Accidentally leaving with a room key was a major concern when I mostly camped and rarely stayed in motel rooms. I didn't develop much of a behavior habit in motels. I think I left with a key once about 30 years ago, and called the place to let them know I will mail the key.
Nowadays I stay in lodging all the time, so I have much more established habits. Now leaving the key in the room is a habit that I am unlikely to forget.
I never leave a motel with things that aren't mine, but I have left my things behind in motel rooms. A USB charger, cycling shorts, and shampoo bottle come to mind.
Memorable and least favourite key incident on a cycle tour happened just a few weeks ago. It was the the last day of a 3 week tour cycling from Canberra to Hobart. Journaled here on CB as “Keeping Moving Forward”. Ironic I couldn’t move anywhere, forward or backward, because of a dud hostel key, or more concisely, a de-programmed magnetic swipe card key.
I discovered (at 3:30am!) that the luggage storeroom key was faulty at the hostel accommodation where I was staying. It had worked the night before when I tested it, and had been assured by staff that it would work.
This meant my boxed bike was inaccessible, and it was only about 30 mins before a booked taxi to the airport was due. Not a good situation.
Thankfully I found an emergency phone number for the night porter at the hostel. He awoke, sleepily appeared in the foyer, apologised for the key problem and liberated my boxed bike.
For the first time in our many tours we recently left with a key. Not just any key, mind you, but the key to the bike storage garage. Steve was looking for something in his pocket and there was the key. We were already 20 km into a fairly long distance day, so no turning back to return it. We contacted the hotel who said to mail it back so we spent the next few days trying to find an open post office. When the key was finally on its way back we were 12 euros poorer. It would have been much easier, and certainly much cheaper, to have given the key back before we left.
Interesting that both yours and Graham's are such recent experiences. Your first time? Really? Very impressive.
Yes, that resonates with a few of our experiences too. Glad it worked out for you.
Scott in my case the recency is probably because my early years of cycle touring mostly involved camping accommodation, so there was less interaction with keys than on tours over the past few years.
About 12 years ago, I managed to lock myself out of a hostel very early in the morning without my bike, phone or wallet. No big drama because I was able to tailgate another resident back through the front door. I was trying to get an early ride start, whereas I think they were just getting home.
One of my current concerns about keys is my sturdy titanium U-bolt bike lock. If I were to lose its key when the bike was locked, that could quickly escalate to be an expensive, time consuming problem.
To reduce the risk of that debacle ever happening, I also carry a duplicate lock key stashed amongst my other gear.
A duplicate bike key lock! I could have used that years ago when we lost the key to ours when we locked them locked together to a post in Port Bou while we stopped for lunch after lying around on the beach. We realized the key was missing when we returned from lunch, and finally concluded it had been left on the beach. When we returned to this spot though we found it occupied by two women sunbathing topless on their blanket. I have quite a vivid memory of the two of them crawling around on the sand on their hands and knees helping us hunt for it.
No luck there other than for the priceless memory, but fortunately we’d shrewdly locked the bikes to a short post so we just lifted them off and carried them that way to the nearest hotel for the night and then to a garage the next morning where they were cut free.
Rachael that’s the scenario I’m trying to avoid. Upsetting nude bathers especially. :)
TiGR locks sell locks in pairs keyed the same with duplicate keys. An ideal bike lock package for cycle touring couples.
https://tigrlock.com/products/blue-mini-plus-keyed-alike-pair
I've had a couple of "key moments" that were a little different than the stories I've seen so far. The first one occurred twelve years ago in Beach, North Dakota. I was happy to get a room in such a small town and to be done riding for the day. With key in hand, I wheeled my bike to the room, unlocked the door, and kept the door from slamming shut with my foot as I maneuvered my bike into the room. I didn't leave the room all night. I didn't even answer the door when somebody came knocking and woke me up at around midnight. They were talking loudly and laughing, so I assumed they had been drinking and were looking for somebody in a different room. I ignored them again when they knocked on the door a little later.
The next morning, I packed up and was ready to check out when I discovered my room key was missing. I unsuccessfully searched everywhere until I decided I had to man up and tell the motel clerk I lost the key and I'd pay for any replacement costs. As I exited the room--guess what--the key was in the lock, and it had been there all night, and the people who I thought were drunks were probably knocking on the door to tell me what I had done.
The second key moment came in Sublette, KA on this year's tour. I arrived at the town's only motel to find an empty office, but there was a sign in the window with a phone number to call. The woman who answered took my credit card information and directed me to a lock box that was mounted on an exterior wall. Then she gave me a four-digit code to enter. When I opened the door to the box, I could not believe there were keys for every single room hanging on little hooks. I grabbed my key to room #1, closed up the lock box, and enjoyed a peaceful night as the only guest. And I was quite amused by what just happened here. I had so many questions. Like, how do they trust that a guest wouldn't take all the keys? How often do they change the code to the lock box? How well would that system work in, say, Chicago?
Well, I gave it an honest effort but was unable to think of a single memorable shower episode in our three-plus decades on the road. What did come quickly to mind though were key moments - instances involving access to one of our lodgings - lost keys, ones we inadvertently biked off with, times when we locked ourselves out, and on and on and on. I don't really have to think hard to come up with a dozen of our best stories on this theme, but probably the first one that comes to mind occurred eleven years ago on our climb from Arreau to the Horquette d'Ancizan in the French Pyrenees. The Horquette is a spectacular traverse that parallels the Col d'Aspin but at a higher level - much quieter and wilder, and a road I'd love to see again. The climb begins in the middle of the village of Ancizan, when you take a turn up a narrow alley, all the traffic disappears, and suddenly you're climbing at 15%.
For the coming miles we have the road to ourselves, save for all the livestock wandering or being driven around. So it's quite a surprise when we're about halfway up this climb when we come to a parked car and a man sitting on a boulder by the side of the road waving at us. It's our host from our lodging back in Arreau, hoping we 'll return the keys to our room to him. Surprisingly, there's no mention of this memorable encounter in the day's post.
So we could just keep going and fill this thread with all of our other favorite key moments, but what's yours?
3 weeks ago