Grumpy's Wife
Dollar Tree gal here
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2005
I've read several of your trip reports. So glad there's another one.
ABCs of A Trip Worth Waiting For + PNWMM: P: A Practically Perfect Pacific NW Mouse Meet- pg. 26
- Thread starter Steppesister
- Start date
Steppesister
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2013
I'm gonna find out in an hour or so what's going to happen...
I've generally had very good luck... until now.
OH I'll be waiting to hear news on that PT session today! Let me know!
I'm in. Not that I will keep up.
Kim
Kim-
The good news is that I am really planning on not updating this one super fast. Maybe once a week? Not sure yet, but I think it'll be easier to keep up?
Got to jump on this before it is 80 pages long !! As I am not that on the Did morning noon and night person I wa s!!
, Rosie!!! So glad you're here, Sweet Friend! Looking forward to all the fun you always bring to a thread!
Well, I"m certainly glad you're here to enjoy the fun! A very big
to you! Feel free to comment along! 
DonnaBeeGood
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2014
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Steppesister
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2013
OH dear! Bones rubbing on bones sounds HORRIBLY painful! I'm glad it sounds better enough to take the dog for a walk though!
But to be honest, I ADORE Call the Midwife! Great show! I need to finish that one and the last few seasons of Downton Abbey too.
Snowing?! Just no!
pkondz
Brace yourself for immediate disintegration
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2007
Good Lord! I read the "bones rubbing on bones" and...
Glad all the bending and yanking seems to have helped! Praying for continued healing.
cinderkelly
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 9, 2014
Geez Louise, page 3 already! I'm here and looking forward to it ! 
Steppesister
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2013
Geez Louise, page 3 already! I'm here and looking forward to it !
, Kelly!!We're a chatty bunch, aren't we?! Lol!
Lots to look forward to. There were definitely some fun moments on this trip!
DonnaBeeGood
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2014
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Steppesister
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2013
OK, now I can proceed; Tammie's all checked in and ready! LOL!
Losing one's mobility is terrifying and so hard! Keep your head in the game and I am confident you will be back to your baseline soon, Donna! I know this is a hard road and discouraging at times, but keep at it! We're here to cheer you on!
Steppesister
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2013
B is for: Because it Couldn’t Possibly Get Worse
Upwards and onwards…. But first Eastwards.
My flight was scheduled for 6:00AM. Given that, I’d have had to leave my house in Salem at 3:00 AM to get to PDX, get parked, take the shuttle to the terminal, check-in and check my bag, and get to my gate for a 5:30 boarding. I don’t know about you, but 2:00 AM wake up times suck. Let alone 3:00 drives in the rain all by yourself. The music cranked up and a large coffee can only go so far. Even with those, it still sucks. So, I did what I thought was a pretty good idea. I got a motel room that also offered a Park and Fly option. It would end up costing me the same amount as parking my car in the Economy Lot for 14 days- roughly $10/day. Not bad. Plus, theoretically, I’d get some sleep too.
But theory does not always equate to reality, does it, Folks? Like when you theoretically plan your tax withholdings correctly and then get to line 63 and mutter something like “Oh crap.” Or when you plan a beautiful chocolate mousse and get something more akin to cold, runny chocolate fondue.
Instead of leaving with a leisurely few DAYS to pack, after a flurry of hasty bag packing in 2 hours, I left my house around 4:00PM. Juuuust barely in time to beat rush hour Portland traffic. The stress of that was the last thing I needed or wanted. I arrived and checked in to quite possibly the sketchiest dump I’d ever stayed in. Trust me, I’ve stayed in some dives before, but this particular Ramada Inn was run down, had less-than-savory looking guys loitering in their cars near the entrance like they were casing the place, and the lobby reeked of stale smoke.
Super duper! A scummy place to try and get some much needed pre-flight snoozing. I checked in and was given the keycard and pulled my SUV around to the spot it would (hopefully) occupy for the next 14 days. I started to wonder if my rig would last when I saw a guy trying to shove a coat hanger down the window on a compact 2 spots over. I can’t make this stuff up, People. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and hoped he had just locked himself out of his own car. I certainly wasn’t going to confront him being a single chick in a back parking lot. I did wait in my car with the doors locked and chatted with an online friend until I saw him leave. I gathered my schtuff, and hefted it into my room, bolted the door and got myself organized for my 4:20 AM shuttle.
