Houston We Have A Problem, Nashville, Antique Archaeology, Broadway, Murals and Bar-B-Cutie

We slept as much as we could and it seemed shorter than it was because we lost two hours flying east.  Our flight arrived on time in Houston at 6:00 a.m.  We got off the plane and wandered to our next gate to our connecting flight.  We had to wait about an hour so we wandered around the airport.  Erika spilled her coffee and had to get a new one.  As it was reaching boarding time, we wandered back over to our gate and waited to get on.

We boarded our plane and left on time at 7:05 a.m.  I was super tired so I slept after we took off.

About an hour on the plane (somewhere over Missouri) the flight started to feel weird.  We flew really low, really fast and the plane got really hot inside.  My stomach started to feel yucky and it was an all around strange experience.  The pilot got on and told us that we had turned around and was heading back to Houston because of a plane malfunction.  The cabin would not depressurize (I was surprised the masks didn't come down) and the A/C unit was not working so he apologized for the inconvenience.

The passengers who had connecting flights for Nashville all started to freak out.  Especially those who had to be somewhere (meetings/business) at a certain time got really upset.  A lot of them found other alternatives to get to where they needed to be.

We got back to Houston and we all deplaned.  Our flight was delayed several times due to the pilots and flight crew not feeling well and had to be seen by doctors.  We were given snacks and water while we waited and we were given a new flight departure which would get us into Nashville around 1:00 p.m.  Mom called dad to let him know the situation and what we were doing.  It would have been bad if we hadn't turned around.

We boarded our new plane and waited for our crew to get there.  It was delayed again because a thunder and lightening storm had rolled in from the east off the Gulf of Mexico.  It was getting so tired of these delays.  I just wanted to be there already!!

The flight attendants told us because of the delays we have suffered today and the inconvenience they gave out a $10 food vouchers to all the passengers for a quick lunch and a $75 coupon for our next flight with United.  Mom decided to stay on the plane.  Erika and I deplaned and went to go find some food near our gate.  We found a place that served sandwiches.  She and I got a sandwich.  Erika also wanted French fries so we found a Wendy's.  We ordered French fries, chicken tenders and a Caesar salad just so we could use all of the voucher money because we didn't get change back.

We hustled back because we saw that they weather delay had been lifted.  Now we can finally leave Houston for good.  We ate our food as we took off.  I took a short nap before our decent into Nashville.  I was so happy that we finally arrived after a five hour delay on our vacation.  Now we will have to hustle to get everything we wanted to see while we were here.

We arrived in Nashville at 2:55 p.m.  We immediately got off and grabbed our bags from baggage claim.

We made our way down to the rental car desk and filled out the necessary paperwork.  I ended up paying for it outright because mom had put the reservation in my name.  He pointed out the signage to follow to the car.  We grabbed our stuff and followed the signs to a kiosk.  A lady gave us some more paperwork and directions to follow about documenting the damage to the vehicle.  She handed us the keys and we walked to the car.  We got a white Hyundai Elantra (similar to Ben's but his is black) and I documented the damage as mom and Erika packed our stuff in the trunk.  We left and got onto the freeway.  It was warm and raining but that soon changed.

**No one uses turn signals and they have what county they are from on their license plates**

We plugged the address into Nuvi and headed to our first place, Antique Archeology.  Mom has been a fan of American Pickers for years.  She was super excited to go finally see a part of it even though it was not headquarters, located in LeClaire, Iowa.  We parked the car in the first available spot and got out.  We it was very hot and humid and I was still wearing my sweats and sweatshirt and changed into a tank top, shorts and flip flops as soon as I could.  The building was awesome in person.  We remembered the episode where they found this building.  We walked up to the store front and went inside to look at all the treasures.  We recognized some of the stuff from the show.  We bought a few souvenirs and were there probably a little less than an hour.

I checked my geocaching app to see if there was one nearby and there was.  A virtual called What Used to Be (GC8343) and I had to answer questions about the building.

It was a really cool rustic building called Marathon Motor Works and it was the Marathon motor car was manufactured here from 1914-1918 but closed due to financial difficulties but continued as a parts and service business until 1918.  I had found my first Tennessee cache!  We wandered around the rest of the building for a while because it was pretty cool.

We plugged in the address to our next location to go visit.  We had to do a few drive byes to find a place to park.  When we finally did we weren't far from the other places mom had written down to go see.  We paid to park for three hours and set a timer on my phone.  We walked to the Goo Goo Cluster storefront.  Mom was more a fan of these than Erika and I were.  I personally have never had them before.  We looked at all the history of it, used the restroom and mom did buy a three pack of Goo Goo Clusters so we can each have one.  Fun fact:  Goo Goo Clusters were named after the Grand Ole Oprey.  They are considered to be the first combination candy bar, meaning it contained several types of candy rather than an all chocolate bar.

