Inside Man is a regular report written by Penn junior Ted Rawlings that takes you inside the world of Penn athletics. In addition to being a goalie on the lacrosse team, Ted is also a member of the Penn sprint football team, a manager for the men’s basketball team and an announcer for the women’s basketball team. This week, he discusses the hidden pleasure of the perfect hotel room – as well as an impressive performance in a season-opening loss at Duke.
About halfway into a seven-hour bus trip – after waking up from a sleep-induced coma caused by Dane Cook’s laugh-out-loud knee slapper Good Luck Chuck and after the stomach’s inevitable call for antacid relief immediately following a Burger King sourdough bacon cheeseburger – you begin to form questions.
- Why did this bus design leg room for a 10-year-old?
- What’s on the dinner menu?
- What are the hotel shower heads like?
- What 2-star movie is on TNT tonight at 10 p.m.?
- Are the pillows in the hotel designed for side-sleepers or back-sleepers?
- Is it improper etiquette for a 21-year-old to request chocolate milk at breakfast in the morning?
The Washington Duke Inn – “Destination Duke” – answered most of these questions with one cliché: it really is about the finer things in life. Though the hotel clerk was unable to explain the reasoning behind the tour bus’ inadequate leg space, her hotel was phenomenal.
The Washington Duke Inn warmly welcomed Ted to North Carolina
The bathroom alone won me over. Honestly, there’s nothing like opening the door to room 504, dropping the bags by the queen-size beds, and walking into a bathroom that has its toilet paper delicately taped down with a circular sticker of the hotel’s emblem. Or a six-foot towel that is miraculously dry even after two uses. And a shower head with multiple settings that can be adjusted to your liking. There must be a money-back guarantee that it will triple your shower time – which can’t be good for the hotel’s monthly water bill, especially in such strenuous economic times.
The electric bill surely runs at a premium, too. Comfortable chairs and convenient desk lamps provided the opportunity to stay up all night and finish an eight-page paper due on Monday evening about seduction in early American literature. Fortunately for the hotel, the bed, flat screen TV and TNT’s showing of Michael Irvin’s breakthrough acting role in The Longest Yard put me to sleep after just one incomplete run-on sentence – that and the dreaded 8:15 a.m. phone alarm for a 9 a.m. walk-through.
When I stepped outside the following morning, I could have mistaken the cold air of Durham for Philadelphia. But, after the waitress brought me a stirred-in Hershey’s syrup chocolate milk, I was absolutely satisfied – even if the pre-game beverage raised eyebrows at the coaches table adjacent to mine.
As for the purpose of our business trip – a season opener against the eighth-ranked Duke Blue Devils – we played a hard-fought game. The game was tied at 11 with just under five minutes to play before Duke erupted and pulled away, winning 16-11. But it’s safe to say that our performance was the “chocolate milk order” in lacrosse that weekend.
And though I won’t speak for others, I will attribute my performance – one of yelling and fist pumping on the sidelines in regular celebration and approval of our team’s success – to the “quiet and elegant” accommodations of “The Inn.”
