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Weekly Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country
of West Texas
Opinion
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Squarely Pegged
By Peggy McCracken
Bargain vacation
may disappoint
Now I’m not saying it’s a scam, but I would be leery of any “must sell” bargain vacation package. You may find one advertised on our classified page, and if I were smart I wouldn’t knock it.
The truth is, I checked out that particular package because the seller’s credit card address didn’t match up, and I wanted to know if it was legit. I have seen so many of them offered, and they all smell the same.
Sure enough, when I dialed the number listed in the ad, I got an answering machine that referred me to a travel agency in Florida. Dialing that toll-free number got me a salesman who put on a pretty good spiel about the hotels where I would be staying for close to two weeks for $239.
The price is right, I admit. Assuming it actually covers nice accommodations and the amenities promised. However, I recall reading a warning that such packages often promise more than they deliver.
If I were going on vacation, I would get on the Internet and locate my own airline, cruise ship, hotels, rental cars or whatever I planned to use.
As a matter of fact, I have just done that for yet another vacation. Yes, I will be going to the big city of Turkey and staying in the historic Hotel Turkey. Not that I found out a whole lot on the Internet. Just a phone number, which came in handy.
I did Google Hotel Turkey, and got links to a lot of web sites in the Middle East. Not what I was looking for.
My brother Walter has stayed at Hotel Turkey several times while attending the July 4 homecoming in Flomot, and I’ve read about it in the Valley Tribune and travel magazines. The hotel has been there for years. Its claim to fame is that a young couple bought it and restored the rooms, using antique furnishings.
We five Gunn siblings plan to attend the homecoming to see old friends. Gail and Jerry, the youngsters, have a jam session lined up for the previous night and have invited us three un-musicians to sit in.
I don’t know if I can make the jam session, but will join the caravan to Amarillo for a post-homecoming visit before we all scatter to the four winds. Gail lives in Albuquerque, N.M., Jerry in England, Walter in Ennis, and Mary in San Angelo.
Gail says our cousin J.W. “Dub” Caraway will also drive up from Gainesville with his daughter. She attends the Bob Wills shindig in Turkey, so it will be like homecoming for her as well.
I got off the subject, didn’t I? Have you ever known an old great grandmother with two jobs to do so much vacationing?
“The best thing we can do is enjoy eating, drinking and working. I believe these are God’s gifts to us. And no one enjoys eating and living more than I do.” Eccl. 3:24, 25. CEV.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Peggy McCracken in Enterprise business manager. Contact her at peg2@pecos.net
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Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
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