April 26, 2011, Quito Ecuador

Yes, the blog is a week or so late, but better late than never – and I took good notes, so hopefully you won't miss too much!

I left Greenville by car to go to the Charlotte airport. The sky was overcast and threatened rain, but nothing could dampen my spirits on this day when I was leaving on my first ever trip out of the country. Everything went smoothly and on through the checkpoint to find the gate and wait. A couple of bathroom breaks in there and all was well and I was sitting on a 737 anxious for the first leg of the trip.

Waiting in Charlotte
Now, waiting on planes is interesting. The flight attendants have to get a verbal agreement from all the people in the exit row that they will hang out in a burning, drowning, whatever plane, while they help all the other passengers get the heck out of Dodge. All six people agree. I keep wondering if they're lying. Would I wait on the other passengers? Or would I high tail it out of the burning plane? I wasn't on an exit row, so my honesty wasn't tested, but it does make me wonder if they'd slide out of there and leave me to fumble my way around trying to get my seat that can be used as a floatation device out and my fat rear end down a slide by myself. I know, I think weird thoughts. Aren't you glad you're not in here with me ALL the time?

On the Plane
We waited our turn to taxi out to the runway. The captain came on and said it was the result of "sequencing" that they're doing at the Charlotte airport now. Basically it just makes you sit out on the runway longer I think waiting for your turn and stop and start a lot -- kind of like rush hour traffic. I'm not really sure what the whole idea is, but I hope it works for them. The plane creaked and moaned and groaned and finally the roar of the engines got louder and louder and we were speeding down the runway for a one hour and 35 minute flight time (ticket says about 2 hours, but some of that is loading the plane and waiting and all that mess). It is always really weird to me that feeling of weightlessness you get when the gigantic plane with lots of people on it (and it was a full flight) just takes off and is in the air. Your tummy feels funny (well, mine does anyway) and it's just utterly weird feeling.

Clouds
I don't often think about clouds from the other side. We so often look up at them that it becomes our only perspective (unless you're a pilot, I presume). They are maybe even more beautiful when you look down on them. There were some astounding cotton-like puffs interspersed with blue sky and jet streams from my limited view from the center seat. The mountains of cotton were in my sight much of the flight while my ears popped repeatedly as we continued to increase in altitude. As a child, I played the "what do you see in the clouds" game. And on the airplane, I found myself doing the same thing. There were lions, fighting Schnauzers, rams with circled horns and teddy bears that were so much larger than life. While I was enjoying my imagination, the people on either side of me were oblivious to the wonder of it all and were sleeping soundly. How? Why would you want to miss this? Can you get so used to seeing the clouds from the other side that it becomes old hat to you? It's a very sad comment on human nature that we can become so used to amazing things and no longer see them as amazing. Of course, maybe they sleep because of the deafening roar of the plane engines. I don't know.

Through those clouds that I imagined were at least as big as glaciers, I occasionally saw a spot of land, and before too very long, I felt the altitude changing. The descent started about 30 minutes from Miami and seemed to continue forever until I heard the whirr of the hydraulics which I assume were opening the compartment to let the landing gear out. There was a grid like pattern to Miami from the air. I guess there is to many cities. And then, off the US Air plane and onto a LAN Airlines plane. The gates of the two airlines were close, so I had time for lunch – always a good idea for me as I do get motion sickness. Miami got me ready for my trip to Ecuador – I was asked if I was "finito?" when I was done!

LAN Airlines
LAN Airlines is a well-respected South American Airline (at least that's what I was told) and after flying on the airline, I believe them. Boarding was an experience as we boarded by rows and I had to brush up on my Spanish numbers to get it right. I was in Seat 40L – at the very back, so after first class and people with children and the elderly, I was listening really hard for the word 40 in Spanish. I succeeded, obviously, since I made it on board.

The plane was a 767, so it was the largest plane I have ever been on. It had three rows of seats in the back, something I'd only seen in movies. There was a blanket and pillow in the seat waiting for me. Did I mention I really like this airline? There was a screen on the back of the seat ahead that showed a world map and where we were.

I had a window seat this time and after takeoff, I saw many of the orange tile roofs so common in Miami and lots of water. The screen in front of me continued to give me information about our speed and altitude and even the outside temperature – it's no wonder planes are so cold  since the outside temperature for much of the trip was -63 degrees F. Yes, there is a negative sign in front of that number. Of course, we were also at 37,000 feet. There were blue skies above us and scattered clouds below, and no, I won't go into another cloud description, so don't stop reading!

The screen showing the flight information was a touch screen so that you could do a number of other things as well, such as learn about destinations where LAN flies. I read a little bit about Quito and some other areas.

I was a little worried on getting to the Quito Airport. The original plan was that the tour guide would meet each person coming in and ride to the airport. I was on a later flight, so the tour guide called (while I was in Miami) and said everyone was doing okay, so the driver would be there and she wouldn't be meeting me. All I could think of was that she didn't know my ability to get lost and turned around – and in a foreign country no less. No need to get discouraged – only one thing to do – move forward…

Cuba, Panama, Pacific Ocean
The captain came on and spoke to us – for a long time in Spanish and then for a shorter time in English. Have you ever noticed that? When someone is speaking in Spanish it goes on for 10 minutes and then the translation is something like "And they climbed up the mountain." Or something equally short. Makes you wonder what you're missing. I've got to dig Rosetta Stone out and work with it some more.

Anyway, we were out of US airspace pretty quickly and were told we would then be in Cuban airspace, Panama airspace and then over the Pacific Ocean before arriving in Quito. I saw Cuba. It's a very large island with very clear water surrounding it – at least the part I saw. I imagine it would be a beautiful island up close. I didn't see much of Panama – we were still at quite a high altitude, but I saw a bit of land and beach, I think.

