Vacation 2016

We went to Tennessee

view from our cabin

So we decided to leave on Friday afternoon, but had some complications at the last minute.  We had wanted to be on the road by 3-3:30 pm, but did not get on the road until about 5 pm.  Oh well.  Passing thru ft wayne, we ate some Chinese food, then back on the road.  We stopped in Anderson Indiana, so we did not get very far.  We stayed in a hotel.  (more on that hotel later).
We stopped early, around 9 pm.  This gave me time to work on my school work (yes that would follow me on this vacation).  I did not post to friends and family or clients, that we were going to be on a vacation. I probably should have.  I told current clients, they knew, but still I had 3 contact me with a total of 7 calls in the first 2 days. (and more later days, including some who did not know I was gone because again, I did not post it on social media).  My husband was amazed. I said, well, perhaps I need to just leave the phone off, and allow them to call the person covering for me.  I think that is what I will do next time..  Now if you are my client and reading this, do not freak out or feel guilty.  I am including this information to explain what it is like for us care providers when we get away.  Vacation is for relaxing, getting away from our life and reality for a short time.  It is to renew us.  If I can not do that, my stress increases.
So from now on, I will plan to turn my phone off,  It is what I will need to do.  Again, some of you did not know, and to all of you, please do not feel guilty!  All of the others, could have been handled by the on call person, or could have waited until I returned home.   There, I said it. Not to be mean.  Just facts. I learn too, all the time.  I want to be there for all of you, but I have learned, no-during the vacation, I need the break.  It is healing.  It is refreshing.

So after a ok stay at this hotel, in the morning we went down for a am meal that the hotel provides.  Thee young girl serving the food, said the omelets were vegetarian.  We thought great!  (we do not eat pork).  But as  look at one, while she stands beside me chattering away at a mile a minute, I see 'ham'.  I put one on a plate and use a fork to pull out the ham, and tell her-this is meat.  It is pork.  She looks at it and says: oh!  I thought that was a vegetable!  (folks, these omelets are either premade and are only needing to be heated up or there is pre-cut items to put into the liquid eggs that they have, and if you would  just read the package (since it is your job after all) you would see there is MEAT in the package!
When we were done, I noticed cops coming into the hotel.  Apparently there was a homeless guy or a transit guy that had wondered in and fell asleep on the couch in the lobby in front of the fireplace.  It was a very cold night.  You could tell he was or had been on the road, walking for a long time.  Two cop cars, two cops. I felt sad for the guy.

So on the road. We were taking a different route this time.  Usually we go from ft Wayne over to Ohio and down 75.  This time we were going south on 69 to Anderson, then taking a few other highways over to Cincinnati Ohio.  Then picking up 75 south there. 

Driving
We arrived to Tennessee in the afternoon on Saturday.  Looked for a hotel to stay in. We chose the (will fill this in later)

Some photos of the hotel, including an outdoor fireplace

This hotel was ok, but in the morning I noticed some items under the edge of the bed skirt, it was clear that the room had been hastily cleaned.  Dust was so thick in the room in areas, that you could write letters in it.  The items I saw under the bed skirt was food.  This bothered me.  I had not noticed it the evening before, we had checked in, unloaded our suitcases and left to go eat.  So when I checked out in the morning, I told the girl.  They did not charge us for the room.  I did NOT complain to get a free room folks, I was hoping they would at least discount it maybe 10 or 20 bucks. So they were willing to work with us.  I told the woman I did not expect for a free room, I said this 3 times, but she said, no, you are not totally satisfied, its free.
The evening before we ate at this restaurant: 

We ordered steaks, and Scott asked for some A1 sauce when our meal was brought to the table.  The waitress looked at him sort of funny, but turned and walked away returning with this small cup (it is smaller than it looks in the photo) it holds about an ounce.  This restaurant is one that has actual chefs.  So I guess we probably just insulted them all. 

The food was amazing.  We did not eat the A1, I did not.  Scott did a little, but said he did not need it!  So I do recommend this place to eat.  It is moderate in price. 

So now remember that meal at BULL FISH was Saturday evening.  Sunday morning we ate the breakdast they serve in the hotel, and the potatoes must have  pork in them, (the grease anyway) and I did not know it.  I got very ill off of them.  Bloated and sick.  As the day went on, I felt worse and worse.  Stomach issues.  Yuck. We went sight seeing in the mountains, drove around a little, stopped for lunch at Texas road house.  I ordered the chicken with mashed potatoes, and white style roux gravy. (sp?).  This white gravy is suppose to be made from a base of butter and flour, milk or cream added net then seasoning such as chicken broth, pepper and salt.  But with the first bite, I thought, taste a little like bacon, I tried one more bite, yep-I was sure.  Its flavored with bacon grease.  This is CHICKEN gravy folks! 

So I ask the waiter, and he goes back to check.  Yep.  

I have not ate pork for so many years, it really makes me ill if I eat it.  I am not getting worse.  They did re-do my meal, without the gravy.  But I could barely stomach half of the meat, and the broccoli and that was it.  I was not well.  This vacation is not going as planned.  I did not plan to get sick from bad food!

So now we go to check in.  We were staying at a cabin in Hidden mountain west location, but that office is closed now, so we have to drive to the east location to check in.  Then drive back to the west location.  We arrive to the cabin, unload a weeks worth of clothes, and food and stuff.  (we had went grocery shopping at walmart and kroger before checking into the cabin). 

