And here it is today (June 2006):
Because motels produced postcards for advertising and souvenir use, tracking their decline over time isn't too difficult. Comparing the postcards sunny view with the run-down condition of today is a poignant affair.
The pool was located in front of the office and had been filled in by the time I visited. A filled in or drained/mucked up pool is a good indicator of where an old motel is in it's lifecycle.
1 comment:
The Calico is one of the better finds as of 2011. The pool is still filled in but just in case someone "falls in" they can be rescued with the long pool hook that still rests upon the driveway facing pool fence. Kind of nostalgic or at least that's what let's me just not think about it being anything but nice.
The Calico is somewhat hidden between a larger hotel and CVS/Pharmacy at Beach Blvd and Orange. You can drive right past it if you don't slow down and calmly stay in the far right lane even if you have to wait behind a city transit bus; trying to go around them is risky since they stop and go very frequently and cutting off a bus doesn't help if while you try to go around the bus drives off cutting you off, and now it's time to drive the block, waiting at 2 lights; wasting 5 minutes.
So turn off of Beach after the CVS on the right DIRECTLY after the large wooden telephone pole that block your view of the motel. The Calico's exterior is unique with always freshly painted pink and white stucco. The doors are green and doesn't clash too bad. The rate of the rooms are great! I haven't paid more than $45-$50 even on the weekend. The rooms are a very vivid green color with air conditioning units at the rear near the restroom. Our A/C unit blew cold but the plastic fins vibrated and was annoying till I pushed a washcloth between the frame and louvers and that made it silently bearable. The best part about the Calico motel are the 40" flat panel televisions!! I bring my laptop and hook it to the VGA port on the back of the display and watch the movies I want without having to rig up a DVD player. The TV's also feature digital cable programming. So instead of just one station per channel. you get many more. Like for the Vietnamese language channel there are 5 sub-channels 13-1, 13-2, 13-3, 13-4 and 13-5 to choose from. Last time I stayed here the movie Transformers was on and it was awesome to experience a large wide screen display in a under $50 motel. It really makes the Calico motel a diamond in the ruff.
Thanks.
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