Regarding the Judging..
The Judges do not "overlook" anyone. In a few special cases (Ie. Trucks that are too loud, big, or unsafe to move) I have in the past brought judges to specific trucks to judge them on site but it is a rare and handled on a special case by case basis and decided on by myself (operations director), the show director and judging director. typically we have done this during the judges break when they are usually getting lunch or a few minutes of downtime. Due to the number of participants (216 this year) it would be very difficult for 3 judges to track down each truck, judge it and get those results input in a reasonable amount of time. This is why we went to drive through judging many years ago. We did do on site judging early on in the show.
Regarding the Econolodge..
That area is a rougher part of town and why we moved away from the American Inn and other hotels out that way a few years ago, the show recommendation was the La Quinta Inn further up north in the Barry road area.