On Board Entertainment System
OK, I mentioned the screen that showed the altitude and that sort of thing, right? Well, it also played a short movie (in English and Spanish) about the safety instructions, oxygen, your floating device, all of the normal stuff.

The flight attendants came around with earpieces so that the onboard entertainment system could be used (at no charge), so I started to look at my movie options and settled on "The Fighter" since it was supposed to be such a good movie and I had not yet seen it.

At some point during the movie, I was handed two Immigration Cards to complete.

The on board entertainment system, in addition to the touch screen, had a remote. There were a number of kids of all ages on the flight and they were well-entertained as the system had games. I even played a round or two of Tetris. There were quite a few movies and games (Tetris, Battleship, Sudoku and more) and even TV shows to choose from – usually in Spanish, French or English. The Fighter was in English with Spanish subtitles (because I chose English).

I was surprised when the flight attendants came around not only serving beverages (we had had a beverage on the US Air Flight after all), but also food. They even served complimentary wine on the flight. The food that day was a pasta dish, which I couldn't eat because of my gluten intolerance, but since I wasn't expecting food, I had something with me in case I needed it, plus I'd had lunch in Miami.

After the movie, I still had a bit of time, so I watched most of an episode of Big Bang Theory. There was some turbulence as we got closer to Quito, so we were advised to stay seated and keep our seatbelts on.

Quito
Flying into the Quito airport was interesting. First, there are mountains on either side of you, and then you start seeing buildings on either side of you and you become concerned – or maybe that was just me that was concerned. I'm not really used to airports being in the middle of town, but this one is. I expected we might have to climb stairs down, but we had a jet way. It was all very civilized. We walked for a while and were herded – well, not exactly herded, but there really was no other way to go, into Customs to show passports and such, so I waited in line and read the sign that basically said don't exploit Ecuadorian children.

Okay. I wasn't planning on that, so I guess I have nothing to worry about. I wanted to see Ecuador, certainly NOT the inside of an Ecuadorian jail. It is unfortunate that a sign like that even has to be there. My passport now bears an Ecuador stamp and I was officially in the country and ready to find my driver. (All my luggage going in was carry on, so I didn't even have to deal with baggage claim).

I walked around until I found a young man who looked very much like a Native American, and I guess he was – just he was a Native South American instead of a Native North American, holding a sign with my name. I signed some papers – Lord only knows what – probably something for liability based on the trip to the hotel. So, I unknowingly get into the car and the nice man carries all my luggage – for which I am grateful – my backpack was getting pretty heavy. He put the luggage in the trunk – the car was an older model van playing Ecuadorian (presumably) music. We traveled through Quito right and left and around and around.

We saw areas of Quito that I'm not sure were nice based on the glass attached to the tops of walls – apparently broken glass is as much of a deterrent as barbed wire. Apparently there are only traffic suggestions instead of traffic laws during rush hour in Quito. I stopped looking at where we were going and started looking out the windows to the sides. It seemed more prudent and I decided I really didn't want to know how we were getting there. I don't think I will ever drive in Quito. On the upside, I survived the trip to the hotel and was met by a hotel security guard who took the luggage.

The Hotel
The tour group I was with stayed the first night at Stubel Suites, a nice hotel in Quito. I went to the front desk and was greeted by a desk clerk who spoke perfect English. Like I said, the security guard took the bags – a little odd, but I found out later that one of the others in my group had asked about that – and the other security measures at the hotel (you had to use your key card to move the elevator and open a hallway door and open your room door). Anyway, they were told that we were in a luxurious hotel in a luxurious area of Quito – we had to be protected. I guess we were targets for pickpockets in that area – us being gringos and all. There are the poor in Ecuador, and we must seem awfully rich to so many of them.

View from Stubel Suites - very foggy that night!

The hotel is built on the side of a hill. The lobby is on the 5^th floor. The room was on the 2^nd floor, so it was strange pushing the down elevator button to get to the room. A bellhop carried bags and the room pretty much looked like any nice American hotel compete with soap and shampoo trial sizes. The only exception – no thermostat. A small electric space heater was provided.

Dinner

Dinner at Stubel Suites in Quito

Dinner was in the hotel restaurant where I met a few of my group. Our official tour did not begin until the next morning. My dinner, called Lomo a la Plancha, included two generous portions of grilled steak with chimichurri sauce (kind of a salsa, but in oil), steamed vegetables, a small baked potato with cheese and a Coke. Now, hotel meals are seldom cheap, but that dinner cost around $10, including the Coke. I wasn't too unhappy with that.

Packing

Oh, gosh.

It's time!

I'm working today and leaving for Charlotte way earlier than I want to think about in the morning. A short flight to Miami and then a slightly longer one to Quito. Never experienced customs, so I hope the layover (2 hours) is long enough.

I am excited and ready for my new adventure and my first trip out of the country.

Packing, however, sucks. Seriously. I've never been the most organized of people, and packing does not bring out the best in me. I WILL forget SOMETHING important, I feel sure.

I am really, really bad to over pack. Unfortunately, when traveling by plane, this is not a good trait. For the car trip that Abi and I took, it wasn't a big deal - two of us in a Kia Sorrento. Big deal if we took too much. We had room. Planes are not so accommodating, plus I'd have to lug everything around, so I have to go home tonight and pack carefully while still remembering everything I might need.

I can do this. Really, I will remember everything that's necessary.

I hope.

