I like cheap. I accept that I'm not going to get the finest furnishings. I was satisfied with the value for money that I received at the Days Inn in Marion, IL. But the whole arrangement is a bit odd. The attached bar/liquor store is a little unusual.

The motel lobby and adjoining breakfast area are nice, a bit above what I expected. The view through the connecting door to the noisy, somewhat shabby bar detracted considerably. The desk clerk was friendly and competent. The discount coupon from a rest area rack traveler's guide was accepted with no hassle.

Many if not all of the guest rooms are in a separate building behind the office/lobby/bar building. The hallway and room were a step down in appearance from the lobby but I didn't notice any offensive smells or allergens. The room and bathroom were a bit small but clean and acceptable.

This motel is in an area with many chain restaurants and fast food outlets and other shopping conveniently nearby.

There was a nice TV but no remote control device in the room. When I tried to call the front desk to to inquire about its location I discovered the phone didn't work. Wires were connected but there was no dial tone. When I went to the desk to deal with both issues I was handed a remote but it did not control the room's TV. We eventually used the buttons on the TV to do the tuning.

If you want to use the wireless Internet access, ask at the desk. They have a password protected system with a non-obvious network name. I am a retired computer and network specialist and think I know what I'm doing. My pride led me to waste an hour or more suffering with a bad connection to the DAYSINNx network. When I went to the front desk to complain I was given the necessary information to connect correctly and the performance was spectacularly fast. I downloaded big files at eight hundred kiloBYTES per second, twice as fast as my home DSL connection. With the Internet issue resolved my travelling companion got his computer out and we discovered the next irritation.

There were not a lot of available electrical outlets. We had to schedule their use for the various phone, camera, and computer recharging demands.

There is an exercise equipment room with greater variety than I usually encounter. The equipment is aging and imperfectly maintained but completely usable. There is a nice-looking indoor pool which I didn't try.

Sleeping conditions were entirely satisfactory. No intrusive noises and the temperature was stable.

The next morning I did notice that the room's coffee maker is out of reach of any electrical outlet and there aren't many places to put it where it could be used. Breakfast was satisfactory with the standard offerings of cereal, fruit, juices and milk, and a semi-automatic waffle maker. The serving area was clean and not crowded. My traveling companion thought the arrangement was disorganized. I didn't see any problem.

Check out was efficient and I noticed that my list of grievances was written down by the clerk.

Getting back on the road was easy since this motel is located very near the intersection of the two most important highways in the region.