So finally, either a day late or two days early, we set off for Chattanooga. Although, as I said, we had no internet at the Big Crappie, I was able to get a cell phone signal, so we got our subsequent reservations changed to accommodate our new situation.
Again, from the Kentucky border to Chattanooga isn’t that far, but there are a lot of route changes, and again, Joyce drove while I navigated. Driving out of Kentucky into Tennessee we went through some really beautiful scenery, and we were sorry we hadn’t been able to see more of it. So we will go back, but this time, from the Tennessee side. Only got a little lost in Clarksville, and then decided as long as it was on the way, we’d stop at the Murfreesboro VA hospital.
But the fates had other ideas. We followed the one sign we saw to get off the interstate and then there weren’t any more. And we asked directions several times, and either they had no idea or sent us off on a wild goose chase. I have no idea if we ever got anywhere near it or not, but after an hour, we were sick of it and decided to try the VA in Chattanooga when we got there.
Joyce was right about that long steep hill, and it really unnerved her, and I couldn’t drive. Last time she drove it was in an ice storm, so this was a little better. A lot of trucks, but it was clear and hot. Boy, was it hot! A huge change in temperatures once we got out of Illinois, and it stayed hot all the way home. And all the way to Chattanooga, the scenery was just fantastic, and reminded us why we wish we lived in Tennessee. Who knows, maybe someday, if the housing market ever recovers.
Crossed back into Eastern time just before Chattanooga, so we lost an hour, but easily found the hotel. And holy Toledo, what a dump! But as I said below, if it’s a day or two, you’re inclined to endure it, and anyway, it wasn’t so bad on the surface, at least to start. As Joyce registered, I could see the pool and kids were in it, but it looked pretty good to me all the same. We were burning up.
Skedaddled off to our room to unpack and change and went to the pool. Kids gone, pool hot. Moreover, pool dirty, like they don’t clean their filters. They also had an indoor pool, but it was down for maintenance. When we complained, they sent us next door to the “Comfort” Inn, which also had an indoor pool and reciprocal privileges. We went there. Pool hot! Spa cold! We sat in the spa. At least it was clean.
When we left, we told the desk people perhaps they had their temperature controls reversed. We saw that once before, a hot pool and a cold spa, in Tifton, Georgia. So they said they would fix it, and went to change and eat. We were in there for two nights to allow me time at the VA, and we figured we’d check it out again the next day.
And that was pretty much our day. Oh, except the wifi didn’t work and I had to use the hotel’s computer station to catch up, and that’s how I discovered the lobby was full of flies. We wondered why that was, but we found out the next day. And so will you!
Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Rain rain go away so I can get my dislocated elbow fixed
So, we were at the Resort-Marina for four days when we decided we’d had enough days. Started packing up. Joyce went and told them we’d be leaving early the next morning, and we’d forfeit our payment. As I said, we had TV, and as the weather had been so bad for the whole trip, we decided we’d better keep an eye on it. All day as we packed, it rained on and off. And all around us, there was bad weather, including tornados.
Got up in the morning to finish packing and leave, and Tennessee was just pouring rain and tornados from one end of the state to the other, and our route would take us through all of it. Of course it was sunny right where we were. But with my arm, Joyce would have had to drive the whole way in bad weather, and she knew there was a long steep downhill stretch outside of Chattanooga. We opted to stay put and Joyce went and told the management. Then we went back to bed, and when I got up, since we were all packed, I spent the day blogging (but not on-line) and watching the revolution in Iran).
At that point, my arm still felt “just” dislocated to me, but I did want to get to a doctor. However, I was able to move it more with less pain every day, so one more day wasn’t going to make a lot of difference. As it turned out, of course, it was broken! But I didn’t find that out until I got home, and it still didn’t make any difference.
Got up in the morning to finish packing and leave, and Tennessee was just pouring rain and tornados from one end of the state to the other, and our route would take us through all of it. Of course it was sunny right where we were. But with my arm, Joyce would have had to drive the whole way in bad weather, and she knew there was a long steep downhill stretch outside of Chattanooga. We opted to stay put and Joyce went and told the management. Then we went back to bed, and when I got up, since we were all packed, I spent the day blogging (but not on-line) and watching the revolution in Iran).