Preparing for South America

About a year ago, I read an article about retiring overseas and it mentioned several places that you could retire on the cheap. The ones that caught my attention were the ones that allowed me to live a modern life and still not cost an arm and a leg. The places that really sparked my attention were Ecuador and Panama.

Ecuador was voted the top spot to retire in International Living Magazine last year, so I did a little more reading and discovered that there is potable water in all of Ecuador as well as internet access in most of the country. Sounds pretty good so far. And I continued to dream of one day visiting...

I even went and got a passport in December. I didn't know if I'd ever have the opportunity to use it, but if you're not prepared it can't happen. So, I prepared - and received my passport in the mail in January, I think.

So, I like to read and I was reading a book that pointed me to a website that happened to have a workshop and tour in - guess where? Ecuador! Guess who was all over that? Long story short is, I'm going to Ecuador. Quito and Cotacachi to be precise. They are in the Andes Mountains, so we'll see how I do with the elevation. And, I'll get to stand on the equator. Not really something I ever thought about doing before, but I'm certainly going to enjoy it. 

In preparation for my trip, I called the health department - the government has a weird way of doing things, but anyway, you call a number and they get a travel nurse to call you back and tell you what shots you need. I was told I needed Typhoid, tetanus (if it's been 10 years since I had one) and Hepatitis A. After asking around, I realized no one else was required to get the typhoid shot, so when I went to get my shots, the nurse said it wasn't required. I declined since the thing cost $55. I'll probably end up with typhoid - probably no one in the last 10 years who visited that area ever got typhoid, but I will. Well, I hope not, but we'll see. If I start to run a fever, I'll definitely get to the doctor right away. All in all, I think it will be ok, though. And one of the activities is to visit a shaman for purification, so maybe he can purify typhoid germs!

I am excited about going and in just over a month -- about 6 weeks -- I'll be on a plane to Miami and then on a plane to Quito. Can't wait to experience my first international trip! I'll keep you posted...

Back to Louisiana and Home

We traveled out of Houston and back into Louisiana on our way to New Orleans. The highways in Houston were just as confusing on the way out as on the way in. The highway adds and subtracts lanes and suddenly you're not where you thought you were. It's pretty traumatic.

Abi's camera didn't charge correctly the last night in Houston and she wanted a doodad so that she could charge it in the car, and had Maggie, the GPS to find us a WalMart. We found one in Sulphur, LA. Now, I commend Wal Mart for hiring people with disabilities. I truly think it is anoutstanding thing that Wal Mart does, and there was a disabled woman at the door. Terrific. And then we started shopping and looking for the thingy we needed - and noticed that there were a high percentage of disabled people at the Wal Mart in Sulphur. I wondered if maybe it was the thalidomide capitol or something. It was very, very strange, but everyone seemed healthy, just often missing limbs. Just odd.

Also, you know how there are girl scouts or whomever selling stuff outside or collecting money for this cause or that outside of Wal Mart? As we went into this one, someone was asking if we wanted to give blood. No Bloodmobile or anything. It was a bit worrisome.

Later, we stopped at Rayne, LA, the "Frog Capital of the World".  They had a frog statue welcoming us and everything. Louisiana is an odd place. We kept going and the land got swampier and the bridges were more abundant and longer and longer.

We finally got to New Orleans and our hotel was located in the French Quarter on Bourbon Street. Again, Hotwire was very nice to us and we got a very nice hotel at a very nice price. Since Bourbon Street is not accessible by car at night, we had quite a time getting to the hotel and finding parking, but we did. It was quite a relief. Particularly after seeing the activities of Bourbon Street from the relative safety of the car. We even saw one gentleman um...urinating...behind a dumpster. Oh my.

Lobby at the Royal Sonesta

We had to park 3 levels down and dragged our luggage up a flight of stairs before we could get to the elevator, but we got there and checked in. The lobby was gorgeous with chandeliers and fresh flowers. Truly beautiful.



St. Louis Cemetery Number 1



We got up the next morning and went on our first tour of the city. It was a walking tour through Haunted History Tours. We met in front of Rev. Zombie's House of Voodoo. We learned some of the history of the city and we took a stroll through St. Louis Cemetery Number 1. It's interesting how they reuse their burial space in New Orleans. Since land is scarce, they place the body in a wall vault or tomb for a year and a day (at least). By law it has to stay there that long, and the body decomposes. After the year is up, the remains are swept out and placed in a bag and there's room for the next body. You can even rent space in a wall vault if it's needed.

After our cemetery tour, we had a nice lunch and then stopped by the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, which I enjoyed more than Abi, but they did have quite a lot of just neat looking stuff -- including old cash registers, an old soda fountain, and quite a lot more.

Our evening tour was a ghost tour. Abi liked that quite a bit. The tour guide told some pretty gory stories including some about Delphine LaLarue who was one sick chick. She treated her slaves horribly. And that's an understatement.

By the time our tour was done, it was dark, so we had dinner and went back to the hotel.

We checked out of the hotel the next day and we crossed Lake Pontchartrain. It was quite a lake and quite a bridge. And if you want to gamble or go to an adult shop, Louisiana seems to be the place to go based on the multitude of billboards. Lots and lots of billboards.

Maggie again, decided periodically that we needed to turn left while on a major highway or that we needed to go West when in actuality we needed to go East, but all in all, we did okay as long as we shut her off every time we stopped and just ignored her when she wanted us to turn left or do a U turn on the highway.

Oh Maggie.

Montgomery

We made it to the hotel in Montgomery. It was quite a let down considering the strange odor in the elevator, hallway and room. Oh well, you can't have everything.

