Well, this past week I was looking down into the holler toward Webb’s Creek thinking about the times I have slept in other people’s beds. Over the years there have been many sunsets that have found me searching for a rental bed otherwise known as a relative’s spare room, motel, hotel, lodge, inn, ranch, B&B or resort. I have rented beds from each of those kinds of bed vendors, but none can compare to my own personal sleeping arrangements. It took many long years to finally find and secure the “right” pillow and although my mattress has no electronic controls and won’t vibrate, it is somehow perfectly matched to my sleeping needs. My body can always figure out when it is laid out in a rental bed and if it could speak it would say things like, “Wass-up?” or it might whine “I want my pillow.” Dorothy,on her return from Oz, may have said it best; “There’s no place like my own bed.” 
My early childhood experience with temporary replacement beds was at Uncle Oscar’s farmhouse down on Fredonia Road in Manchester, Tennessee (Our annual summer vacation was always a trip to visit the relatives.) Uncle Oscar’s son was grown up and out on his own so I used his bed. He was a rocket scientist and his bedroom was filled with the smell of thick mysterious books. I’m still reminded of that room whenever I stroll into the odor of an old bookstore. The quilt was scratchy and the bedsprings needed to be tightened, but waking up to the smell of cousin Jane’s chocolate pancakes made it all worthwhile. Uncle Oscar is gone now, but the memories of that bed will never be forgotten.
I have very few relatives in only a few towns so every once in a while I have to fork over cash for a bed. Fortunately, rental beds is a huge industry that has grown tremendously over the past 100 years and beds are lying in wait everywhere along the highways and byways. Las Vegas has over 150,000 rooms for rent on any given night and estimating that most of them have two beds per room, we are talking about a quarter million beds for rent in just one city! Without the invention and explosive growth of rental beds we would be limited to daily travel and trips to the Magic Kingdom would only be a dream. The Smokies welcome about 10 million travelers each year. That number would dwindle to a few hundred if it weren’t for all of the extra beds available to those in need.
Some of life’s greatest experiences are interwoven with sleeping in other people’s beds. The rental bunk at Phantom Ranch along the bottom of the Grand Canyon brings back memories of my wife getting over-hydrated and sick while my daughter’s little friend sat on a rock quietly crying when we finally arrived at the canyon floor. (It was about 120 degrees that day, but it was a dry heat). Family vacations at the Pink Shell Hotel in Fort Myers or the room in the Baronet at Cape May fill my photo albums. Rental beds are the connecting link to many, if not most, of life’s greatest adventures.
Elijah Oliver, son of the first white settler in Cades Cove, John Oliver, built a cabin with a very special room attached to the porch. It was called “the stranger room” and included a bed for relatives or other travelers passing through. You can still find his fully restored cabin standing today on the east side of the cove. Sleeping in other people’s beds is a cherished part of America’s history and culture. There is no place like my own bed, but there is also no place like that bed in Uncle Oscar’s house or the bunk I used at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. That is just how it looks from my log cabin.
John LaFevre is a local speaker and co-author of the interactive national park hiking book series, Scavenger Hike Adventures (new: Shenandoah National Park/Summer 2009) Contact John at scavengerhike@aol.com. Artist G. Webb illustrates the national book series and lives in Pittman Center, Tennessee. Gwebbgallery.com.
