Archive through April 06, 2002
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The ClubHouse: Archives: Road Trips (Archives): Archive January - April 2002: Archive through April 06, 2002

Buttercup

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 08:23 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Tess is on her way to VA! I just received "phone mail"

Buttercup sneaks back out of the school's administrator's office, giggles and whispers thank you for the use of the internet 'puter

Juju2bigdog

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 08:26 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Had a phone e-mail that came in about a half hour ago while I was lost on a walk in the woods in my own neighborhood. Tess is on the move again.

Bye bye, Marm.



Edit 2 mins. later - they just now pulled into Punksatawney. Go, Tess, GO!!

Juju2bigdog

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 08:38 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Oops, and Buttercup's message was not up there when I started. I was going to edit the above message again, but got called away to watch Gina on the Early Show. She was very cute. and so is Buttercup

Spygirl

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 10:46 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Just got phone mail:

"Having lunch in Ebensburg, PA. Finally on a real highway"


I have no clue Ebensburg that is, but glad it has a real highway...those fake ones can rough on the wheels...

Drive carefully, Tess!

Juju2bigdog

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 10:55 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Lunch over. Heading for the Virginia border. 200 miles more to go today.

Zed

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 11:39 am EditMoveDeleteIP
So glad you are having fun Tess & family! Drive safely.


<puts a little engraved silver tag on Juju..."If I look lost,please feed me lots of weenies & return me to Bigdog">

queenz

Urgrace

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 12:14 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hope the weather is finally being kind on your trip Tess. Isn't it beautiful in that part of the country? Be safe and have the best of times. Meeting friends from TVCH is the BesT!!! <urgrace is so lucky to have met Moondance and Buttercup>

Spygirl

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 02:43 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
They have arrived at their hotel in Harrisonburg! Seems that Miss Sarah wants to swim, but the in-laws are waiting for them

(Urgrace, I told them you said to have fun and be safe )

Twiggyish

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 06:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
My thoughts are with them as they travel.

I bet ya Sarah gets her swim..LOL

Egbok

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 06:45 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Ohhh yeah Twiggy, I'll be placing my bet on Miss Sarah for the swim!! LOL

I'm glad Tess & family are sharing their road trip with us!

Firebird05

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 07:24 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Glad you made it Tess. Hope you are having a ball. Despite the, creating with insulation, incident. Have a great evening.


birdie will say extra prayers for Tess during the in-law part of the trip

Tess

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 07:46 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hey Twigs and Eg!! YOU WIN!! Miss Sarah is in the pool and I'm supposed to be resting since I have a bad cold. :) Charlie made sure my computer was all hooked up before they went down to the pool, though.

Well, let me start with our visit with Marm!! We had a great time. Sarah just adores her (who wouldn't??). We got there mid afternoon and there was Marm standing out in front of her house waving madly. :) We got the grand tour of her 1920's house and were lucky enough to sleep in the newly re-furbished "lavender room" while Sarah had her own room for the first time this trip!! I think the music room is my favorite in the house--just beautiful, bright and cheerful, just like Marm herself.

We did go over to the campus and I felt so fortunate to be able to listen in on one of the student auditions while Charlie and Sarah played in Marm's office. (She has the best toys!!) Marm gave Sarah a stuffed dragon who has yet to be named and that dragon hasn't left her sight since. After the audition and tour of the very impressive new library, we had a scrumptious dinner. I haven't had BBQ ribs in years and all I can say is YUMMY!!!!!

Finally the hour we had awaited arrived and Marm settled in on one couch while I took the other. We fired up our laptops, popped into chat and Survivor came on. What fun!!! Well, fun if you don't count the part where Gina got voted out. :( We talked and talked and talked while Sarah colored us pictures and read books. Then the family went to bed while Marm and I kept talking well past midnight.

Flurry of activity getting ready this morning and back on the road again.......80 mph down I-80 just to keep up with the flow of traffic. whew!!! My favorite part of the driving so far was the back roads we took from northern Pennsylvania down to the PA turnpike today. We went through so many little towns but the prettiest by far was Punxatawny. It was beautiful!! We had good weather for the drive today, too. Snow flurries were as bad as it got. By 5:30 or so we had made it to the hotel and all I've heard since is, "When can I go swimming?????"

Dinner at the inlaws' first. That went very well. They have a huge old victorian house built somewhere around 1870 and they finally got rid of over 100 years of wallpaper and dirt on the entire first floor. It is absolutely amazing what a difference that has made, not only in the beauty of the house but in everyone's health.

Pool closes in 20 minutes so I have just that long to check the board and see if a certain puppy and her kitty side-kick have been behaving. We're here in Harrisonburg and Elkton, VA until Sunday night now. Then back on the road again. :)

Thanks so much to Spy, Buttercup and Juju for keeping me company on the road today while everyone in my car was alseep except me!! Thanks to everyone here who has been with us in spirit. We're having a great time!! Charlie is a pro sending that phone mail now.

tess

Tess

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 07:51 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Birdie, your prayers worked!! This is the best "the inlaw part" has ever gone. One of Charlie's brothers is coming down from the DC area late tonight with his family so Sarah will get to play with 3 more of her cousins tomorrow and Sunday. I think this is going to be our best trip ever. :)

Lanzee

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 09:02 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hey, Tess!!!

I have to tell you that I really enjoyed reading your fantastic road trip!!

Guess what?? I am going to fly to Minneapolis to see my new baby niece plus her baptism. So, I am wondering if you will be home on either April 12 or 13 that I can visit you again?