The next day, we went to the Montgomery Zoo. It was okay, but not great, and we left earlier than we thought we might and headed back towards home.

It's always good to get home.

Houston

We're a little behind since we didn't have Internet access for awhile. I'm probably only going to post Houston even though we've also been to New Orleans now because I'm at a very iffy Internet connection at the moment. It isn't strong enough to let me post pictures, unfortunately, so I'll have to wait on those again. Sorry about that, but with traveling, you just never know.

We noticed that many of the valets and such at the Intercontinental were names Sergio. We saw like three Sergio's. We kind of wondered if they just had a bunch of name tags printed up and told them, okay, your name is Sergio. I know, we're very strange.

I thought since we were in Houston that it might be nice to have Mexican food since there were tons of Mexican Restaurants and I figured we could find something authentic. Boy, did we! We went to a restaurant near our Houston attraction and let's just say we pointed at the menu to order after the waitress asked if we wanted El Coke or El Sprite. We did have a nice Mexican lunch even if we only could read part of the menu and couldn't really communicate all that well. The food was good.

After lunch, we went to the National Museum of Funeral History. It was fascinating. They had a bunch of old cars and hearses - some with engines, some horse drawn. They had a replica of a casket making shop and an embalming room and information about civil war embalming. They even had a parlor set up like it would have been had someone died in the early 1900s. They had an Egyptian display and a big display of the death of the Pope and also the deaths of presidents. All in all it was pretty cool. The gift shop had some creepy items. Their motto seemed to be "Any day above ground is a good one."

I'll post pictures when I can. We had a great time there. Really.

Shreveport, Little Rock, and the Beginning of Houston

Where to start?


We haven’t had internet access in awhile, so I hope I don’t forget a lot here.

We’ll start with Little Rock since we left off there.

We checked Maggie for restaurants in the area and our first choice was Farmer’s Daughter and our last was Willie D’s and there wasn’t much in between. We saw a Waffle House and had actually heard of that, so we opted for the hugest Waffle House we’d ever seen. I counted seating and the place would seat 50. Pretty big for a Waffle House. We were in Little Rock and our waitress had a New Jersey accent. Go figure.

After sustenance, it was time to go to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. We’d never been to a Presidential Library before, so we didn’t quite know what to expect. We got there and parked and there were a bunch of people setting up a something called Mexico 2010. Not sure what was going on there, but some sort of festival or something.

We went in and went through security and then went on to buy our tickets. We splurged for the audio tour since we had got a lot out of our last audio tours. This was the first place I didn’t have to leave my license with the desk in exchange for the audio gadgets. I found out why later. While looking at the Presidential Limousine, I, of course, got too close to the door and my audio gadget starts alarming. Oh, geesh. Figures.

We took the tour and it was interesting. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was actually pretty cool. Bill Clinton himself did most of the narration on the audio tour and on the film that was shown.

The Library is located on the Arkansas River and there’s an old drawbridge right there. I took pictures – I liked the drawbridge.

After the Library excursion, we got back on the road to travel through Arkansas some more. I thought maybe the scenery would change since we traveled the first part of Arkansas at night and pretty much saw trees, grass and little else. Well, during the day in the other half of Arkansas, that’s pretty much what we saw, too. There were a few more exits in the second half, including the exit to Hope, which is Bill Clinton’s birthplace. We also saw signs for Okalona, Arkadelphia and we actually stopped in Texarcana. There was also a Nevada County. We began to wonder if Arkansas came up with any of their own names for anything. I must say that Arkansas still hasn’t impressed me a lot, but this drive was slightly better than last night’s, but mostly consisted of trees, grass and a few exits scattered here and there. The other cars we saw along the route we figured were all trying to get out of Arkansas, too. And, by the way, Arkansas has THE roughest roads. Probably because everyone is trying to get out.

We finally got to Louisiana, which looked a lot like Arkansas except it was actually populated and you could tell it was populated – there were houses interspersed amongst the trees and grass. They weren’t great houses, but they were houses. And we were on this scary little two lane highway because apparently you can’t get from Little Rock to Shreveport very easily.

Finally, we got to our hotel in Shreveport. Hotwire has chosen a nice looking Holiday in for us. The lobby was nice. There was a bar and restaurant (no complimentary breakfast again…oh well) and there was an indoor/outdoor pool – part in the lobby and part outside – and a Jacuzzi.

We checked into our room and well, it was a disappointment. I figured we were in trouble when I saw it had a metal door and usually only the old hotels have those metal doors. I looked inside once we got the door open (it was quite a feat considering it was stuck) and the bathroom looked nice – it almost excited me since it apparently had been updated, until the odor hit me. Musty hotel room. Great. And we went inside and experienced the toilet – which was quiet for 28 seconds and then ran for a few seconds. Oh my gosh! All night long – every 28 seconds, the toilet ran. Great. We also discovered that we didn’t have internet or cell service.

Next on the agenda was eating. There are not many choices for food in Shreveport – at least not in the area we were in. Fast food and pizza – great choices when you’re looking for gluten free, huh? We decided on a Steak and Seafood place – named Savio’s. Maggie told us “You have arrived” and we were at a McDonald’s. Hmmm. There was a strip mall behind McDonald’s , so we looked there and we don’t see Savio’s, but there is a Becca’s Steak and Seafood, so we take a chance. It was a hole in the wall, but sometimes those places are good, so we decided to take a chance since there really were no other great options available.

We went inside and were seated and quickly noticed that there were people who were going in and out of this back room with a swinging door. That room, we glimpsed, had much nicer tables and chairs and its own personal waitress. Wonder what that was all about? But I didn’t really want to find out – we ate and left as quickly as we could.

