North, South, North, South, North, South

Our first day took us to (Lavale) Cumberland, Maryland to the Comfort Inn. The room was clean, huge with 2 Queens, we would prefer a king but this was the deal. Customer service was amazing, check in was a breeze, and when the one dryer was not heating up, they allowed us to use the housekeeping dryer. In addition, we had a wine bar...

We stopped at Ruby Tuesday for lunch, the salad bar was so fresh and the appetizers were good, especially the meatballs and the pickled zucchini…

Our next day of driving took us through the hills of West Virginia, beautiful sunny day of travel. We stopped in Nitro, West Virginia at the Mardi Gras Casino Resort. Both the hotel and casino are totally nonsmoking which is perfect for us. The room is spacious with a comfortable king bed. Just don’t drink the Fiji water or open the fridge, these both have exuberant charges. Staff is very accommodating and the breakfast that is included is spectacular, freshly made eggs any style, omelets, and real bacon.

More hills through Kentucky and Tennessee with loads of colors in the trees for our next days drive...

Ending in Clinton, Tennessee. Our hotel was a Baymont, the style was totally different from our last Baymont. It was a small suite with a couch, microwave, fridge and a king size bed. Front desk was great but the housekeeping was less than good, dirty bathroom floor, pillows had yellowing cases on a few of them and bed looked slept in, then found a candy in bed and not a mint under the pillow, mold and dirty bathtub. 

While in this area we had to try Krystals, they are supposed to be just like White Castles and they are, the only difference is they put mustard on the sliders. A little different but they were good, soft warm steamed buns, onions, pickle and very little meat.

We have now reached our last event, except for the Grands next week, but we will have a week off in between to do some exploring and relaxing. This event started off rough but ended on a really nice note, we again surpassed our goal and our helpers were some really fun and hard working Senior Orchestra members.

While working this event, we stayed at LaQuinta in Douglasville, Georgia. The hotel was great, it was a huge room with a king bed, big desk with a comfortable chair, fridge, microwave and a great shower. We notice whenever we book with Hotels.com we usually end up in a handicap room, this was one of those times and we did not mind it at all. Wide spaces and the shower had bars everywhere so when we came in from our 20 hours shift we had something to keep us from falling in the shower.

We had been seeing Zaxby’s all over the area, so of course we had to give it a taste and we were NOT impressed. We had Cajun Club Sandwich, Southern TLC, French Fries, Fried White Cheddar Bites, Tater Chips. The chips had a nice seasoning to them and were fried perfectly but the rest of the sandwiches, fries, and cheddar thingys were blah. We will not be returning.

This part of our journey is almost over, but instead of dwelling on this good thing coming to an end, we are just going to take it day by day and enjoy our vacation week.

Heading North

We headed north from Orlando, arriving in Newark, Delaware on Friday for our next event.

Our first day was a perfect travel day, light traffic, gorgeous weather and great conversations. We had errands today, so we only had a little over 200 miles to Brunswick, Georgia at a Best Western. 

We had 2 Queen beds since that was the best deal, so we had our own beds and the TV was humongous The room was clean and they were accommodating with early check in and immediately sending maintenance to fix air conditioner, but the front desk was ready to move us if it wasn’t a quick fix. The switch was just jammed but he cleared it and we were good to go. Our next days drive was supposed to take us to Lumberton, North Carolina at a Country Inn with just under 300 miles. I-95 through South Carolina is so bumpy and wavy which made for a rough ride to begin with but then when we arrived it went sour fast. The area was not the best but then when we went to check in, she was not going to honor our rate through Hotels.com where we made our reservation, so we canceled and moved on. We drove another hour to Dunn, North Carolina at a Comfort Inn and we were happy. Again, we had 2 Queen beds since that was the best deal, so we had our own beds. This room was clean and well situated which made it seem more roomy than the last one. Now this is why we do what we do…

We stayed a night at Breakers Inn on Virginia Beach, a room with a balcony and a fantabulous view, and since it’s off season we got a real deal on this apartment style room.

We had a great meal at Ocean Eddie’s Seafood Restaurant, and everything was scrumptios...

From the delicious Seafood Chowder...

To the main course meals...

 

The best part were the drinks, whoa were they strong, but oh so delightful...

Again, our stay at Dover Downs Hotel was inconvenient. We love the room, great bed, spacious and clean with a fantabulous shower, but the procedures they have in place are not customer friendly. We come in with the trailer, so we have to park it back further and all we want to do is load our suitcases onto the cart and take it to our room. We do not like leaving our stuff unattended as the bellhops constantly leave it and will allow anyone to take whatever, I tested it this time and I was able to walk away with one of our bags that had iPads and other items in it without them saying a word to me. Also when we asked for a receipt, there reply was they don’t have one because we made the reservation online. They took my credit card and ran it for essentials and payment but won’t give us a receipt…strange!