At that point, my arm still felt “just” dislocated to me, but I did want to get to a doctor. However, I was able to move it more with less pain every day, so one more day wasn’t going to make a lot of difference. As it turned out, of course, it was broken! But I didn’t find that out until I got home, and it still didn’t make any difference.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Last Day in Wisconsin
Jim left right after breakfast, and the weather was sort of okay, so we took the dogs to a local state park where there were lots of mosquitoes. It was cool and sometimes the sun came out a little, but that’s all, so we were able to play miniature golf while the kids napped in the car. Then we made that second trip to Culver’s, and then we went back to pack.
This was another party night on the property with lots of people from the area, door prizes, cornhole, volleyball and a beer truck. We just dodged the whole thing as much as possible. It’s a small area, though, and you could hear each and every person and activity. So we just left them to their boogying in the rain, and packed up our gear.
Honestly, it’s funny when you think of all the stuff we crammed into a week up there, and the weather sucked most of the time, and a lot of the things we did weren’t what we really planned to do.
On the road the next day, it was just like our arrival: pretty much a dead deer every mile until we hit Illinois. Both Joyce and I have lived in Illinois, and I visited there a lot, and we knew there wasn’t much to see, so we just drove straight to Springfield and because Illinois is flat and pretty dull, there’s not a whole lot more to say about it.
Next, the Land of Lincoln.
This was another party night on the property with lots of people from the area, door prizes, cornhole, volleyball and a beer truck. We just dodged the whole thing as much as possible. It’s a small area, though, and you could hear each and every person and activity. So we just left them to their boogying in the rain, and packed up our gear.
Honestly, it’s funny when you think of all the stuff we crammed into a week up there, and the weather sucked most of the time, and a lot of the things we did weren’t what we really planned to do.
On the road the next day, it was just like our arrival: pretty much a dead deer every mile until we hit Illinois. Both Joyce and I have lived in Illinois, and I visited there a lot, and we knew there wasn’t much to see, so we just drove straight to Springfield and because Illinois is flat and pretty dull, there’s not a whole lot more to say about it.
Next, the Land of Lincoln.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
(Hole in the) Wall
By the way, if you haven't already done so, go back and look at the pictures in the earier posts. You can enlarge them by clicking on them.
Also, I want to thank the folks who have commented. I have tried to answer you but Blogspot won't let me answer my own comments! If anyone knows how to overcome this, please leave a comment!
So we thought this leg would be just bloody awful: 300 miles due west in high winds and heat. Having lowered our expecations, it didn't turn out as badly as we had feared.
The AAA TripTik was marked "Rough" "Rough" "Rough" all the way across the state, and with the high winds on the rough roads and all the road work going on, we started thinking we ought to return east through North Dakota. Luckily, the really bad roads lasted less than 100 miles. The state quits being pretty about one third of the way across, and you have endlessly straight roads and flat, treeless countryside. But then, about two-thirds of the way over, it gets interesting again, because you reach the Badlands.
We will discuss why these lands are bad tomorrow, but for now you're going to hear all about Murdo and Wall, South Dakota. We're driving and driving and driving along this long straight road through basically featureless landscape, and after a while we get hungry. So we decide we'll get off at the next promising exit.
The next three exits are "No Services" and two more are nothing but gas stations with maybe a convenience store. Nah, not that hungry. Finally we see an exit coming up that guarantees "Dining" so we get off in Murdo. Probably Murdo was a person. I have't been interested enough yet to look. In Murdo, we found two "Dining" opportunities. One looked like an old-fashioned ice cream/burger joint so we went there. And just after Joyce went in to order, the middle and high schools let out for some sort of break and they all descended on this one place. This was the school district for an entire county, six grades, maybe 60 kids, total. Depresssing! Because we could leave! There is nothing in Murdo except this rather questionable car museum and several gas stations where you PAY INSIDE. It was very much like American Graffiti in terms of social development. One girl had an iPod. No one had a cell phone. Out of curiosity I tried mine and "No Service." Honestly, it was another place I was glad to leave. Once we got to Custer, the Western terminus of our trip, we actually found a tour brochure for Murdo advertising nine restaurants and seven hotels. Bite me. Maybe in 1955, and then again, maybe never.
So we drove on to Wall. All across the desert, I mean, plains, there are these never-ending signs advertising Wall Drug and other Wall "points of interest." So we thought it would be something like South of the Border in South Carolina, where you see signs for the place for 300 miles from any direction, and then, when you arrive, it's a super-enormous tacky-fest.