We were here from sunday evening until friday morning.  Here are some of the photos of the place:

 Shower (one of them- the one upstairs for that bedroom was even larger) they had body sprays

  So As I go to climb into bed that evening, I felt something hard weird on the blanket/top cover.   I look, ewwwww this was NOT ours.  This bed was made, tucked in and all of that.  This is gross.  This tells me this bedding was not changed.  I complained in the morning (it was very late now, and I was not sure anyone was there at the office). They came out in the morning and changed the bedding, but this should NEVER have happened.  (Do I have written on my forehead-please do not clean the place we will rent before we arrive?  this is getting OLD to happen this much!).

ok that is enough for now.  More later.  AGAIN this is at Hidden Mountain West, a place we have stayed at so many times thru the years (and this is not the only problem we have had in the past have had trouble with the cleaning before). The problems we have had in the past, when reported, they did not do anything to really fix it too much except for like this, change the bedding or bring clean stuff.  

I get told they will 'get back with me' which they never do.

This cabin is owned by a doctor.  I bet he would be mad to see this is how his cabin was 'cleaned'.  The aids virus dies on dried blood, or dried yuck.  But hepatitis virus lives on dried stuff for up to 7 days! (I am in the health care too remember).  So this is not ok.  This probably should be reported to the health board actually. 

Vacation remaining days of 2015

one of the bridges we crossed driving thru Indiana, kentucky area

Well I never finished this blog, so here it is.
The remaining days were spent happily just relaxing on the beach, scott did some metal detecting, I spent time doing homework, and also reading a book for fun.

Most of the days there was a overcast but one day was very sunny.
We also drove over to a area (like a attached island) that had a state park.  I did not get out to walk around, my knee was so bad..

The reason?  The location we stayed at, was wonderful-right on the beach.  The house we rented was nice, not super fancy, but nice.  But the beds/mattresses were simple awful!  Cheap mattresses, and it hurt my knee.  I need a good quality mattress or at my age, and plus after having had knee surgery-good support with the mattress effects not only the back, but knee.  By the end of the week, my knee would not bend anymore.  I had to walk with my leg straight, out like Frankenstein.  I blame the owner of this unit. It was clear that she did not care, (she was also selling it, and the guy who came to fix the on line problem-days later when we were almost done with the vacation-confirmed that she was a mean lady, demanding, but not always good to work with.  I chose not to complain until now, months later because of her possible back lash.  (I read some of it on line from other units she owes when someone does complain).
Other than that, we had fun.  It was fun shelling, just driving around, and relaxing.  One day for several hours we sat on the beach digging as the waves came in -for shells that were washed ashore.  Why?  What will we do with them?  I do not know, but it was fun.
Some things Scott found while out with the metal detector, were old bottle caps-along with some coral, shells, I made a design in memory of my nephew who has passed away this past spring.
I will add the location later.

Here are some photos to enjoy:

white powder sand, blue waters...

beautiful sunsets

crystal clear waters

I like taking photos of trees

loved keeping the feet in the sand

                      

                        

the book I read

the path from our home to the beach

                   

our spot on the beach

The message for Rollie my nephew who passed away

another one of the bedrooms (we had 3)

our living room, a very old couch

the patio out from the living room, overlooking the beach

Day 3 and 4 of vacation in 2015

Day #3
So we woke up and enjoyed the sunrise, watched dolphins playing in the bay---

then spent the morning settling in.  We decided to go for a drive, and went back to that park for more photos.  It was on the way to a walmart we needed to go to for some things we needed for the week.  Then we drove the other way, to a few more stores.

I found these shells.  Later I found out the one had a resident in it. We argued about who got to keep the shell, I won.

this is one of those things...not sure what the name is..swims all over the place

cool tree with moss on it by the bay

tree roots

the tree roots

We went back to the home we rented, and found that no internet connection still.  I have school work to do, (I am doing distance program) so we drove up to a McDonalds, and I spent a half an hour getting on line! Ugg!

Then 2 hours to do homework while a family with children including teens, screamed and laughed beside me.  Hard to concentrate.

I have to say, I have a wonderful patient husband that waited for me to finish....

The McDonald's did have christian music playing, that was nice.  I do not eat their food, but did thank them for the selection of music before I left.

I was not happy about renting a place and then not having what it said it offered. 

                                                                            

We got back to the unit

That evening, we watched the sunset on the beach and watched the dolphins again, some jumping out of the water!  I did not get photos of the dolphins, but did get a video I might post later somewhere!

Day #4

our view from the upstairs deck off from the  kitchen

Monday...awaken to a cloudy day.  It remained over cast all day, and the waves, like yesterday was strong and a lot of them.

    We saw the dolphins again in the bay.  A whole pod of them.  You just see them coming up out of the water, and then right back down as they swim. They swim one way-probably eating their breakfast, then eventually they might come back by going back into the bay.  

    We  drove back to the two Dollar stores.  One was like a grocery store too, bigger than what we have back home.  On the way here, in southern Alabama, there was a dollar store every 5 miles! Really! And they looked busy too. 

    Anyway, we decided to buy some beach chairs, probably should have brought some folding chairs from our camper-

    I found 2 chairs left that were not folding, but were a better price then the folding ones.  Those were they kind that sit low to the ground.  For the beach.  But I did not think they would be easy for me to get in and out of with my one knee (former surgery). No others were available and I really did not want to drive back to a walmart.  (20 plus miles).

    So I negotiated the  price down... originally priced at about 11 dollars each, I got the one for 5 and the other one for 7-1/2.   Once back, we spent the rest of the day on the beach or back in the house.
                                                               

our beach chairs 

Scott got his metal detector out and searched the beach. 

                                                                   

This is what he found:

                                                                 

The waves were good with the shells, found a lot of smaller ones.  Only two of the larger type of shells.  I do not know what I will do with all of them, but I like looking for them.