Vacation Chaos = Stories to Tell

Let's get this out of the way first. Things can happen when you travel. You just need to be able to roll with it. I went on a 12 day vacation with my dear son to celebrate his graduation from college. (VERY, VERY proud mother) We went to Florida. We spent 4 nights in a condo 3 minutes from the beach and then 5 days at Walt Disney World. It was a great trip - but there were a few hiccups on the way home. So before I go into blissful vacation detail, I will address the weirdness that was our trip home and get this nonsense out of the way.

First up I got a call, the night before we headed home, that my fridge did not work. My fridge that I had to live without for 9 months when it was broken before because I did not have the money to fix it. UGH. Not a nice thing to come home to. So we headed home thinking of $$$ to fix that and $$$ to replace the food. Off we drive.

It is extrememly depressing to have spent more than a week in Florida and have to face an 18 hour drive home especially when you are leaving the "Happiest Place on Earth" so it was with us when we were heading home. After driving for hours we were hot and tired. It was about 9pm and we had been on the road for nearly 12 hours. We pulled into the Scottish Inn in Manchester, TN. for one reason plain and simple, it was CHEAP. Sign said $29 and since we were on the way home from vacation you know money was an issue. My first clue should have been the front desk chick who did not have a top tooth in her mouth. She told me that the price was only for 1 bed and 1 person. Our rate would be $50. I was tired. So I handed her my credit card. We pulled in the parking lot and lugged our bags to the second floor. We opened the door and....cue the bad horror movie music. It was creepy and dirty and hot. The TV was 10 years old and missing buttons. The lights on the wall were crooked. The carpet was so disgusting I would never have taken my shoes off. The beds looked lumpy and linens dirty. Ryan said the shower faucet was hanging off the wall. When he looked at the second bed there was something weird all over the pillow area. That was it. I told him to take the bags to the car because we were not staying there.
I went to the front desk and told the gal that I was not staying there because there were bugs in the bed and she told me I could not get a refund because I had been there longer than 10 minutes. I was furious!!! WHAT!!?!? It took me 10 minutes to lug my bags up the steps look at this flea bag dive of a room and get back to the front desk. I told her there were bugs in the bed and she sent someone to "verify" it. I hightailed it after this chick because I was afraid that she would brush off the bed and say there was nothing there. When I got there for some reason she was in the bathroom?!? I said HELLO here is the bed and here is the stuff on the bed. There was a lot of...who knows what....all over the pillows and top of the cover. She looks at it says it's not bugs, look, it is crusty!?!? (What does that mean????) She said she could show us another room and I said...umm...no...I can't stay here. She called the front desk and told them to give me a refund.
I went back down there and slammed my credit card on the desk. The chick says to me, "Honey I did not mean you could not get a refund but we need to check these things out". Ran my credit card for credit and I beat a hasty retreat. Scottish Inn 2457 Hillsboro Blvd, Manchester, TN do NOT even think of staying there.

We headed down the road deciding that we had learned a valuable lesson - We are worth so much more. We will not sell ourselves short any longer. The only reason we stopped at that nasty, dirty place was because it was cheap. Well darn it we are worth it. Driving about 30 minutes we decided first of all to be safe we were only going to stay at a place we had heard of and knew would be good. We decided on the Holiday Inn because Bing Crosby would not steer us wrong. Sure it was more money but remember we are WORTH IT. So for $118 we got a clean room. With nice clean sheets and floors and towels and bathroom. AHH the pillows were great. The room smelled nice. And a super plus was the hot breakfast. Ryan had: scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy, cinnamon roll, pancakes & milk. I did not have all of that, but I had a nice breakfast too. Even the lobby area was clean. I figure we would have spent at least $20 for this breakfast at Cracker Barrel so it was a big winner.

Well until we got to the car and the AC blew hot air and the temp gauge did not move. I did not want to be driving down the road and have the car overheat so I called AAA to see if  they could give me an idea. Woman told me she did not think it would overheat but she was no mechanic. Told me not to drive on the highway which was funny since I had a 6 hour drive ahead of me. SIGH Went into gas station and got directions to O'Reilly Auto Parts. Guy there was very nice. Looked over car and determined we should not overheat. So off we went. Me reliving my 18 yr old self driving to FLA in a Ford Maverick with no AC and the wind blowing in my hair.....that is until the sweat started dripping down my back. The trip down memory lane sort of ended then. But luckily the temps never got above 86 and it was overcast. So not too bad. It was loud with the windows down but a little south of Paducha the highway going south was closed. We were stuck in traffic as 1 lane on our northbound side was closed. We then saw a very bad accident had happened in the south bound lane. Traffic there was backed up for miles. People were standing all on the highway. I said a prayer for everyone and realized how blessed we were to not be in an accident or stuck on the highway. All I had to deal with was hot air and loud wind. I was grateful.