Wall is a tiny little tacky-fest. It's a block-long store selling "Western souvenirs" out the wazoo. Oh, sure, we bought some of the darned things. I had to have a back-scratcher. Joyce persisted in her never-ending quest for embroidered tee-shirts and refrigerator magnets. But we bought a lot less than we expected to be able to, because the stuff is pretty picked-over and tacky, although it IS cheap. And they have other "attractions" such as petrified cowpunchers you can pose with and a Western "art gallery" (think velvet paintings and thigs made out of twigs).
When we came out, we found a busload of German tourists laughing their asses off in the street, and we didn't blame them a bit.
Our hotel was so bad, it was hilarious. The pool looked like a swamp and smelled like a cesspool. We asked for some things we considered rather basic and they didn't have any: take-out menus, a candy machine, hangers, cream cheese at the continental breakfast. They had no hand lotion, but offered us a lot of shampoos. I think it was a family-run place and they were struggling. We didn't give them any grief because we had the place to ourselves for two days (apparently no one stays in Wall for two days) and they were very nice, though frequently apologetic. The room itself was enormous, and the place was again, a little piece of 1955 motor court.
Next time: Why badlands are bad.
Also, I want to thank the folks who have commented. I have tried to answer you but Blogspot won't let me answer my own comments! If anyone knows how to overcome this, please leave a comment!
So we thought this leg would be just bloody awful: 300 miles due west in high winds and heat. Having lowered our expecations, it didn't turn out as badly as we had feared.
The AAA TripTik was marked "Rough" "Rough" "Rough" all the way across the state, and with the high winds on the rough roads and all the road work going on, we started thinking we ought to return east through North Dakota. Luckily, the really bad roads lasted less than 100 miles. The state quits being pretty about one third of the way across, and you have endlessly straight roads and flat, treeless countryside. But then, about two-thirds of the way over, it gets interesting again, because you reach the Badlands.
We will discuss why these lands are bad tomorrow, but for now you're going to hear all about Murdo and Wall, South Dakota. We're driving and driving and driving along this long straight road through basically featureless landscape, and after a while we get hungry. So we decide we'll get off at the next promising exit.
The next three exits are "No Services" and two more are nothing but gas stations with maybe a convenience store. Nah, not that hungry. Finally we see an exit coming up that guarantees "Dining" so we get off in Murdo. Probably Murdo was a person. I have't been interested enough yet to look. In Murdo, we found two "Dining" opportunities. One looked like an old-fashioned ice cream/burger joint so we went there. And just after Joyce went in to order, the middle and high schools let out for some sort of break and they all descended on this one place. This was the school district for an entire county, six grades, maybe 60 kids, total. Depresssing! Because we could leave! There is nothing in Murdo except this rather questionable car museum and several gas stations where you PAY INSIDE. It was very much like American Graffiti in terms of social development. One girl had an iPod. No one had a cell phone. Out of curiosity I tried mine and "No Service." Honestly, it was another place I was glad to leave. Once we got to Custer, the Western terminus of our trip, we actually found a tour brochure for Murdo advertising nine restaurants and seven hotels. Bite me. Maybe in 1955, and then again, maybe never.
So we drove on to Wall. All across the desert, I mean, plains, there are these never-ending signs advertising Wall Drug and other Wall "points of interest." So we thought it would be something like South of the Border in South Carolina, where you see signs for the place for 300 miles from any direction, and then, when you arrive, it's a super-enormous tacky-fest.
Wall is a tiny little tacky-fest. It's a block-long store selling "Western souvenirs" out the wazoo. Oh, sure, we bought some of the darned things. I had to have a back-scratcher. Joyce persisted in her never-ending quest for embroidered tee-shirts and refrigerator magnets. But we bought a lot less than we expected to be able to, because the stuff is pretty picked-over and tacky, although it IS cheap. And they have other "attractions" such as petrified cowpunchers you can pose with and a Western "art gallery" (think velvet paintings and thigs made out of twigs).
When we came out, we found a busload of German tourists laughing their asses off in the street, and we didn't blame them a bit.
Our hotel was so bad, it was hilarious. The pool looked like a swamp and smelled like a cesspool. We asked for some things we considered rather basic and they didn't have any: take-out menus, a candy machine, hangers, cream cheese at the continental breakfast. They had no hand lotion, but offered us a lot of shampoos. I think it was a family-run place and they were struggling. We didn't give them any grief because we had the place to ourselves for two days (apparently no one stays in Wall for two days) and they were very nice, though frequently apologetic. The room itself was enormous, and the place was again, a little piece of 1955 motor court.
