Holiday Motor Hotel

In the 60's and 70's this was a very familiar landmark to anyone in central Pennsylvania because they had an extensive classic car collection on display in their main building, visible from the highway.  One time  I went back to Gettysburg College to visit my former classmates,  spending a week being passed around to available vacant beds in Apple Hall.  I did not have a car but was able to get a ride from a guy returning to his home in New Jersey and taking a load of students who he dropped off along the route,  with everybody paying him for the gas.  He did not realize when I signed up how difficult it was to get to Gettysburg from the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  When he dropped me off on campus that first night he mandated that I find a ride to the Harrisburg area for return pickup.   He gave me his parent's phone number and I was to call him with directions to my Harrisburg location once I got it arranged.  I was in no position to object and fortunately was able to find somebody in the dorm to drive me to Harrisburg at the end of the week.  That person suggested the Holiday Motor Hotel as a pick-up location and I made a phone call to New Jersey and we agreed upon an approximate time for his arrival.  

All seemed to be going well and I was waiting at the Holiday well before the designated time.  90 minutes later I grew concerned and called the New Jersey number again.  His parents told me that he had been driving between the two Harrisburg Holiday Inns and could not find me.   I specified the actual address and when he called them back they passed it on to him.   An hour later I finally got picked up and the driver and other passengers were pissed off at me for the reminder of the return trip.   I did not feel especially bad about it because having me secure a ride to Harrisburg (a city with which I had only a vague familiarity) had not been part our original agreement,   and I had no idea there was another Holiday anything in Harrisburg.   And the tension in the car had me smiling to myself because the delays caused by the confusion were several hours greater than the time it would have taken for him to have simply driven back to Gettysburg.  

But it does all illustrate the primitive nature of trip coordination 50+ years ago.