By now it was around 7:00 PM and I was getting hangry. So I called down to the lobby to ask if there was a nearby place that would deliver. I sure as HECK wasn't going to leave again! They gave me a few places to try so I hopped online and started poking around.
Hmmm….. Jimmy Johns: “I’m sorry miss, we don’t deliver to that location.” Strike 1.
Random nearby Chinese Food Place: “We’re sorry; we only deliver with a minimum food order of $30.” Strike 2
Yelp food review for on site location : “The food here is disgusting. Worse than slop from a pig trough.” Strike 3.
By now, I was pretty hacked off and feeling defeated.
Pizza Hut….. You’re my only hope!
15 minutes later, my online order for some pasta and a Coke was submitted. It was only going to be an hour before delivery. I was now elated that somehow in the middle of purgatory, a miracle of sustenance would knock on my door. At least I hoped so. Because theory is very different than reality sometimes.
Meantime, I did a little DISsing and then briefly thought about taking a bath. But, apparently, it is not kosher to answer the door in a towel for a pizza. I mean, who was I to add weirdness to this already sketchy situation? So, I held off on my bath until after I ate. (Err, if I ate.) I mean I had to. There was no bathtub plug.
Seriously?!
Does this update seem a bit ranty to you?
Dinner finally did show up... lo and behold, a little ray of sunshine in the form of some decent pasta. Enough to feed 4 people, in fact. Maybe it was because by then I was feeling like a place holder in a 1930s Soup Kitchen line, but that pasta actually tasted okay. Who knew Pizza Hut could crank out a tasty anything other than pizza? The delivery guy handed me an entire 2 liter bottle of Sprite as well because they were “out of individual bottles”. 90% of that went down the drain and 75% of the pasta went into the trash, as well as 100% of the breadsticks. It’s just little ol’ me and little ol’ me doesn’t eat a whole lot. Even when it’s tasty and I’m hangry.
By 9:00 it was either-sleep-or-don’t time. I tried to use a hand towel to stop the drain and it worked enough that I could soap up and soak for a few minutes before turning off the lights. Ahhhh… nice and relaxing. Time for 5 or 6 hours of sleep.
Ooooooooooooooooooor not. Clearly this motel was used for other…. purposes. Groovy.
Way too little time left that night for an Ambien. <puts head under pillow and tries again>
I gave up. It was evident this trip was NOT going to start out with me rested at all; it was starting to feel like one of my marathon travel gigs from a former life- cross Atlantic, then cross Asia 36-hour deals. I was tired.
Somehow, I did manage about 2 hours of “sleep”, but 3:30 came pretty flippin’ early.
The shuttle was smooth and as I passed my parked car, I gave it a short blessing of well-being. Happy to be released from a rather unsatisfactory night, the rest of the check-in process went pretty smoothly.
Always a good sign when the plane is there waiting!
I passed the time by doing the mandatory funky Portland tradition of a foot selfie with our airport carpet. Our PDX carpet has its own FB page and website; you can buy every kind of Portland Airport souvenir you could ever want from keychains to mugs- my own daughter has a t-shirt. It’s just what we do.
I had a crappy boarding slot since I booked my flight WAY after the 24-hour mark, so ended up near the back of the plane. Whatever…. On the way in, I saw this that I thought was amusingly ironic. Someone certainly has a sense of humor.
My connection wasn’t tight. Well, I mean it wasn’t supposed to be tight. But Friends… “tired” catches up to everyone sooner or later. I have a sinking feeling I’m about to be flamed…. again….for yet another brainless act, but well, I find it rather hilarious that when I got off the plane and across the concourse to my next gate, and reached into my bag to grab my next boarding pass, I....
HAD THE WRONG BAG!
Yep, your airhead hostess had Brian Somebody’s bag and mine was sitting at the Customer Service desk at my last gate. I quickly grabbed mine, and left Brian’s with the agent and let Southwest clean up my mess. Sorry, Brian, yours was also black and small. By the time I got my own bag and used the restroom it was time to board again. This time it was NOT smooth sailing. There was QUITE a lot of turbulence- so much so the seatbelt light was on for most of the trip (for those of you who have TBS (Tiny Bladder Syndrome), you know what a drag that is!) and I was feeling pretty punky by the time we landed in Nashville (pronounced Nash-vuhl for y’all who don’t know).