Next time: Why badlands are bad.
Friday, May 8, 2009
The road to Jackson
Approximately 216 miles. Approximately 200 miles of rain. The most interesting thing was the local Shoney's. When we went in the door, the greeeter said, "Smoking or non?" We both shrieked, "Smoking!?!?!?!?" and left. Ended up at Ruby Tuesday's for our evening salad craving, and did laundry. Found a dead cat out back of the motel, a cat we had seen alive and well earlier. We didn't let the dogs see her. Sad. So, on to Memphis!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Mobile Bay and environs
It took only a few hours to get here from Tallahassee, a grueling 159 miles with a lunch break, two pee breaks and a gas stop. In fact, not much longer than it takes us to get out of a motel in the morning, which is two and a half hours. It doesn't matter what we do first: shower, eat, pack. It always takes two and a half hours. Our routine is to barely dress and walk the dogs. Then, depending what time complimentary breakfast is, we either shower and pack first, or shower and eat. Rain or shine, no matter when we get up, it's two and a half hours.
So we actually stayed in Fairhope, which is a small town on Mobile Bay. We got lucky with this lovely little town full of gracious homes and flowers. We also got lucky with a beautiful park on the bay for some exercise with the kids. It was muggy and overcast and very windy. This made the bay rough and not pretty but it's huge and interesting, and there was a super-long pier out into it for a refreshing break.
Also, Fairhope is full of flowers. We got Van O'White to pose with some.
These were ready for their close-up:
Next morning we just skirted Mobile but we can tell you it's HUGE: Bay, USS Alabama, gigantic buildings downtown, bridges, roadways. We had no idea. Take a look at this bridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochrane_%E2%80%93_Africatown_USA_Bridge
Joyce wants me to mention that this is our first trip with three bags of medicatons for us and the dogs. Used to be able to do it with one, but then, this is seven weeks. She also wants everyone to know that there are no security inspections or currency exchanges between the states, so we got through with two pistols, several knives, drugs and our vicious animals. Did I mention Joyce hates flying? Well, we both do.
And, we used every piece of luggage in the house except the huge garment bag for formal wear. We call this assortment our Polish luggage, because except for the four matching bags, nothing matches. This includes shopping bags, beach bags, two coolers, barracks bags, canvas shopping bags, three plastic bags full of poop containment bags, net bags, belly bags, complimentary vacation location bags and . . . no wonder it takes two and a half hours to pack the van. And we don't even unload a lot of it, because it's for our long stops.
Next blog will cover the Fairhope to Jackson, Mississippi leg. Don't hold your breath!
So we actually stayed in Fairhope, which is a small town on Mobile Bay. We got lucky with this lovely little town full of gracious homes and flowers. We also got lucky with a beautiful park on the bay for some exercise with the kids. It was muggy and overcast and very windy. This made the bay rough and not pretty but it's huge and interesting, and there was a super-long pier out into it for a refreshing break.
Also, Fairhope is full of flowers. We got Van O'White to pose with some.
These were ready for their close-up:
Next morning we just skirted Mobile but we can tell you it's HUGE: Bay, USS Alabama, gigantic buildings downtown, bridges, roadways. We had no idea. Take a look at this bridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochrane_%E2%80%93_Africatown_USA_Bridge
Joyce wants me to mention that this is our first trip with three bags of medicatons for us and the dogs. Used to be able to do it with one, but then, this is seven weeks. She also wants everyone to know that there are no security inspections or currency exchanges between the states, so we got through with two pistols, several knives, drugs and our vicious animals. Did I mention Joyce hates flying? Well, we both do.
And, we used every piece of luggage in the house except the huge garment bag for formal wear. We call this assortment our Polish luggage, because except for the four matching bags, nothing matches. This includes shopping bags, beach bags, two coolers, barracks bags, canvas shopping bags, three plastic bags full of poop containment bags, net bags, belly bags, complimentary vacation location bags and . . . no wonder it takes two and a half hours to pack the van. And we don't even unload a lot of it, because it's for our long stops.
Next blog will cover the Fairhope to Jackson, Mississippi leg. Don't hold your breath!
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