We walked up Broadway and had to go into Boot Country to look at all the boots.  They were selling them buy one get on free.  Mom and Erika actually considered getting some but didn't really like some of the colors and styles.  Me, I am not really into boots or cowboy things.  The hats were pretty cool but I wasn't going to buy one because I would never actually wear it.

We walked out and headed up the Broadway and some lady (either crazy, homeless, poor or all the above) asked us if we could spare some money and we said no, then she asked if she could have our Goo Goo Clusters and we said no again.  She said some mean stuff back at us as we were walking away.  We stopped by Printer's Alley, a place mom found while searching for things to go see.  It was fun to learn about this unique area.  At the beginning of the 20th century, Printer's Alley was home to a thriving publishing industry.  The area was home to two large newspapers, ten print shops and thirteen publishers.  It is now known for its night clubs, bars, pubs and various types of music.  It was fun to see some Nashville history.

I got to see where the Nashville Predators played and that my Pittsburgh Penguins beat them in the 2017 Stanley Cup!  Penguins represent!  I wish I would have had my t-shirt with me or a rally towel  But then I probably would have been mugged or something.

We enjoyed the rest of Broadway and headed back towards the car because time was almost up.  Erika opted to stay with the car while we ran down the street to do another virtual cache since we were there.  Winds of Change (GCE7C7) was at the symphony building and I had to count the pillars.  I went and saw the fountain that was also nearby.

Mom saw the pedestrian bridge and had to go see what was on the other side.  I walked with her.  We saw the Cumberland River and where the Tennessee Titans play football.  We walked back and joined Erika.  We were surprised she didn't call us asking us where we went.

Nashville is divided into sections (like most cities are) and we hung out in downtown, the Gulch and 12 South.  We tried to cram as much stuff as we could into the 4ish hours we had left of the daylight.  We were all tired.  Mom wanted to see some of the murals while we were here so we picked a few of the fun ones.

What Lifts You Wings

Flowers Mural

Peace Love Good Deeds

I brought Grammie with us on this adventure because I missed her a lot.  I wanted her to experience it with us since I would not be able to share it with her.  I was so crushed five days ago.

While mom was searching for stuff to do in Nashville, Santa's Pub popped up and she had to go see it.  We plugged in the address and made our way to the pub.  It was in a really obscure part of Nashville but I was sure happy to see this unique place.  It was too bad we couldn't go in for a drink.  We needed to check into our hotel.

We put the coords into Nuvi and headed to the Super 8.  We got there and checked in.  Mom said the front desk person was pretty lame.  She asked if she could upgrade to two beds instead of one (because we booked them before we knew Erika was going) and the guy basically ignored her, gave her the keys and she went to the room.  We had to sneak Erika into the room because they didn't know we had three people.  Everything was settled in and Erika decided she was going to sleep on the floor.  The room was very little with one queen bed.

We got hungry so Erika checked to see what was around us. She found a place down the street called Bar-B-Cutie because she liked the name.  Let's do it!  Erika ordered the sampler, I ordered the pulled pork and mom got a chicken salad.  We got a lot of food for our money.  You can really never go wrong with BBQ.  I love it!

We went back to the hotel, showered and relaxed a bit until bedtime.  Tomorrow was going to be just as busy.

Next Adventure:  Old Stone Fort SP, Jack Daniels Whiskey Tour, Ruby Falls and First Georgia Cache

Going to Nashville, Tennessee via Houston, Texas Red Eye

In early July mom asked me how much vacation time I had and that we should go somewhere at the end of August.  I told her that I would get back to her since I had just started a new job.  She threw around a few places such as southern Florida, New Orleans, Chicago and Tennessee.  I looked into all of them and after I got the okay from my boss to take a few days off from work, mom and I decided on Tennessee.

We would fly into Nashville, sight see there, then drive to Chattanooga, see stuff there and then visit Knoxville and the surrounding area until heading back to Nashville to come home.  At that time Grammie was doing pretty good but of course time would tell.  I didn't really want to book this trip and have something happen then we would have to eat the money or get ridiculed by family members and I didn't want either of them to happen.  I was hoping she would get better.  Sadly, that was not the case and my life changed drastically.  Grief has been hands down the hardest emotion I have ever had to deal with.

Since Erika moved back in mom asked her if she wanted to go with us and she bought her tickets.  It would make our trip cheaper splitting it three ways now.  I spent time researching what to see in those three locations.

I got up early and went to work.  Yesterday, I wrote everyone an email telling them what had happened over the weekend and I was not ready to talk about it.  I was left alone with my thoughts as I went through my work list.  A few people wrote me back telling me they understood and they were sorry for my loss.  I had a lot to do before the trip so I asked my boss if I could leave early and she said yes.  We also talked about my bereavement leave for Grammie's funeral on September 5.  She said take all the time you need and we will see you when you get back.  My first day back was going to be September 6.  I was going to be gone from work for six days with a long weekend.  I really needed to get away.

