My son Amit, his wife Deepa and Nikhil (their 5 1/2 month old son) moved to Rolla in the last week of Feb 08. Currently they are staying with us and because of this we get to see our Grandson everyday,and spoil him dearly.

An incident that happened yesterday really had me mad. A guest who shall remain nameless and who had been staying at the Motel for the past 11 days because his house was affected by flooding came back in the evening swearing at me that I had entered his room and stolen one of his possession and that he was calling the police and report me to the Daily paper that I was a crook and that he would damage my reputation and made sure I would not be able to operate a motel again and he wanted his "stolen" item back. Calmly I told him that the Housekeeper or I would never touch a guest's personal belongings and that he was free to call the police. Well the Police Officer came asked us the necessary questions and went to look in the room that the guest had checked out from and told me that the RUSTIC MOTEL has had a VERY GOOD REPUTATION with the police dept and he was surprised that such an accusation could be made against me or the Motel. He asked that guest to re check his bags and see if he had mis placed his item among his other clutter he had. The Police Officer who was a great gentleman left and told me that he would have to file the complaint. Then just as he had driven off, I got a phone call from that guest that he had re checked his belongings and HAD FOUND THE MISSING ITEM!!!!! he apologised, but to me he had spoilt my whole evening and his apology was meaningless.

Friday April 4th was supposed to be a celebration day as I had just bought a local Dry Cleaning business called "FORUM CLEANERS" but this guest had to spoil the day with Extremely Slanderous and False Accusations. The Cleaners will be managed by Amit and Deepa,

Business at the Motel has been declining I think due to the high cost of Gas ( $3.29 a gal) and the recession talk that's really creaping the public.

The 100th St Pats Celebration was a huge success and at the Motel we had a busy weekend- most of our guests were in their middle age and not the young crowd that normally comes during St Pats. So the rooms were left in a decent state and we had no complaints of excessive noice.

This morning the Temp is around 65 degrees, My mood is cheerful now that I my reputation has been cleared.

I hope that you will enjoying the Spring and travel and stop over at the Rustic Motel. 

St Pat's 100th year Celebrations commence in mid March and most of the Big Brand Franchise Motels are already booked up but we still have a few Rooms open so if you're planing to attend the St Pat's festivities please make your reservations early.

Winter is still around and we're expecting freezing rains tonight, so again not many will be travelling today and that means empty rooms at the Rustic.

The Gas price today is $2.69 per gallon.

Last weeekend I visited my son, daughter-in-law and MY GRANDSON in Atlanta and while there my daughter, Jigsha, also joined me from Knoxville. That weekend was so terrific for me as I got to cuddle NIKHIL and the best part about him is that he never cried, has an awesome smile and is so intelligent. He turns 3 months old today and Vina now has her turn to visit them this weekend.

The temperatures in Rolla have been hovering in the low 20's at night and high 40's during the day. The cost of Gas is $2.77.

We've had to suspend renovation in the other bottom rooms as the contractor has to fullfill his obligations at some other sites.

This morning's news headlines talk of a "RECESSION" and it's scary, I just hope that we can get by this year and I sincerely hope that all the readers of this blog also make it through 2008 and my best wishes for a healthy and happy 2008.

It seems that in this modern world we still have some bigots who cannot change their racist attitudes. This question about "American owned" always has that racist tone to it.

This phone call has really upset me and I hope that I never have to put up with this in the future.

We treat all our guests as though they've come to our home and go all out to make their stay here as pleasant as possible.

If you are reading this blog I hope that you will come over and experience our hospitality.

Since it was again very quiet, I helped Vina with the housekeeping and we were done with the laundry and housekeeping by 12 noon.

Since we're Hindus we dont celebrate Christmas as such,we  invite our family friends for Dinner, and along with the wives played Cards. That night we just had 1 guest check in. What a big difference from the Christmas season we used to have in Zambia! There the busiest time of the year was the Christmas eve business in our shops and in those days there were  no credit cards in use so we had to come with the cash and count the notes at home. The there would always be a party at a friend's house where we'd have "Chicken Kadai" and "Prawns Masala" all accompanied by bottles of "MOSI" beer. So on Christmas day all the men folks would be nursing a hangover and the ladies would do the household chores.

Someone asked me if I gave or received any presents during Christmas and I had to say no, but things are going to change for this family from next year as our Grandson, Nikhil,  will be growing up we are going to buy lots of presents for him and will not let him feel that he is missing out on the Christmas spirit.

Now only a few more days left for 2007 to wind up and 2008 is almost upon us.

Occupancy has been pretty dull, so far we have remodelled 6 ground floor rooms, and hope to finish remodelling the remaining 4 ground floor rooms in Jan 2008.

ps. I did receive a box of imported cookies from Mid America Bank, even though I do not bank with them,( Greg, the Manager knows me from the Golf club) and from Marcia Rehm(my American Family Insurance broker)

We dropped off our daughter Jigsha at the airport in St Louis and got stuck in traffic on I-270. Having your siblings visit you is so wonderful and its the parting that is always the sad part. We cannot wait until she and my son,daughter in law and Grandson come visiting again.

So far we have finished renovating Rooms 121,122,123 and work is going on in 119,120.Expenses keep on piling in remodelling but my motto has never been to just make money but to plough back my profits into the motel for it to be the BEST.

Thanks to the initiative taken up by my daughter, Jigsha, I am now all set to update my blog site quite often.

The greatest event that took place within the last year has been the arrival of our first grandson (NIKHIL AMIT DESAI) who was born in Atlanta on Oct 16th 2007. Vina was in Atlanta to witness the arrival of Nikhil but unfortunately I was stuck here in Rolla at the motel and had to see his pictures posted by my son on my computer. I did manage to fly down to Atlanta in November and see that great bundle of joy.