I got some snapshots of the offending cells that nearly made me pull out the little white bag for the first time in forever.
Mom and Dad were there to meet me (Mom didn't look so good) and we drove the hour back to Bowling Green where they live.
After seeing this:
I got settled in for my week's stay. Love me some government intrusion. I hope they found what they were looking for, and more.
In the interests of cutting this short, so we can get to the Disney stuff, I’ll just give a few high and lowlights of my time in Bowling Green, KY. I don’t feel comfortable sharing all the ups and downs of Mom’s recovery from her knee replacement, except to say, that it was not a fun time for anyone involved, especially her. She had FAR more than her fair share of complications and each one was a struggle to work through. But, during my stay, we had some fabulous meals out including some incredible Indian food; I watched a pretty good foreign film called Cinema Paradiso, and got some good visits in with my sister who lives there as well. I helped out as best I could by cleaning and running errands and cooking and well… just encouraging. It was hard, but I’m so glad I was able to spend the week with my folks at a rather dark time for Mom.
**********************************
Next up: I promise we’re gonna get to Southern California. But I thought it was important to set the stage with what I was coming from before I got there.
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mom3sonstt
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2008
At least yours will make the mac n cheese. Last trip I left on a Tuesday morning, got back midnight-ish the following Wednesday. I left behind my 63 year old husband and 23 year old son. Adults. Supposedly. Knowing the husband is "kitchen challenged" I bought "simple food" before I left. My husband has the most limited palatet of any person I have ever met. So they were left with hot dogs and buns, sliced ham, ham salad (yes, ground bologna, but I grew up calling it "ham salad", so I'll blame mom for that name) and bread, there were also frozen pizzas, pizza rolls(hubby wouldn't eat those but the boy might have), chips and some canned tuna. There was other stuff too, but these were purchased specifically to keep them from starvation.
So what do I hear about on Sunday evening of my trip? "I thought you bought new bread? It's dry" well, yes, I did buy bread...on Friday after work...if you are just now opening it over a week later, I am not responsible. I also heard on Saturday that my youngest was going to visit my oldest to go to opening day Cubs at Cardinals game. And that he figured instead of stopping to eat on the drive down or when he got there he'd take a couple ham salad sandwiches so it wouldn't go to waste (5 days into the trip). I get home, the sliced ham is gone. Husband would take a slice, roll it with a slice of cheese and eat it...no bread. Son 3 took ham salad to son 1. And the chips were gone. Everything else was still there. So basically they ate 3-4 bags of potato chips, a package of sliced ham and American cheese, and a portion of the ham salad in over a weeks time.
My connection wasn’t tight. Well, I mean it wasn’t supposed to be tight. But Friends… “tired” catches up to everyone sooner or later. I have a sinking feeling I’m about to be flamed…. again….for yet another brainless act, but well, I find it rather hilarious that when I got off the plane and across the concourse to my next gate, and reached into my bag to grab my next boarding pass, I....
HAD THE WRONG BAG!
Yep, your airhead hostess had Brian Somebody’s bag and mine was sitting at the Customer Service desk at my last gate. I quickly grabbed mine, and left Brian’s with the agent and let Southwest clean up my mess. Sorry, Brian, yours was also black and small.
Oops... Poor Brian Somebody! He'd really have been in trouble if it was me, I keep my boarding pass in my "personal item" not my carry on, so I wouldn't have noticed it until much later.
pkondz
Brace yourself for immediate disintegration
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2007
Ugh. No. That totally sucks.
Agreed. When I was driving 2.5 hours at 5am every week or so for about a year....
Yeah... nothing helps. Was a few times that I had to pull over because I was passing out at the wheel.
Uh, oh....
Been there!My first lemon meringue pie. Beautiful meringue floating on a sea of lemony liquid.
So just a hair below the Grand Floridian?
Um.... I'm sure he was from AAA.
(Or AA...)
No. There are times when it is wise to be cautious.
I'm thinking there weren't enough bolts on your door for your liking.
Normally, 3 strikes you're out is the norm. But not in Liesa's world!
Abandon all hope, ye who enter there.
I dunno. That seems to be how a lot of adult films start. So there's that.
