equivalent to a Quality Suites, Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn and/or Best Western. Good places, comfortable beds, free Internet. That’s it. Not fluff.
After inquiring to the front desk girl (FDG) about the price of the room ($75 for the night) and conforming we would stay there, this happened:
- FDG: Can I get your last name to book the room?
- Me: Sure, it’s Turcotte.
FDG looks at me in a surprised way, which I assumed is either because of my accent or because she never heard that name before.
- FDG: How do you write this?
- Me: It’s T-U-R-C-O-T-T-E, it’s a French last name.
- FDG: I know it’s a French last name, it’s my last name too. I just wasn’t sure you had told me that!
- Me: What?
- FDG: My last name is Turcotte.
- Me: What???
- FDG: We have the same last name.
At this point, she’s already typing away my Marriott number, my credit card number and confirming things for us to stay there for the night. Understand me, I typically have to spell both my last and first name, but get to talk about my first name a lot more. At this point, I feel like she’s laughing at me or something, it’s late, I am in the middle of North Dakota and a rather sexy young girl is either flirting with me, getting amused or just telling me the truth. Now, I am sure I am the one with the surprised look in my face!
- Me: What do you mean we have the last name?
- FDG: My grandmother was French and my grandfather was a French Canadian living in Trenton, Ontario who emigrated to the US. His last name was, and mine is Turcotte.
- Me: That is such a small world!
- FDG: Giggles
- Me: Are there any specials for Turcotte in your hotel?
- FDG: You bet, I’ll see what I can do for you!
Of course, I rushed to tell Dad, with a big exclamation mark on my face.
- Me: Dad, the front desk girls’s last name is Turcotte!
- Dad: Meh!
- Me: Yeah, ask her!
- FDG: Yep!
- Dad: Wow! You see son, they only put the best people on our journey, and of course they have to be Turcotte!
LOL! At that point, she didn’t understand what was going on! We were both laughing because we were tired and she was getting busy with more work! All of this to say, again: It’s a small world!
Dakx