So putting the bad mojo away....good news.... we did not stay at horrid motel but at lovely place with great breakfast because we are worth it. Fridge turned out to be a blown circuit. AC on car magically healed itself after resting for a night when it got home. You have to be grateful for all miracles and blessings no matter how small. There is always reason to Twizzle! Next up will be details about our beautiful trip.

I Love Theatre

I love theatre. I really do. I have never been to Broadway but I have been to traveling Broadway Shows and professional shows. I have attended local Professional Theatre and Community Theatre and don't forget High School shows too. Okay sure mostly it is because my son has been in shows since 4th grade and is now a Fine Arts Major. OR is he a Theatre Major BECAUSE I have a love for theatre and took him to his first performance of Power Rangers on stage when he was really little??? That is an interesting question. I think I shall take full credit for his talent.

Last week I went to see a show at Stray Dog Theatre. It was the Who's rock opera Tommy. Yes, THAT Tommy from back in 1969 that we all listened to on our record players. I will admit that I never bought the album. I guess I was not into The Who. Of course I knew the singles from the album. But never really what the story was. So off I went with Juanita who had won the tickets at the Trivia a few weeks ago. Ryan came with us. He paid but did not care. He is a theatre geek and he knew almost everyone in the show and half of the folks in the audience!

I will tell you that it was an AWESOME show. I usually think anything that Ryan is in is awesome but I am not afraid to be critical of all shows, even those Ryan is in. When he is not in the show I am ready to find fault. I will criticize even the smallest thing. I show no mercy. I was ready to tear this show apart but Tommy was great!  I just love how a good show stays with you even days later.

Stray Dog Theatre is a great organization. Two guys bought an old church and turned it into a theatre. It is cozy and quaint. It is intimate and crazy. It still looks like a church, pews, Jesus stained glass You get the idea. It is original. They do good work. Outreach, after school programs. Plus they are really nice people. And any one who takes my son under their wing is A-okay in my book!

Last year Ryan was in the Stray Dog Theatre production of Evil Dead:The Musical. Yep...that is what I thought too...What the heck??? I was less than thrilled. They even asked Ryan to sing in their Cabaret fund raiser. So who am I to judge? He had such a good time. Other than a high school fund raiser Cabaret with a few people this was his first "real" Cabaret. He was delightful. They asked him back this year too. He is so funny.

And Evil Dead:The Musical was so much fun I saw it THREE TIMES. Well, you had to be skeptical when they sell the first 2 rows of the theatre as the "Splatter Zone" and give you a special T-Shirt because you will be splattered with "blood". Does this sound like something you would enjoy seeing you son in? Well, zombie son or not. It was funny!

And this brings us back to Stray Dog Theatre where the people are so nice. They genuinely support each other. They take risks and they have such amazing talent. The tickets were free, the people were nice, Of course that would never stop me from being a grouch and pointing out endless problems with Tommy, But there were none. It was a great night. I am so glad I went. I would even like to see it again! Stray Dog Theatre continues to impress me every time I am there.

OH and I bought a package of Twizzlers from the candy machine at work to take to the show with me fully intending to take a Twizzler picture, but I ate them at home before we even left for the show. Oops. But I did have Twizzlers and I did travel back to 1969 and Tommy. I love how theatre can transport you back in time and remind you what it was like to be a teenager. A talented cast and wonderful theatre can do that to you.



Trivia with Twizzlers

I like trivia. I know some pretty pointless things. I am not a genius. But if you ask me questions like who are the 7 dwarfs or what are the lyrics to Gilligan's Island theme song I am pretty good at that. Again, not a genius. So when a friend hosted a fundraiser I grabbed the Twizzlers and off we went.

We came in 3rd and won some money which we donationed back to the cause. Okay, so there were only 4 teams. But still, we did not come in last. Another friend of mine played drums in a band after the trivia. So before we packed it all in to head home, to watch the Emmy Awards, we had time for one dance.

Add friends, a band, a bar, some trivia and you have a great time! Sometimes on a rainy Sunday night all you need to do is answer some crazy questions and Twizzle,

Twizzlers on Broadway? Well, not yet.....

Since there is no money to go on trips a girl needs to "travel" any way she can. Sometimes that just means getting out of the house. Twizzlers love to go see their favorite actor Ryan Cooper, so this summer they went to see him as Man in Chair in The Drowsy Chaperone. Super talented Ryan was amazing in this show. Of course he is amazing in every show..that is why he is our favorite actor..and favorite all round guy too.  After the show we broke out the Twizzlers for this picture. One day we will be taking our Twizzlers to Broadway to catch his act ♥

OH>>>>> before the show we went out for what we were told was great pizza....

It was NOT....I would say that explains the look on G's face but we had not even taken a bite yet. The Italian sausage left a lot to be desired. It was a little like the cheapest frozen pizza in the world. Oh well....that is why it is not called Traveling with PIZZA.

