$75 for Certainty?
OP wants to visit his mother and have some certainty. That costs $75 and avoids all kinds of potential messes not the least of which is to figure out what happens when, by the time OP no-shows there's no availability the next day because of earlier IRROPS, heavy traffic or a large school group?
I don't know OP's financial situation, but $75 buys a lot of peace of mind.