As noted earlier I have started to remodel some of the ground floor rooms by removing the old wood panelling and putting in new insulation and sheet rock. I hope that my guests will appreciate the new brighter rooms.

On November 15th we completed 5 years of owning and operating the Rustic Motel and we are forever indebted to Curtis and Lucie Smith who gave us the opportunity to take over this motel from them. In these past 5 years never have we delayed our monthly mortage payments and that is a record I hope to continue in the future too.

Today the snow and ice is slowly melting away and  I have to drop my daughter  off at St Louis for her flight to Knoxville. She is more adament that I continue blogging so I hope that I do not disappoint her.

ps The price is a gallon og regular Gas in Rolla today is $2.89.

He's been pretty busy making renovations to the motel. Some of the wood panelling is being removed so that the rooms have a more bright and airy feel. See some photos of a room being worked upon and the finished version too:

It snowed here on Saturday. We were expecting about 6-12", but thankfully we only have about 2". My dad had prepared the night before by laying out salt on the sidewalks. UMR had a graduation ceremony on Saturday but was unaffected by the snowfall. See a photo of the Rustic Motel with a bit of snow below.

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I can hardly believe that Fall is upon us and the evenings and early mornings are getting slightly chilly so no more running around in my shorts. Vina already has started wearing her sweaters.

In the summer the swimming pool was a hive of activity and made the whole place look lively. At the moment I managed to cover the pool with a tarpaulin but due to heavy rains we had recently it has started to warp with the weight of all the rain water thats sitting on it.

We have less occupancy now due to less travelling by our guests but last weekend I had the opportunity to meet a remarkable couple from Elizabethtown, KY. The woman was handicapped in that she could not speak or hear and her boyfriend used sign language to communicate with her. They had been staying at another Motel in town and were not happy there so they decided to check the Rustic Motel. When the lady saw the room she was so excited and her exuberance was so heart warming that  I thought to myself that people who are fortunate enough to have the ability to listen and speak are always complaining about things and here was this person whose personality was so endearing that I asked her friend if I could just give her a big hug. It made my day and now I tell myself that I should think twice before I go round griping or complaining. The next day her friend who is a firefighter told me that if ever I pass through his town I have to stay at their house. Ronald if you read this blog I want to say what an extraordinary man you are and God bless you for befriending "Sarah" and thank you for your invitation.

I hope to update my blog more regularly and thanks to falling Gas prices we might see more people travelling.It's  $2.09 per Gallon in Rolla today.

Come stay with us. 

So on May 26th 2006 the first swimmers from within town came in to swim and the response has been fantastic.I really like to see our Parking lot and the Pool Area to be a hive of social activity.

The pool stays open till 10pm and I really like to sit by the pool in the evening and recollect all the day's events and think about what am I supposed to do for tomorrow.

If you are a Rolla resident you are welcome to utilise the pool and we charge a niminal fee to recover the cost of Chemicals and Utilities.

The weather has really not been kind, lots of rain and the Sun playing hide and seek,H/way 63 South hardly saw much traffic so Vina had a chance to relax her muscles last week.I was waiting for the Sun to shine through so last Wednesday I managed to wash the Swimming Pool with a brand new Pressure Washer that kept on getting jammed (it now has been returned to Sams Club).I have the major task of filling the Pool with water and get the Filter going. Today has been a cloudy day-just miserable.

I received an e mail from one of my guest in Germany and a Thank You Card from another guest  which helped to brighten us up for the day. It always is a pleasure when someone appreciates your efforts to keep up a nice clean and friendly facility.

Gas is still $2.79 a gallon in Rolla and it is a factor in people not travelling that much.

I hope that our rooms start filling up from this weekend onwards.

I had to leave Vina in charge as I had to fly down to Panama City,Florida to participate in our ex-Zambian boys Golf Tournament. I had printed welcome letters to all my fellow Rotarian guests and apologised to them for not being able to meet them personally, and Vina told me when I returned on Monday that she had had no complaints from anyone except 1 guest ran out of Hot Water in his room- this apparently happened because all the guests were using the showers at the same time.She also said that the "Wild Turkey" hunters from Louisiana were extremely delighted with their 7 day stay here and all 5 of them tipped the Housekeeper with$5.00 each. They also left a thank you card.

Today I wanted to wash the Swimming Pool but rains put a stop to that. I will have to do that tomorrow and hopefully get the pool going within 2 weeks.

Friday morning my whole body was aching and my nose was dripping wet.I had to cancel my Rotary Club meeting and was in bed throughout that Friday. Apparently even Jigsha, my daughter had the same symptoms and she too was down. I was of no help to Vina in the Motel chores and on Saturday and Sunday felt just a bit better to do the Laundry for the Motel. Just watched 3 Holywood DVDs to while away the time.

Its Monday, not many rooms to do as Sundays are always the slowest night for any Motel. It rained heavily last night - that helped to wash away some of the dirt from the car park.

They asked me to keep in touch with them and if ever i visit the Phillipines, I should look them up.

It was a quiet night last night but i had to wake up at 2.20am to check in a family. Another interesting guest was a person who was doing Rt 66 on a bicycle.

The high gas prices are causing a lot of people torestrict their travelling habits so I foresee a drop in guests checking in.

I also received a letter from Rolla Municipal Utilities informing us of a rate hike of 15% from June 1st and another 15% hike from August 1st 2006. Its going to be very difficult to keep our room rates at their present levels - I wonder how our guests will feel when we increase our room rates in the future.

2 guests complimented me on how strong their internet connection was last night.

Finally the long Goodbye hug from Thing made my day.