Let me know about it so we can make a real meeting plan.

Have a fun weekend!!

Love and hugs,
Lanzee

Juju2bigdog

Friday, April 05, 2002 - 10:33 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Uhhhhhh ... Tess, you might want to keep a closer eye on Sarah and the cousins this time. Especially if you hear they are playing "fort." I'm just sayin' ...


Spygirl

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 06:45 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Lanzee, I can't remember all of Tess' itinerary, but I think she will either be returning or still on her trip on the 12th and 13th. Seems like TN might be in the picture on the 11th at least.

Webkitty

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 06:50 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Tess! I'm happy to hear your road trip is going well. Thank you so much for sharing.

I think its fantastic that Sarah is getting to meet her counsins. ~memories for a life time~

I've actually been to Harrisonburg and up around the mountains in that area, very pretty.

Marm's house sounds yummy!

Webkitty over and out

Schoolmarm

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 07:04 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Lanzee,

Tess will be in Nashville on the 11th...and TnTitanFan and I will be watching survivor at my hotel room. Won't be able to do the multiple computer in chat thing.

Don't know when she will be back in MPLS, but I think it's a couple of days after that.

And TESS! Great choice to go over the river and through the woods to Punxy AND Ebensburg....sheesh, now you know the kinds of roads I have to drive to supervise student teachers.

Have fun with the in-laws and say Hi to Sarah and Charlie for me!

Lanzee

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 04:13 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
SPYGIRL and SCHOOLMARM,

Thank you for sharing the information abaout TESS's road plan trip. I think more likely, I will not be able to see Tess that time when I will be in Minneapolis. I think I will stay there until Monday, April 15 then I will go to South Dakota.

Hey, School, I am glad that you had a blast time meeting Tess and family. Sarah is such cutie patootie!

Thank you!! U rock!

Lanzee \lm/

Tess

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 07:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Oh Lanzee, I'm so sorry we won't get home til late on the 14th. We're going to be driving all that day up from Chicago. :(

Here's my deal for today. We're at the hotel and when I made the reservation I specifically asked for non-smoking room for obvious reasons. I told the reservation clerk my health reasons for needing non-smoking and she said it was guaranteed. I double checked before we came and everything was in order. Yesterday when we arrived the girls at the front desk bordered on being rude even though all we had was a routine check in with no special requests. (Someone needed an attitude adjustment to say the least.) We left the hotel right away after unpacking the car and didn't arrive back until late last night. At that point we noticed the strong odor of cigarette smoke but couldn't figure out its source.

The odor persisted until late this morning at which point I mentioned it to the housekeeping staff. By that point I was in pretty rough shape. The housekeeper told us that we were in the smoking wing of the hotel and that they could "fog" the room for us to get rid of the odor. I told her that it wouldn't help if the people all around us were still smoking. She called down to the desk and asked to move us to the non-smoking part of the floor.

So, now we're in a smaller - but non-smoking room although we're paying for the larger room. I talked to the front desk again and asked for the manager (not here til Monday) and there is nothing they can do to compensate us for messing up our reservations and being rude to boot. I told the girl at the desk that we would just check out but there was nowhere to go and she asked, "Did you call ALL the other hotels yet?"

Now anyone who really knows me is aware that I've kept my temper and have been very rational throughout all of this. I got the phone number for the Regional Director, General Manager and Guest Relations persons but they of course are not available until Monday. I will be making a few phone calls on Monday and researching the email address of the president of the company.

The only person who apologized for anything at all (besides the nice housekeeping person) was on duty when we first checked in and she remembered us. When I reminded her that she was there but on the phone she heaved such a sigh of relief! I have a feeling that heads will roll. At least they'd better. I have no problem with people making an honest mistake. I have a lot of problem with them being rude when all you've done is said hello. I have even more problem when they try to take their mistake and turn it around to make it someone else's fault. Hmmmmmm--I think this should have been in the grouch thread!! oh well.

In the meantime, Sarah and her cousins had fun at the park today and then even more fun in the pool. I'm keeping a close eye on all of them lest they form another demolition team. They have all day tomorrow to be together and then we're on the road again headed for Fairfax, VA. :)

Wargod

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 08:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Aw Tessy, that sucks about the screw up! I'm pretty sure heads will roll though once you make a few phone calls!

Glad little miss Sarah is having a good time. And keeping out of trouble for now. hehehe, Little miss Kota has been an angel this week!

Drive careful tommorrow and have fun! Missing you lots!

Buttercup

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 08:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
You go, girl!!!

Buttercup

Twiggyish

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 08:24 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Good for you! I would do the same. Don't let them get away with rudeness.

Have fun with your in-laws.

You'll love Nashville. The people are very nice there.

Myjohnhenry

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 08:45 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I am glad Sarah is having fun and that you got moved!
Any hotel worth anything will compensate you at least for the change in room size AND more! I have received free nights twice in all my travels for screw ups...once for the same reason as you and once because I complained that the breakfast buffet was cold, put chemicals in the hottub while we were in there instead of during the hours it was closed AND they locked me out of my room 3 hours before checkout (which I am sure was a mistake on someones part, but I put it on my comment sheet because it was a major hassle to get back in...not to mention that we were wet and getting cold from having been in the pool).
Rudeness I don't tolerate at all!! And you know that someone is in charge there...regardless if the general manager is or not....ad they can always be reached.

Juju2bigdog

Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 10:52 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
That is awful about the no-smoking room, Tess. There is no excuse for that, with most of the U.S. population no longer smoking anyway. Hope you have recovered.