CPWSA Adventure Travel (a wholly owned subsidiary of CPWSA)

Rumor has it our CPWSA travel company subsidiary has been nominated as one of the best adventure travel companies on earth.  We look forward to the final results to see where we end up on the list.

We offer a variety of travel planning and registration services for your pleasure, convenience, and excitement.  Listed below are some of our recommendations.  Complete with cleanliness and adventure ratings in chronological order.  Ratings are depicted as brooms for cleanliness and bullets for adventure.  Five brooms means you can leave your cleaning and sanitation equipment at home, and five bullets means you better keep at least five rounds loaded at all times. 

Disclaimer:  past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

Grandstay Suites & Hotel - St Cloud, MN -  I can't take credit for this one as I was approached by friends who had already secured the room.  This place definitely swings the pendulum over to the ritzy side of the scale.  As I walked into the lobby, I was soothed by the classical music that was playing.  Not being a classical music aficionado, I wasn't sure if it was Bach, Beethoven, or Charlie Daniels they were playing, but it was nice nonetheless.  For recreation, there was a marble game board in the sitting area.  I thought it to be a checker board, until my more sophisticated friends told me it was in fact a chess board.  Not being completely convinced however, I believe this might be another fiddle/violin type controversy that has raged for centuries.  My friend Albert especially enjoyed the children's playground area on the back lawn.  So much in fact, that he left some play clothes in the room for the next occupants to use so they wouldn't soil theirs.  I was moved by his thoughtfulness and generosity.   Even the Rolls can go belly up on you though, as I know of one group that had to change rooms because their air conditioner stopped working.  Very convenient to the DPMS range and several nearby eating establishments.  I highly recommend the LaCasita Mexican restaurant.   I found St. Cloud to be a nice town with lots of friendly folks.  After some of our recent travels, this one was almost boring.  But hey, variety is the spice of life!

Rating:           

Econo Lodge - Oxford, NC - since no one turned up dead in the parking lot, we can't bless this establishment with our coveted five major caliber bullet rating.  However, you'll definitely want more than five bullets in your heater should you decide to stop over at this high adventure locale.  While I didn't exactly give the place the white glove test, I suspect we could use feather dusters instead of brooms to denote the level of cleanliness as well.  Ah, where to start.  It became evident from the time we entered the parking lot, that unless you are in the "pharmaceutical" or "escort" business, this wasn't a place you wanted to spend much time.  Once in the room, my trusty sidekick and SWAT commander traveling companion brought to my attention that both the room door and bathroom door had recently been breached with a ram.  A closer inspection of the door lockplates (splayed like a cauliflower) and obviously unprofessional door and doorknob replacement/repair work convinced me this was indeed the case.  As I moved into the bathroom, I observed that the grout between the shower tiles had more shades of green than a 64 crayon box of Crayolas.  I also discovered a much easier way to repair that pesky wallpaper that just won't stay on the wall.  Take a tip from Econo Lodge and fix the problem with your handy paper stapler and the strategic placement of about 30 staples.  Gave the place a nice down home feel.  Lastly, make sure you have your Surefire flashlight handy as the place is prone (no pun intended) to power "fluctuations".  Had I glanced out the window about 2 seconds after the power came back on, I am confident I'd have seen a guy running by with a TV on his shoulder with the deer caught in the headlights look.     

 Rating:     

Comfort Inn - Boonville, MO - not a bad place with new carpet, and a nice pool and hot tub.  Small and cozy so hauling multi-gun match gear into the ground floor rooms was not a problem.   Decent breakfast bar that can even accommodate dorks who put peanut butter on their waffles.  Parking was ample even with a trailer.  Good value for the dollar.  This is your typical high clean, low adventure option.  They did honor our request for adjoining ground floor rooms.  

Rating:     

Best Western Hancock Inn - Lewisport, KY - things got off to a bad start here right off the bat.  Our request for adjoining rooms on the ground floor was not honored and we ended up with one room on the ground floor and another on the second floor.   We checked in around 10 pm and the second floor room wasn't even cleaned.  Unmade beds, beer cans, and pizza boxes littered the room.  Litt and Romero got moved to another room on the second floor as CPWSA management pulled rank and took the clean room on the ground floor.  Don't trust the clocks in the room either, as the less intelligent could find themselves up and ready to depart for the range an hour earlier than necessary; knock on their traveling companions door asking why they weren't ready to go.   This place is expensive for what it offers, but it's saving grace is it's convenience to the ORPC range. 

 Rating:     

Super 8 Motel - Lynchburg, VA - this is our top recommendation for you high risk, high adventure types.  Here we took advantage of the special prom party gone bad package, and awoke to fighting in the halls and gunplay in the parking lot.  It was cool seeing Lynchburg's version of Gil Grissom measure bullet depth penetration into the exterior wall adjoining our room while his compatriots searched for evidence around the chalk body outline in the parking lot.  We did think ahead and brought our friendly SWAT team captain to grease the skids for us before we breached the crime scene tape barrier to put our guns back into the trailer.  Otherwise, I'm sure the local police would have been much more "interested" in 4 guys loading 12 guns into a trailer, not 30 feet from where a murder took place a few hours before.  On the upshot, (no pun intended) the motel did honor our request for adjoining rooms on the ground floor.  Local law enforcement did do us a solid and suggest the Wingate Inn which was visible up the mountain for our next stay; assuming we wanted to opt out of the Super 8 adventure package the next time around.  

Rating:     

Comfort Inn - Oxford, AL - this place has been frequented on several occasions and they always honor the ground floor room request.  It's nice when you can toss gear straight out of the truck or trailer directly into the room without having to hump everything to the inside and through the interior halls of a place.  On one trip, we did notice a sewage like smell coming from the surrounding area which was a bit disconcerting.  Not evident inside the rooms, but pretty nasty once you're outside.  Fair value for the dollar here and convenient to the Moss Branch range.

Rating:     

Quality Inn - Sebring, FL - one of the mainstays for the Florida Open match.  Not much to talk about here.  Middle of the road from the cleanliness standpoint and after several years, have not noticed much adventure capability.  The fact that a hospital is right in the back yard of the place is comforting for anyone who tends to frequently draw blood or come down with exotic maladies while on the road shooting matches.

Rating:     

Econo Lodge - Columbus, GA - after incidents of vehicle theft at the Ft. Benning match hotel a couple of years ago, this place seemed like a good alternative.  The Victory Dr. location offers quicker access to the Ft. Benning entry gate.  It's the typical older motel layout without interior hallways, so parking is available right outside the door.  Allows for easy loading/unloading of weapons and gear with the added benefit of being able to keep an eye on the vehicle.  Have been there two years now and they always honor the ground floor room request, with a free suite upgrade afforded us on one occasion.  As this area is not in the better part of town, there are some adventure opportunities here.  Also, be on the lookout for the "stranded female with the brokedown vehicle needing a lift" scam at the adjoining Quick Rip gas station.

Rating: