Every now and then I will travel by myself to shooting matches. This weekend I was going to a 3-gun match just south of Omaha. I had planned on getting up early and driving down and then driving back that afternoon.

My wife was planning her trip to a NASCAR race with a friend and was looking at Airbnb to find a place to stay in Kansas City. I never considered doing that mostly because the thought of going to a strange person's house and sleeping in their guest bedroom was a scenario I was not terribly comfortable with.

I'm also cheap and hate driving six hours round trip in one day without sleeping.

So I looked for a room in Omaha. I found one that was listed at $29. No extra cleaning fees, as I discovered some of them had, and I would be in an upstairs bedroom with a potentially shared bathroom if there was another person staying in the other bedroom. The host had a large number of great reviews. I asked the host if they were cool with me bringing my competition arsenal in the house so I didn't have to leave it in my truck. He didn't mind at all so I booked it, paying a total of $30.90 after the reasonable $1.90 booking fee.

I arrived at about 9:30 P.M. and my host had to run an errand, and apparently go out for the evening. He messaged me the code to unlock the door and gave me the WiFi password. I entered the house and hauled my stuff upstairs to the bedroom with the lights on in it. I went to bed shortly thereafter. I messaged him to let him know I would be leaving at 6:30 A.M.

I slept in that room comfortably having never met my host.

I had been working around the house all day Friday and was in need of a shower before I left Sioux Falls so I didn't really feel the need for a shower in the morning, especially since I was going to spend the morning and early afternoon on a dusty shooting complex. I did check out the bathroom and it was way cleaner than mine. It wasn't perfect, the sink wasn't immaculate, but it was way better than most sinks in the average truck stop or rest area.

It was awkward walking into someone's house without them being there, especially since I didn't know them. But that wore off and it was fine.

For about half the cost of a really crappy hotel room in questionable neighborhood, I slept in a better than average house in a new and growing neighborhood. I will definitely do it again.


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