And when we left, we went to that McDonald’s we spotted thinking they’d probably have internet access since most do – it didn’t . Geesh. So, cut off from all communication from the civilized world, we went back to the hotel and listened to the toilet run every 28 seconds and slept on pillows that felt like they were full of cotton balls until we fell asleep – only to be awakened sometime in the early morning by cheering in the lobby – that we could hear clearly in our room. And then, we fell asleep again – until early in the morning when the very LOUD housekeeper knocked LOUDLY on a door – down the hall, I might add – and said HOUSEKEEPING!!!!!. I gave up after that and got ready for the day.





SHREVEPORT

So after such a restful night’s sleep, we were ready for our day in Shreveport. The agenda was to go to the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum. It was free, but I had read that it was a Smithsonian Affiliate – I didn’t know Smithsonian had those, but I guess they do, so I had high hopes even with it being free – after all the Smithsonian is also free.

Let’s just say that it wasn’t the Smithsonian. Nor was it anything remotely like the Smithsonian. I’m not sure why the Smithsonian wanted to affiliate to tell you the truth. The museum itself was in a historic building (on the National Register of Historic Places) and the building was kind of cool. The museum was formed in a circle with dioramas in windows all around the outside of the circles showing various things about Louisiana – crops, natural resources, etc. The middle had glass cases with stuff in them – weapons, replicas of ships, etc. and the inside wall had paintings and more stuff including a replica of an alligator. We were done in about half an hour – and we went around the outside once and went back around the inside once. Oh well…Shreveport was a dud all the way around, and not a vampire in sight anywhere either.

So on our way out of Shreveport, we did see a few interesting sights – a building had a sign that said “Louisiana Baptist University”. There was one building. It looked like an old Shoney’s. Seriously.

It wasn’t long before we reached Texas and we started seeing signs for FM 352 or some such. We looked it up and FM means Farm to Market. We did see a lot of farms. And cows. And horses. It was a nice change from the nothingness of Arkansas. And no, Arkansas didn’t even have cows. I’m not sure why with all that grass, but I never saw a cow.

We also passed Palestine and Damascus. Made me think we took a wrong turn into the Holy Land. And we drove some more. We were on 59 South and the road turns and turns. You’re on it for like 40 miles and then you have to turn left. Not yield, but turn. And then you’re on it for 15 miles and you have to turn again. And there are 472 little towns along the road, so the speed limit goes from 70 to 45 with some frequency. And sometimes it goes from 70 to 55 to 70 again in the span of a few yards. You can see all the signs. Yes, I’m serious. I have NO idea what that’s about. And there’s not even a town that you can see. It’s like they say, geesh, we need a speed trap here, let’s put up a sign. I don’t know. It was really, really weird.

And so at some point along the way, I was getting tired and Abi had never been to a truck stop, so we stopped at a truck stop so she could have that experience. She thought it was cool and she got a doo rag kind of thing with flaming skulls on it. She was quite a happy girl.

Driving in Houston is scary, by the way. The roads do not do what you expect of them based on the signs. The highways have multiple exit lanes coming in and then going away and deciding what lane you need to be in for what road you actually want to be on is quite the feat. But we made it.

Hotwire was good to us and we were in a 4 star hotel – The Intercontinental. Which, considering their points card is the same as Holiday Inn, I would assume is a fancy Holiday Inn. Really fancy. Valet parking and a guy who carries your bags to your room fancy. Abi was a little overwhelmed and I’m sure we both looked like the hicks from South Carolina that we are. The restaurant and bar were pointed out to us numerous times by numerous employees. There was a robe hanging in the bathroom. The guy who carried our bags asked if the temperature in the room was alright. I’m not used to that kind of attention. It was a little creepy.

We decided to pass on the restaurant and decided to take our lives into our hands and drive in Houston again. It was early and Abi didn’t want to stay in the hotel room all night. We went to eat at The Cheesecake Factory that is in The Galleria which is a mall here. We actually found free parking (parking at the hotel is not free - $16 bucks for overnight parking – geesh) and parked below decks there. We found our way to the restaurant and had a nice meal and decided to walk around the mall some after dinner to see what was there. There was a lot of stuff – apparently people in Houston have money is all I can say. There was a Tiffany’s, a Saks Fifth Avenue, and a store for every designer I’d ever heard off, plus a few I hadn’t. Abi had to wander into the Saks and take a picture of some suit that cost like $2000 or something. Of course a salesperson asked if she could help us. Not on your life.

After wandering around the mall, we got turned around and couldn’t figure out how to get back to the entrance where we parked our car. We knew we were near Stairwell 14, so when Abi found Stairwell 15, she thought we were close. We ended up in some dark hallway behind the stores and it took us forever to find civilization and our car again.

We did make it safely back to the hotel somehow.

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

After our experience in the frigid McDonald's, we remembered that we needed ice for the cooler, so we were in one of those McDonald's that's attached to a gas station deals and we walked into the gas station next door to get ice. Now, it's late and we're both tired and Abi saw the ice sitting in a cooler (keeping beer cold, but that wasn't readily apparent) and pointed to it and said "There's ice!" and I said, "They have ice in bags, we don't have to steal it from the beer." And for some reason, she found that hysterical. So now with the laughter - and I"m laughing now, too -- everyone in the store was looking at us.

I need to explain, we are not in a good neighborhood - evidently our GPS is set only to take us through the worst neighborhoods of whatever city we happen to be in -- and the employees are behind bulletproof glass. And they are looking at us like we're absolutely crazy because we're laughing so hard.