I finished up my data collections, spinals and imaging, did my emails and finished my time sheet.  They told me to have a good time.  I left at 9.  I headed to west side Olympia to pay the chiropractic office the rest of the money I owed them.  Earlier that year I had a subtle change in my insurance that didn't cover my care anymore and now I owed like $350.  I was super upset because it happened during all of the other stupid inconvenient things that were happening at the time.

I headed home and got Ben to mow the lawn.  I ate some chicken noodle soup for lunch as I washed the clothes that I would need for the upcoming trip.  I weeded the front yard, washed dishes, cleaned the kitchen, packed my stuff and took a small nap.  I briefly worked on Grammie's slide show for her celebration.

I ate a quick dinner, threw all of our stuff into the Escape and headed to grandma's house to give her some money for watching our pets for when Ben is on shift.  She told us to have a great time and she would see us when we got back.  We went over to our parents house and picked up mom and her stuff and off we went to SeaTac.  We left mom's house around 8 p.m.

Along the way near Des Moines, we had some butthole drive past us really fast and it scared us.  He really could have caused an accident.  We really didn't have time for any accidents.  We got off at the airport exit and had Nuvi direct us to the Ajax parking lot.  This was the same one we parked in the first time we went to Ecuador back in September 2017.  We got our card and they told us which row to park in.  The shuttle came right away.  We made sure we had all of our stuff, the Escape was locked and we all made it on.  They took us to our airline inside the airport.  We checked in, got our boarding passes and had to pay $25 each for our luggage.  It didn't take us very long to get through security because it was so late.

We had a little over an hour to wait for our flight to leave.  We were on United flight 2112 and it left at aprox. 11:59 p.m.  Erika and I walked around the airport.  I needed a snack so I grabbed a drink and some chips.  We walked back to mom at the gate and chilled until it was time to board.  Since Erika bought her tickets at a different time she got to board before us which I questioned because we bought our tickets way before she did.  I thought it was odd.  Oh well.

We boarded, found our seats and awaited departure.  This is the latest flight I've ever taken in my life.  We decided on this flight because I was able to go to work for at least part of the day, get some stuff done and it was a cheap flight because it was late.  This would be a 4 hour flight to Houston, Texas and we will be arriving at 6 a.m. central time.

I bet you could guess what we did on this flight...that's right, we tried getting as much sleep as we could!

Next Adventure:  Houston We Have A Problem, Nashville, Antique Archaeology, Broadway, Murals and Bar-B-Cutie

The Worst Day of My Life

This summer was the hardest summer of my life.

Late July Grammie started to get worse.  It was getting harder and harder for me to go and visit her because I did not like seeing her like this but I did it for her.  It was really hard not to cry when I was there.  I held it together when I was with her and cried my eyes out when I walked back to the Escape in the parking lot.  I told her stories about what I was doing, my job...basically anything I could think of so she didn't have to talk very much.  It was getting harder and harder for her to talk as the days went on.  The stroke had made the lung problem worse since she couldn't move her left side very well.  This was literally killing me and I felt so hopeless and dejected.

The last time she was awake and talking, this was before she moved down to the lower floors of the hospital, she told me that I was her precious granddaughter and that she loved me so much.  I told her I loved her and gave her a hug before I left, she told me to pray for her.  I did every night before I went to bed.  The nurses needed to come in and change the bed, change the IV's and give her dinner.

On Monday, dad had told us that Grammie was being moved to a different floor.  Since May and when this awful experience began, Grammie has been to the hospital and Mojo's twice and many different rooms and floors of the hospital.  I truly believed she was going to get better.  Around the middle of the week, she was moved to the third floor which was closer to the nurse monitoring stations.  I guess if you were moved to the third floor you probably weren't going to make it out alive.  I didn't know that until later.  It was probably for the best.

Two days ago I got the worst message of my life.  I got a message from Erika asking if I heard from dad.  I told her I didn't get text messages at work.  She said to call him.  As I was walking out of the building for cell service I got a group text message.  Dad said, "Grammie has about three days left and she will be gone."  Reading that made me feel like someone had just hit me with a truck.  I internally broke down.  I was hit with so much sadness I didn't know what to do.  Do I stay at work?  Do I hold my emotions in check?  I hurried down the stairs to the side of the building.  I called dad as fast as I could.  It was hard to talk without crying.  I asked him why?  Why does she have to leave?  Very calmly he told me that this was her choice.  She chose to be taken off all the machines except for the comfort care machines.  I can't even image how much courage it took for her to make that choice.  It was probably a really hard choice leaving everyone you loved behind.

