After waiting in KGPI for the weather to clear and forming a plan to navigate, we enter KMYL in the Garmin. We have always heard such nice things about McCall from friends. We weren’t able to book a room or a car before arriving. We flew for about 1:30 and we started with flight following but ATC was unable to follow us the whole time because of radar coverage. We landed on runway 16 and taxied to McCall Aviation. We had already started calling a few places to stay when we walked into the FBO to arrange a car and ask for help. Sometimes FBO’s can secure rooms and help with a discounted price. They already knew the whole town was sold out and pointed us to Americas Best Value Inn. This hotel chain isn’t one of our go to chains, so we hesitated.
The FBO rented us their 90’s suburban and we decided to give it more time and explore while we called around. We went and had a drink and enjoyed the view at the mile high grill. While calling around one of Papa Pilots co-workers called. He was fishing on a small lake under the approach end of 16 and saw us land! What are the odds. We made plans to meet him in the city later to say hi. After calling every place in town, some places out of town and toying with the idea of buying a tent and renting a space as the state park. We finally said the next place with room we would book. Well, it was slightly away from the downtown and we were okay with that since the persid meteor shower was going on it might be nice to get away from the lights. Boy we were wrong. We walked into the main building of the Hartland Inn and immediately got strange vibes. It was more of a truck stop than an Inn. We were given our key after sometime and went to check out or room in the carriage house before bringing up our luggage, it was unlocked; odd. We went up to the room and looked around. The furnishing were from 1960’s and there was a strange smell. We sat on the balcony and said “We would never stay here with Little Dude.” But we were tired of searching. We then left to go meet up with our fishing friend and within 10 minutes of leaving decided we would rather sleep in the car then go back, we both had weird feelings. When papa pilot went back to leave the physical key in the room, our room was unlocked!! We locked it and double checked it. Such a strange place.
We finally listened to the FBO and secured a room at the Americas best value inn. At least it was safe and walking distance from the downtown. We explored and went out to a few places before retiring for the night. The next day we had some amazing breakfast pizza at Growlers Pizza and Grill and headed back to the airport. McCall was a bust, but seemed nice enough for a quick overnight. We will have to give it another try and a few days, but we sure learned some good lessons and it was good we didn’t have The Little Dude.