Our weekend event in Newark, Delaware went well, we have done this same event for the past four years and is one of our favorites. This year we had one helper that became very threatening with his text messages and calls prior to even being totally hired that kept us on our toes since he threatened to show up and…otherwise we had a great time.

We stayed at the Baymont near the university again, the room is small, the bed was comfy and the shower is weird, feels like you’re in a spaceship but it has great pressure. The staff is attentive, efficient and friendly. We had some terribly argumentative neighbors that chose to scream at one another several times throughout our stay. By the time we figured out where they were, we were leaving. Couples that argue that much and that loudly should realize that they should not be together. We don’t do toxic anymore, haven’t since we broke away from our families and do not ever plan to go back to those ugly ways. 

From Frigid Temperatures to Extreme Heat

We are so relieved that we did not hear about the EF3 tornado that hit the Jacksonville State University in March that did some major damage until after this event was over. But now we are dodging Michael, or better yet staying ahead of him. 

On Monday we had errands to run and made it to the Comfort Inn in Cordell, Georgia leaving 300 miles for Tuesday. Our suite again was huge with a separate bedroom with a king bed and television. Living room area had a couch, desk, fridge, microwave and a bar area. The front desk had a newbie and was slow but the manager helped her speed up our check in and the room was clean. Tuesday was an accelerating drive, all stops were in the doom n gloom areas with fearful people and television stations predicting the worse case scenarios, it was almost like a movie. Then the storms, heavy rain, and some strong winds made it not one of our best driving days, but we avoided most severe storms along our route, so like many other times we are grateful. We arrived mid Tuesday in Orlando which allowed us some relaxation time and we took full advantage of it. Our suite had a more open layout with all the necessities like a king bed, couch, microwave, fridge and a great shower head.

Michael was devastating and kept us inside since even though we were not near the eye, it was huge and we were getting his backlash storms and lots of wind. We got caught in a few deluges during some really inopportune moments. The worse time was when the semi unloaded our 2 pallets and the skies immediately opened. The rain was harder than we had ever seen it and instead of him putting the pallets back into the semi, he himself moved further into the trailer so not to get wet and watched us struggle to get a tent out of the trailer and attempt to get it up to cover the boxes of TShirts during the deluge and wind storm…what a idiot. We made it through but we were soaked! We had an extremely successful event, big bonus and great helpers, it was great. Now we head back up north where temperatures are much cooler…yeah!

     

Time is Flying…

It’s October already, my birthday month, wow we are having so much fun.

Our weekend stay was at Country Inn & Suites by Radisson at 541 W Dussel Drive in Maumee, Ohio and it was great. We arrived around 1pm but they accommodated us with another room type, so we both had a queen instead of a king. Customer service was outstanding, and the room was comfy.

 

We began our journey to our next event and plan to just do about 200 miles per day. Our first day we did 170 miles to Monroe, Ohio, where we stayed at Best Western on New Garver Road. The room was compact but had everything we needed, a firm king bed, a couch that was stained to the point I put a blanket on it, strong shower pressure, fridge and microwave. Customer service was exceptional, he allowed us an early check in and when we were leaving after breakfast, he asked if we enjoyed it and when I explained we didn’t take the time to eat, he asked if he could get us anything for the road. It’s those little things that mean the most.

 

 

Talk about a day of nerve-wracking driving, between the heavy bouts of rain, construction and add in some aggressive drivers, well we were grateful for only doing around 190 miles today. We arrived in London, Kentucky at the Comfort Inn around 1pm and with no hassles we were given our room key. A large suite with a king bed, couch, desk, fridge, microwave and a massaging shower head. Life is good, we only hoped we would get this lucky on the weekend nights when we are there for several days and not just one night.

 

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Under 150 miles today with sunny skies and no rain in our forecast, had some extremely dense fog through the mountains but a much better drive than yesterday. Our destination today was Athens, Tennessee at Comfort Inn and without hesitation we had our keys to the room and it was before 1pm, it was fabulous customer service. When we got to our room we had toilet issues and without hesitation we were moved. We went to use the hot tub, but the bubbles were wimpy, but we accidentally push a timer that was for the “umbrella”, which was even better. It was a waterfall in the pool and it soothe these aching bones. We ordered in Pizza Hut and the pizza and wings were delicious...        

 

It’s those small moments in our days that leave us realizing just how blessed we are and want to continue just living in that moment and stop trying Jto take on the world of problems. Our lives are frigging awesome!

 

We had about 180 miles to arrive at our weekend hotel and we gained an hour so we first stopped to have lunch at Olive Garden, we both had the Never Ending Pasta Bowl...

 

 

 

 

Our weekend stay was a suite at LaQuinta in Oxford, Alabama and it was great. It was huge with a separate bedroom with a king bed and television. Living room area had a couch, desk, fridge, microwave and a bar area. The bathroom was tiny and the toilet was like a child’s potty, low and small but it was clean and customer service was excellent.

 

Our event was successful, meaning we not only hit our goal, we surpassed it, but it was a hot one! We will be staying in the heat as we head to Orlando for our next event.