So it's our turn and I can't hear a word the employee guy is saying through the thick glass - made me feel like I needed a hearing aid, and we eventually purchase our ice. The lady employee made sure we knew where the ice cooler was - apparently she was worried about her beer ice or maybe she just wanted us out of there as quickly as possible, I don't know.

We went outside to the car to put ice on our, by now, very warm drinks in the cooler, and I grabbed the handle on the cooler - which promptly came off in my hand. Great. The cooler now matches the neighborhood we're in, but still...I'm at least able to pour out some water and get some ice on there so tomorrow we'll have cold drinks, so all is not lost.

So, back to the Sheraton Music City to spend the night and get ready for tomorrow's adventure - The County Music Hall of Fame and Museum...

Now, we were in that 3.5 star hotel, so no complementary breakfast - they offered room service - not bad food prices based on the menu, but for our "convenience" would add a $2.50 delivery fee and a 22% gratuity. We passed on the offer and went to Waffle House again - no red phones or anything.

Here we are

Now, I'm not a huge country music fan. I like some songs and I was force fed country as a child considering my Dad was a truck driver, but it has never been my genre of choice, but the museum was pretty cool anyway. It did help that I had heard of the older country music singers through my Dad's influence, but there was plenty of rock related stuff, too to keep your interest.

I figured if we were coming all this way that we should do the whole 9 yards, so we did the audio tour as well as the tour of Studio B. The audio tour told you additional information about many of the displays that was not necessarily posted on the signs at the displays. You could also listen to clips of music here and there as well.

One of the things I learned was that only about 10% of the collection was on display at any one time and they change the displays and add new ones frequently. While we were there, they had a Williams family exhibit section that was quite extensive. (as in Hank Williams) and I learned a lot I didn't know about that family. It was very interesting - and I'm not a big fan of either Hank or Jr.

The displays of instruments was impressive and they've got steel guitars and triple necked guitars and all sorts of things...including a couple of pretty impressive cars - they have Webb Pierce's car. Now, I wasn't sure who Webb Pierce was when I entered the museum, but apparently he was quite the sensation in his day. And based on his car, he must have been pretty flamboyant, too.

Yes, that's a pistol handle on Webb Pierce's car

The car had pistol handles, a rifle decorating the back and sides, coins embedded in the upholstery, and horns on the front. It must have been something to see driving down the road in the 1950s.

They also had one of Elvis' Cadillacs - not standard issue, I assure you. The paint job included ground up diamonds and fish scales from Asia to give it a luminescent look and it had a television as well as bar and ice maker (that could make ice in 2.5 minutes by the way - something we learned on the audio tour)

Elvis Presley's "Gold Cadillac"

All in all, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was pretty impressive. In the lobby, there is a restaurant (we didn't eat, so I can't say if it is good or not) and while we were there, a live musician playing old country tunes on a guitar.

We were scheduled for our Studio B tour at 2:30, but finished the museum earlier than we thought we might, so we were able to change the time to 2. They put us on a little bus and we traveled to Studio B just a short drive away on "Music Row" where there are numerous studios. It was travelling back in time, although the studio has been updated and has digital capability now as well as analog. The studio is still in use, but mostly by a nearby college although artists do sometimes request its use apparently. Tours are done daily. We were there on a day when no recording was going on, so we were actually able to go into the studio and touch the piano and other instruments and get a real feel for the studio. I was surprised they let us go in there, but it was definitely pretty cool.

The Steinway at Studio B

Very, very cool place, and, of course, we learned some Elvis trivia since most of his songs were recorded at Studio B.

After the Studio B tour we got back on the road towards Little Rock for our next adventure along the way, but of course, we had a few on the way to Little Rock, too.

We discovered that the cooler was not really keeping things all that cool. I thought earlier that it was because we didn't close the top well or something, but apparently not. We drank lukewarm soda on our way out of Nashville and decided that we would find a Wal Mart somewhere along the route, which we did and found a replacement that is working MUCH better. Now, let me mention that somewhere in here is where the GPS was having trouble determining whether or not we were in North America. I am really pretty worried about being able to get back home, but I do have Mapquest directions printed out, so maybe we'll be okay.

We figured we'd stop in Memphis to eat since it was along the way and since (I think) Memphis in known for Barbecue, we decided we'd have that. We asked the GPS for suggestions and found Corky's BBQ and stopped there. We figured it was pretty good when the drive through was packed and we had to park a few buildings away. The food was good, the waitress was hysterically funny and we had a great dinner of ribs & such. We left Corky's and saw this:

Firetrucks at Corky's

We never saw any smoke, we never saw anything wrong, but the firefighters were sure looking at something and there were these two trucks and a couple of smaller ones. Made us wonder if we should have left earlier, but we had a good dinner, and survived, so I'm hoping that they were able to fix whatever it was that was wrong.

So Miss Maggie (the GPS) tells us to get on some other road that's not I-40. (I'm not sure why, but in the back of my mind, I'm wondering about that North American glitch earlier, but I follow her lead). She does get us back on I-40 eventually, so all is well.

We crossed over into Arkansas by traveling over a HUGE drawbridge at sunset with the MOST amazing view ever. I wish we could have gotten a picture, but it's kind of hard to stop on a drawbridge with traffic on an Interstate Highway, but just take my word for it, it was amazing. Abi said it was INCREDIBLE about 47 times.

Little did we know, that was the last sight we'd see for miles and miles and miles. You see, there is absolutely NOTHING in Arkansas. Our first 20 or so miles into Arkansas we saw about 3 houses and 2 gas stations. We drove on and on and I was beginning to get a little concerned since I'm on a quarter tank of gas. About 60 or so miles from the state line there is finally an Exit that has some sign of life. There's a Citgo and an Econolodge and a KFC/Taco Bell. We gas up thinking this may be the last thing we see until we hit Little Rock.

