FRIDAY SKY - SUNSET IN MONTANA

These photos were taken after a long day of driving from Sturgis, South Dakota to Wyoming (we visited Devils Tower), and then to Montana (we stopped by the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument) and did not get into Gardiner, Montana until after 8:00 p.m. When we finally arrived at the hotel, the clerk told us that he cancelled our reservation and already gave the room to another guest. The hotel was completely booked. "There was no room at the inn", he said. He explained that it was because my credit card had an expiration date of July 2011. He tried to call earlier but I did not answer my cell phone. How could I when we were driving between mountains? I questioned why he did not call last week. I made our reservation in May and there was no problem then with the expiration date of July for arrival date in September. My husband made it clear to the clerk that whatever he had to do, he needed to find a room for us at another hotel in town because we were tired and we were not going to drive another hour to the next town. After calling three other hotels with "no room at the inn", the clerk found a room available at a nearby hotel. The next day we went back and spoke to the manager at the hotel. He offered us an upgrade to a suite at his hotel at regular room rate since we were going to stay in Gardiner the 2nd night. We told the manager that he handled it well and we appreciated how a bad situation was made right. We agreed that it was a smart business decision. Next time I know not to use credit card that was about to expire when making hotel reservation.