I’m thinking about travel blogging, which I’ve done a bit of these last few months. Writing and traveling are natural partners because they’re both about exploring and discovering. But there’s at least one major difference — when you write about a trip, you edit out the embarrassing, extraneous or just plain boring.

A week ago, for instance, I was packing up to leave a motel room where I worried I might have picked up bed bugs. I know these critters can lurk in swanky establishments as well as lesser ones, but this place was most definitely the latter. 

I’d chosen it because it was cheap, and fresh from three weeks in Scotland I was all about saving money. But from the first glimpse of the dingy hallway I remembered an important lesson I often ignore: you get what you pay for.

It’s always good to be reminded of that reality. It’s even better to leave it behind in the detritus of trip details I generally leave unmentioned. 

(I have no photos of the offensive motel, which did not have bedbugs, by the way.)