Those things are pretty pricey you know. Makes sense that someone would take it.
No. It seems like you were pretty stressed out and made the best of a not so great situation.
Ya done okay.
No smaller sizes available?
Or did you order it by mistake?
Or even pizza?
You got Sprite? Didn't you order Coke? (You wrote that a bit earlier.)
It's not like you could take it with you.
Oh?
What sort of purposes?
Conventions?
Family reunions?
Ugh. That's pretty tired.
So... in retrospect... would you have been better off staying at home and getting up at 2am?
And if it's not, I don't rest easy until it does show up.I saw that photo!
And have seen similar from you, before.
Apparently it's not the only thing people in Portland do...
Someone certainly has a sense of humor.
No. No flames. You were extremely stressed, worried about your mom, who could have freaking died, and over-tired.
No. You did very well, considering what you were going through. I'm not going to give you a hard time for doing something that many people do when they don't have all that to dal with.
See? Easy mistake.
But... small.... was it a carry on that had been gate checked? Or did you have more than one checked bag?
No fun. I want to relax on the plane... not be on a rollercoaster. I'll do that when I get to Disney, thanks.
Haven't done that.... ever. Don't particularly want to.
I hope they found what they were looking for, and more.
Oh? And what might the "and more" entail???
Nor do you have to. We understand.
Again...
Sorry you had to go through all that. On top of the poor start to your visit.
Sounds like they probably enjoyed having you there too.
That was very nice of you to do that.
franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
I don't even do well with a 5:00AM wake up, no way I could do a 2:00AM!
This does not sound good at all.
I'd worry about the bed sheets.
Nice. I hope you packed all your valuables.
Don't. Just don't. I will not patronize this company. Ever. I don't care how long ago it was, trophy animal hunters are bad people.
If you had Fran with you, that wouldn't be a problem!
At least they didn't have cockroaches or flies in the food.
No, you were having a crappy day that just kept getting crappier.
Yeah, I've encountered that before. I used to carry one of those flat bathtub stoppers in my bathroom bag it happened so often.
Yup! Done that too!
Maybe your room was underneath the Honeymoon suite.
I'm sorry.
OK, now that's getting weird.
OMG! It started back then!
Now I feel quite happy about my purchase of a purple carry on bag last fall!
They get my bag. Every. Single. Time.
Not a problem. We wouldn't expect you to, besides everyone wants to hear about what items you lose at Disney!
kaoden39
<font color=peach>Prayers and pixie dust from your
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
Super duper! A scummy place to try and get some much needed pre-flight snoozing.
I started to wonder if my rig would last when I saw a guy trying to shove a coat hanger down the window on a compact 2 spots over.
This gives me images of the Motel 6 in Buttonwillow, CA on I-5 headed to Disneyland. We made a reservation there once on the way down to Disneyland. Never, ever again. Obviously the local business is the tourist business all the way around.
Pizza Hut….. You’re my only hope!
I somehow picture some pimply kid with a cape.
Does this update seem a bit ranty to you?
No, I'd be ranting a lot more~
Ooooooooooooooooooor not. Clearly this motel was used for other…. purposes. Groovy.
My imagination is pretty funny here.
I....
HAD THE WRONG BAG!
My life!
I got settled in for my week's stay. Love me some government intrusion. I hope they found what they were looking for, and more.
Their body searches are loads of fun too!
I'm looking forward to the rest of your trip report!
vamassey1
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2005
Famous last words.
I have a very good visual of this. Last year we stayed at a Holiday Inn close to the New Orleans airport for a robotics competition and it was horrible.
Thank God you made it to safety.
I'm so glad you finally found food.
I'm so sorry. I hope you found some time later to get caught up on your sleep.
Finally a good sign.
Yikes!
My very first time flying I had to use the little white bag. Fingers crossed I don't have to again.
Got one of those before.
I'm sure they loved having you too. You'll always have that memory too. How is your Mom doing now?
KathyM2
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2011
This made me laugh because, have actually done this, and recently too.
Wow, they show such quality on a plane? Impressive!
Steppesister
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2013
I see lots of replies are due here! Been a long weekend with a birthday dinner and a wedding. So less DISTime than I'd have liked. I'll get replies up tomorrow for sure!! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!
pkondz
Brace yourself for immediate disintegration
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2007
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