It was my impression as a child, when I heard my parents discussing staying in either hotels or motels, that motels were the places along the route on the way to a city or a town, places where you could stop to rest along the highways. But I thought the hotels were the grand many-storied structures within the city itself, like the splendiferous Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.

I think of hotels as highrise buildings. My imagination doesn't put them along the highway as it does motels.

Consider "Grand Hotel," the Garbo classic.

Then consider "Grand Motel," the classic that has yet to be created. Is there anywhere a grand motel?

And, as always, there's probably a gray area in between hotel and motel through which both forms apply.