Maiden Voyage.....Chicago!

There are about 15 of us "women of a certain age" who want to have fun and travel. We have all connected on email and are going to try to take little weekend trips or day trips to a winery, etc. You know how you always say it would be fun to do something but no one ever does it? Well 4 of us fun lovin gals actually DID take a trip this past weekend. Hooray!! And...it was FUN!!
R, G, D and I set out early Friday morning en route to Chi town for the weekend.
We stayed on Michigan Av. The Magnificent Mile!!

We stayed in a corner suite on the 11th floor at the Allerton Hotel. It was a great size for the 4 of us. The hotel was built in the 1920's. It was renovated a few years ago. It was clean and we had 5 windows so the room was very bright. We had a king sized bed and a sofa sleeper. We drew names to see who slept where the first night and then swapped beds the second night. The king size bed was MUCH more comfortable!
We took a double decker bus tour and an architectural boat ride tour. We walked A LOT.

Friday night it stormed. G and I were the only ones who heard the thunder. It is hard to tell how hard it is raining when you are on the 11th floor and don't have rain on the roof above you. But we woke up Saturday morning to news that it had rained 5-6 inches over night!! Lots of roads flooded over night and one store that R went to Saturday opened late because they had flooded. But if we had not heard on the news about how much it had rained we never would have known. The overall weather was pretty good even though it was very HOT for Chicago. It was in the 90's but there seemed to be a breeze most of the time. It was nice early in the morning and nice again at night. We would love to go back again when it is cooler as I think we could walk even more when it is not 90+ out.
Saturday R shopped while G and D and I went on a tour of the Chicago Theatre. It reminded me of the Fox.

Then we met up at the Field Museum after getting stuck in some crazy traffic for a soccer game with Chicago and Manchester United.

Sunday was R's birthday and we celebrated at the Grand Lux Cafe. It was AWESOME, We had a few desserts...we did not eat them all at lunch. We brought some home with us! But it was YUMMY

It was a great trip. We had a great time! Because there were 4 of us we drove up there. Gas cost Approx $90. We were supposed to pay $48 a night to park but they only charged us $48 total for 2 nights. So that was nice. $12 each to park. We each paid $116 for our part of the hotel. We never would have been able to stay here in a suite on the Magnificent Mile on our own so we were thrilled.

Our maiden trip was a huge success!! We cannot wait to go back to Chicago. It really is a city that caters to the tourist. There is plenty to explore. Tons of stores for shopping. Fun boat and bus trips. Great restaurants. There is too much to do in just 2 short days. So a repeat trip is needed! Chicago + 4 fun broads = MUCH FUN....and yes...there were TWIZZLERS!!

It's Not A Vacation Unless There Are Twizzlers

In 2000 my cousin Karla, my son, and I were in Florida for a family reunion. We were bored and decided to go to Walgreen's. While we were there we bought some cherry Twizzler licorice. We drove around twirling our Twizzlers because that is what you should do when you have one in your hand. It was fun. We laughed. They were tasty. It was a warm fuzzy memory. It made us all smile when we thought of it later. Twizzlers came to represent vacation and travel and fun to us. Ever since that trip, whenever my son or I have gone on any trip, we have taken Twizzlers. I think Karla takes them when she travels too.
Twizzlers have been on numerous trips to Walt Disney World, to Ireland, Israel and last weekend to Chicago. It just isn't a vacation unless there are Twizzlers! Which leads us to this blog......

Being a woman of "a certain age" can be hard. You are no longer able to sit on the floor and get up without crawling on your knees or grunting when someone lends you a hand. Things have shifted south. Weight comes on and does not leave. Your feet hurt, but so does your back and your hips and your knees. You often find yourself searching out every restroom when you go out. You sometimes think you are crazy.....but then....you suddenly wake up and decide that there is still a lot of life to live.
Being an "experienced woman" can have its perks!! You no longer give a darn! Oh the joy! The freedom!! You can sing in the grocery store and not care who hears.  Tennis shoes become the footwear of choice for everything from jeans to sweats to dresses. You are not sad that you spend every night in front of the tv.... You are not embarrassed....You are simply tired and you like to lie on the sofa. Besides Franklin and Bash is a fun little show and HGTV teaches you how to redecorate and the Food Network teaches you to cook....and then....you meet others like you. You are not alone!!? You are not the only one!!? Wow! There are many of you. Others who don't give a darn, who are not ashamed that they often sit at home and watch tv and actually LIKE it, others who would sometimes like to get out of the house and go to dinner or theatre or travel.  Wait a minute...there are other "women of a certain age" who think it would be fun to occasionally travel??? What?? We can share the expense and go places and have fun?? Well....why not!?!?
Let's go!! Just don't forget the Twizzlers. It just isn't a real trip without the Twizzlers!!