The Ramada Inn web site clearly stated that their hotel on Eastridge in Richmond's West End has high-speed Internet access in the rooms so I booked a room for Friday night . The plan was to stay in Richmond for the state championship game if the Floyd girls' team won or stay over and drive back home early Saturday if they lost.

The Lady Buffs won, of course, and I left the Siegel Center for the 15 minute drive to the city's West End.

Found the hotel without any problm (thanks to the in-car GPS) and asked as I checked in:

"Is your Internet access wireless or hard-wired."

"We don't have Internet access," the clerk behind the counter said.

"You don't."

"Nope. Never had."

"The Ramada web site says you do."

"Sorry sir, we don't."

Internet access is a requirement for any hotel when I'm traveling so I cancelled the reservation and started looking for anoher hotel, a difficult enough task on a state high school championship weekend but even more difficult when Richmond is also hosting a big crafts fair.

After 11 phone calls, I found a room at a Motel 8 on West Broad Street -- their last one. I grabbed it after confirming that they did, in fact, have wireless broadband in the rooms.

That room was a smoking room and reeked of cigarette smoke but the Internet worked and the bed was soft. I settled in, posted a game update on Blue Ridge Muse, sent a strongly-worded email to Ramada Inn (along with a promise for a strong letter to follow) and headed downtown to meet Jonathan and Jeri Rogers for dinner.

Turned out to be the only glitch of the weekend.