We check the GPS and it gives directions, but not directly back onto the highway, so I'm wondering if this is one of those weird exits that you can get off but you have to go around your left elbow to get back on - not many of them, but they do exist, so we follow Maggie, the GPS - who decides, for no reason that we know of, that we should go East. Now, I'm not great with directions, but even I know if I'm going from Memphis to Little Rock, I need to go West, but by now we're in the middle of NOWHERE. We pass the most terrible little downtown section of somewhere and keep going for awhile. There are no cars, no people, no nothing -- looks just like the highway did -- trees and grass for miles and miles and miles. Oh, what's that - A SIGN - know what it says? Wheatly Pop 372. Oh my gosh!

Eventually, we find I-40 West and get on, against the advice of Maggie, by the way. I had Abi cut Maggie off. When she came back on, she had regained her senses, but in the meantime, we passed the exit on I-40 that we had taken earlier to get gas - geesh. And again, miles and miles of nothing except the occasional deer crossing sign. There weren't even billboards -- I think we saw 6 or 8 total for miles and miles and miles.

Eventually, we got to the outskirts of Little Rock and saw signs of civilization. Mostly in the form of tractor trailer sales places, but it was a sign of civilization - for which we were grateful.

We found the hotel - a Holiday Inn near the airport. And opened the door to the car to get out and discovered that Arkansas does not smell pretty. Seriously. I don't know what it is, but there's an odor in the air and it is not a pretty smell at all.

We went to the front desk to check in and the lady at the desk was Asian. On the way back out to the car Abi asked, "I wonder if she was disappointed when she got off the plane from China or wherever and saw Arkansas?" I don't know, but it hasn't impressed us too much so far. I'm hoping we'll discover more today that will be better. I'm keeping an open mind anyway.

And Maggie was powered off for the night, so we're hoping to get where we need to go....

Knoxville, Nashville and a Change of Plans

Where do I begin with today? I guess at the beginning...

We got to the Mabry Hazen house in Knoxville a few minutes before opening time (the hours posted at the house and on the website are Wednesday - Friday 11 - 4 and I think maybe 10 - 4 on Saturday. I had read the website that there was a cemetery nearby, Bethel Cemetery, that the museum folks oversee. It's a Civil War cemetery.

"You Have Arrived"

We decided to check out the cemetery since we had some time. We used our GPS and we knew the cemetery is on Bethel Road. We made up a number -- bad idea. I'll post the picture later of where we ended up, but lets just say the cemetery is not in one of Knoxville's upscale neighborhoods. So, we turned around on Bethel Road and went the other direction since our "You Have Arrived" destination was on a cul de sac. Really, I didn't know neighborhoods like that had cul de sacs.

Anyway, we turned around and saw a cemetery inside a chain link fence. And beside this cemetery is another chain link fence with a house in need of repair and a paint job -- it fit the neighborhood -- inside and a black cat on the roof and a sign that says the Bethel Cemetery is open on Saturdays or by appointment. Excuse me, an appointment -- for a cemetery? So we drove around the block and wandered through the first cemetery and looked through the chain link fence at the Bethel Cemetery and couldn't really see anything. Kind of a disappointing start to the day, but we were ready for adventure, so on to the Mabry Hazen House we went.

So we drove back through what Abi called a "sketch" neighborhood and into the parking lot of the Mabry House house about 10 minutes before opening time. Great. We figured we could walk around and take pictures of the outside, which we did - I'll post those pictures, later, too, assuming I can figure it out...

Abi and I discovered that we are a lot alike. We don't take "normal" pictures. We take some people pictures, but neat stuff floats our boats, such as free standing spigots and strange tree trunks and cool looking rocks stuff like that.

We finish our pictures - and I'm talking pictures of every side of the house -- and it's about 2 minutes til 11 and no one has shown up yet. Hmmm. Maybe the employee (it can't really have more than one at a time there I wouldn't think, it's not a very big house) is running late for some reason...

Abi and Alex Haley

There's a park across the street where Abi saw a really big statue that she wanted to see up close, so we cross the street where there is a WAY bigger than lifesize statue of Alex Haley (you know, the author of Roots). I've got a picture of that with Abi beside him. She wanted to crawl in his lap, but after she found the wasps decided that wasn't such a good idea. (No, she didn't get stung). After we took our pictures there and played on the adjacent playground for a few minutes, back to the Mabry Hazen House we went. Where there still was no one but us.

At this point, I called the number posted on the door and a young man answered, "Hello". I asked about the hours at the Mabry Hazen House and he said, "Oh. It's an administrative day, but we'll be open tomorrow...and next week." Great we'll be in other places then. Oh well. Plans change. We're resilient....next destination, Nashville.

And we drive until lunchtime and stop at a Waffle House. Did you know it's National Waffle Week? I didn't either. Better have a waffle before tomorrow if you want to celebrate. We walked in the Waffle House as someone is hanging up the red phone that says "Only Use to Call 911." Great.

We took a chance and ordered anyway. And no emergency personnel showed up, so I guess it was a good move.

We kept driving until we got just about to Nashville, all the time trying to figure out what we were going to do once we got there. We kind of had a free day with nothing planned, and we couldn't really do that...so we passed a sign for The Hermitage. I had a co-worker tell me that we ought to go if we got the chance, so we pulled off (in the rain, so I wasn't so sure about this visit) and we drove to The Hermitage.

