The deal

Dick has told you about our trip back t0 Illinois and the steps leading to our deal with the developers back there, so I have little to add to that, except to expound a little on the actual deal itself.

Dick and I offered to both work for the sum of $1,000 a month - a ridiculously low figure even in that day and age. But we both felt that it would show the investors that we were sincere in our belief that we could make the company grow and were willing to put our time and effort in at low cost, in order to cash in when the company gained success. The salary had built in automatic raises as motels were added (after the first five)and we also had a bonus (10%) of any profits generated. But the big clincher on the deal was that we had the option to buy into 25% of the ownership for the predetermined price of $25,000 AND they agreed to advance us the money whenever we opted to do it and we would repay them over a period of time. It was a good deal for us if we could make it successful, but it was also a good deal for the developers as their costs were kept low in the early stages.

Lowell O'Neal, when he got the other partners interested and when he approached us, had the idea of copying Motel 6 exactly - just under a different name. But Dick and I didn't agree and part of our presentation to them was to offer the concept of an up-graded Motel 6. We wanted a slightly larger room so that no beds were right up against the wall. We wanted color television (free of course - no meters!) instead of black and white and we wanted phones in every room. Plus we wanted to accept credit cards. Another gimmick we wanted was to offer free coffee in the lobby all day. We were able to persuade them on the new concept, so we left with that plan in mind.

The overall plan at that time was for us to go back to California, take care of business, pack up and head back to Illinois. They would proceed with the plans, the permits, financing, etc. and Geary Construction would build it. In the meantime, we would do jobs for Lowell O'neal in his other ventures until we would be a full time part of the motel company.
All packed up and ready to go, we headed across the US with our 66 Mustang and a small trailer with all our belongings - which at that time mounted to very little. We were a little worried about the tires on our car but didn't have the funds to put new tires on it, so brother Bill came to our rescue and bought some tires for us, and we paid him back as soon as we could.

We stopped to visit Louise and family in Texas on the way (the first I met Louise) and arrived in Bloomington, Illinois and made contact with Lowell. We found a very cheap motel that we were able to rent on a weekly basis (thank goodness for American Express again) and cut our meals to twice a day and found every bargain place in town to eat. Things were REALLY tight until the first pay check came and then it was slim pickings most of the time. Lowell was able to find us an apartment to stay in which helped a little. It was the attic of an old house with four gables. Two larger gables east and west, and two small gables north and south. One larger one was the living room, the other the bedroom and the kitchen and bathroom were in the smaller ones. Only one of us could be in the kitchen at a time it was that small and the bathroom was a riot. It didn't have a shower, only a tub in the lowest part of the ceiling. When Dick took a bath, he had to hold his head sideways in order to fit!

Lowell had us work in his Cousin Fred Stores and presented us as Managers in training, so most of the managers gave us the most menial jobs as part of our training. We stocked a lot of shelves! The real purpose of our visits to these stores was to act as an observer for Lowell and give him a report at the end of each visit on what we saw and how things could be improved.

In the meantime, they had obtained the financing and Harold Rothman, architect had drawn the prints based on Dick's plans and specs. Don Geary had come up with estimates on building the units and it was way high. We recognized Don's problem. He had been a housing contractor for years in the area and used the same contractors over and over on his relatively small projects. They gave him their cost estimates based on their small project numbers and he didn't want to shop the prices because he wanted to stay on good terms with them. So the long and short of it was that Dick persuaded them to let him act as the General Contractor. They agreed and we moved into an apartment in Carbondale that Don Geary found for us and Dick and I ran the construction job for the first new motel - the Best 7 Inn, Carbondale.