One time, on the way to visit his parents, Steve and I stayed in a hotel somewhere in Kansas I believe that was cheap but soooo awful! We got in the room and it had one of those beds where it had a wooden headboard that was actually bolted to the wall, you know?
It was just coated with pomade.
We left.
Ewwww!
Motel 6s are the cheapest places I've stayed. They're nothing fancy, but generally they're pretty clean.
But there don't seem to be as many of them on this side of the country. And the one near where I was planning to stop first is 9 miles away from the interstate I'll be on! That's not really practical.