For those of you unfamiliar with The Hermitage, it was the home of Andrew Jackson. Its apparently about a thousand acres. There's a museum, the house - well, several houses, but the "mansion" has been restored to the way it looked when Andrew Jackson returned from his second term of office. There is an audio tour, which was kind of neat and a personal tour of the mansion by costumed guides. The wallpaper alone was pretty amazing.

It stopped raining while we were in the museum, so we walked around the grounds - the grounds are extensive and we really only saw a portion of them. There is a Spring House (where they got water for the entire community - having to carry it in buckets and such) and slave quarters.

We were going to go on the wagon tour, but the sign said the wagon left every 45 minutes, but we never saw a wagon at all. Guess it was our day to be rejected by historical places.

We had a nice time and it was a pretty neat look into a previous time, but we had to return to our time and get to our hotel.

I arranged our hotels on Hotwire. I was going to go through Orbitz, but I waited too late and the prices went up and I was able to find better prices on Hotwire. I looked for at least 3 star hotels and good user ratings. Last night it was the Best Western which was nice and tonight is the Sheraton Music City. The lobby of the Sheraton is impressive. The room is small, but nice and the price was definitely right. It's listed as a 3.5 star hotel -- I wonder if the lobby upped it the .5? It has a fountain.

Of course, we got in the very long line at the front desk - how many people could be checking in at 6 o'clock in Nashville? Apparently a lot, and I got in the shortest line - with all the people that had issues. I'm not sure what all the issues were, but man it took forever, but we finally got checked in and got a key and got to our room.

Apparently when you go from 3 to 3.5 stars, you think you can charge for internet. When I tried to sign on, it asked me for $9.95 for 24 hours of use of the internet. What? Well, I'm too cheap for that, so we decided to find something for dinner instead and worry about internet later.

We wanted steak and looked for steakhouses in Nashville, but we didn't want to change for a place that required reservations -- apparently there are quite a few places like that here based on the search on my phone. Maggie (the GPS) helped us out. She will tell you what's nearby, so we asked her and found an Outback. We figured we at least knew what to expect from an Outback and didn't from the local places, so off we went.

After a nice steak and a decision to go to McDonald's for internet access, we relied on the trusty Maggie to get us to the fast food place. She failed us. She took us in the wrong direction after telling us the McDonald's was less than a mile away, but she kept telling us to drive and then she turned us around about a block from ANOTHER McDonald's and we drove past the Outback to go to the first one we asked for. Now, I would say that it was user error except that she should have told us "to make a legal U turn" if we had ignored her. And she never did. She's possessed.

We got to the McDonald's - where I'm typing this right now - and park in front of doors that are positively WET with condensation -- we knew that it was going to be COLD. And we weren't disappointed. I'm sitting here in a warm hoodie and my hands are having a hard time typing because they are FROZEN!

And yes, we ordered ice cream.

Organization and the Best Western

We have discovered that Abi inherited her organization skills (or lack of them) from me. Neither of us did such a great job organizing our stuff. I think an overhaul will be in order sometime today or maybe in the hotel tonight.

Getting ready this morning was a gargantuan effort in finding everything we needed. Oh well. We'll get it right. We've never taken on a trip this long - the last time I was on a week long vacation - and it was really more like 5 days - was when I was a teenager. That was a very long time ago. We're not going to say how long.

Breakfast this morning was slightly better than I expected. We're at the Best Western in Knoxville and, like most hotels these days, a complementary breakfast is served. I usually can't eat anything at hotels since I have to stay gluten free and most of the fare is cereal, bagels, waffles, etc.

They actually had bacon and egg patties. And yes, I really do mean egg patties - they looked like little yellow miniature pancakes. I passed as I'm not a big egg fan to begin with, but they had that and bacon and orange juice, so I at least got a little snack to start the day. We'll figure out lunch later.

Today's adventure is the Mabry-Hazen House and then on to Nashville. The Mabry-Hazen House is a Civil War historical site, so we shall see what adventure awaits there and let you know.

And Abi says for Mom to hurry up and get moving since all she does on this trip is wait on me to be ready to go. (Note that we haven't even been gone 24 hours yet). Teenagers.

Traveling the Southeastern United States

Road trip...

My daughter, Abi and I are doing something that neither of us had done before. We're taking a road trip. She's 15 and I was brave enough to let her drive from the Foothills of South Carolina to somewhere around Canton, North Carolina. The trucks on I-26 and I-40 made her nervous, then again, she's only been driving for about a month.

We saw a sign that said to check your fuel level, so we stopped for gas at a dinky hole in the wall gas station and changed drivers. It was one of those older gas stations (with newer pumps at least -- even if there were only four of them) and we went inside to use the facilities.

My first clue should have been the sign that had both a man and a woman silhouette on it. I, of course, entered the dingy bathroom after a man who had - um not done something pretty in there - and no air freshener. Geesh. Okay, the water is running - not dripping - in the sink and wouldn't shut off. There was a bar of goopy soap to wash your hands. At least they had toilet paper and the toilet itself actually appeared clean. And I had hand sanitizer in my purse -- thank goodness.

Once I was done with the bathroom ordeal, I took my turn at the wheel. I'm glad I was driving once we got to the really mountainous areas in North Carolina and Tennessee -- lots and lots of trucks making their way to their various destinations at quite a clip. Once she wasn't driving and could concentrate on her surroundings, Abi was a little concerned about all the "Falling Rock" signs.

The mountains we saw on the way here were, as usual, absolutely gorgeous. At one point as the sun was setting behind a mountain we were driving toward, Abi said, "It looks like we're driving into heaven." And it really did. It was awesome and incredible. I've always loved the mountains, and particularly these mountains so close to home.