Rationally, it was the right choice because it would end her suffering and irrationally, I was being selfish and didn't want her to go.  This was the thing I never wanted to happen.  After dad had explained what was going to happen I stood out there on L&I's campus feeling empty inside.  I wanted to crawl in a hole and die.  I had been grief stricken and I'm not sure how I was going to handle it.  I have never lost a loved one before.  He added that we should probably spend as much time as we could with her the rest of this week.  I had been going every day after work since she was moved to the third floor.  I went back to work and said nothing.  I kept it to myself.  I was so worried about what life would be like without her.  I did not sleep very well and had nightmares.

Today I went to work like I always do but it felt different from all the other days.  I didn't feel right the entire day at work like something bad was going to happen.  The Pacific Northwest had been suffering from fires and all the smoke was hanging in our atmosphere and wouldn't go away.  It's been hot, smoky and agonizing over the past few weeks.  Today was the worst out of all the smoky days.  You couldn't really be outside very long in the brown haze.  We all still had our internal hourglass dropping sand in the back of our minds as we thought about our final days with Grammie. I was distracted all day long and it was hard to focus on work since I was still learning.  My building's air filtering system failed and some of the smoke smell got into the building just before lunch.  Liz ended up going home early because of it.  She has asthma and it was making it uncomfortable.  The finally got it working and it took a while for the smoke smell to go away.  When I left it still smelled like smoke.

After work I went to the hospital.  Every time I made that drive I hated it more and more each time.  I hated how it made me feel.  I never knew how much this actually hurt until it was actually happening to you. Grammie has been on my mind since her first heart attack in 1995 and every time she got sick or hurt we all held our breath.  She was a tough lady and endured all sorts of stuff over the years.  Unfortunately, this one was winning and there was nothing we could do about it.  I hated feeling helpless.

I rode the elevator to the third floor and on the ride up I tried so so hard to compose myself.  I had a really hard time.  I found room 316 and walked in.  Grammie's eyes were closed but she was aware of what was going on.  Tracy was there and I visited with her for about a half hour until she went downstairs to get some snacks.  I turned on the Seahawk's third preseason game against the Vikings and watched it with Grammie.  There were times I wasn't sure she was still breathing and it scared me.  Luckily, she wiggled her feet often.  Tracy soon came back and she watched it with us.  At one point over the course of the game, the Seahawks scored a touchdown. I yelled out, "Grammie, they scored a touchdown for you!"  She wiggled her right foot letting me know that she heard me.  Many times a day (since May 16th) I wished everything was back to normal and she wasn't in the hospital slowly leaving us.  It was painful.

I spent a little over two hours with Grammie and Tracy before I decided to go home and get some stuff done.  I was getting hungry and I didn't want to spend money on cafeteria food.  The game was in the third quarter and we were not winning.  Before I left, I told Grammie that I would come by tomorrow and see her.  I gently touched her head and told her that I loved her very much.  I was absolutely losing it in my mind.  I gave Tracy a hug and told her I would see her tomorrow as well.

I went home, made and ate dinner and continued on with our normal stuff we do on Fridays.  Doug had been staying with me at my house on the couch most of this week.  Ben had been at work at Lowes until 8 that evening.  We were all hanging out in the living room doing whatever.  The TV was on, Doug was on his phone, Erika was in and out of her room.

Around 10:30 p.m. that night I got some severe anxiety.  I had a lot of nervous energy and I didn't know why.  I paced, I was trying to find something busy to do.  I honestly could have ran a marathon without any struggle with the amount of nervous energy I had.  I had no idea what was happening to me.  It was very overwhelming so I just kept moving.  I mindlessly rummaged through containers out in the garage and I didn't know why I was doing it.  I didn't even know what I was looking for.

 Around 11ish, I really couldn't tell you the exact time, the anxiety and nervous energy stopped, I felt severe sadness and said out loud, because I remember exactly what I said, "I will miss the hugs, the phone calls, the visiting and the birthday cards, please don't leave me."  A few seconds later I felt a pain on my right side near by hip and traveled diagonally up through my torso to my left shoulder and then it was gone.  It was instantaneous.  I had no idea what to make of it.

I went back into the house, sat down and stared at the TV.  Around 11:20-11:30 that night we all heard my phone ring.  I didn't want to answer it because I knew what we were going to be told.  I've learned that no one calls you that late at night unless something was wrong.   I looked at the phone and it was dad calling us.  I knew it was bad news but I remained calm.

Dad, very calmly, told me that Grammie had passed away around 11:00 p.m. that evening.  Every ounce in my being folded with grief.  I fell to the floor and cried.  Erika and Doug also had a hard time but they experienced their own form of grief.  I knew this day would happen someday but dreaded it so bad that we never talked about it because it was so painful.  We were now here on this day struggling to reason with it.  Time went by too fast.

Doug and I decided to go to the hospital.  We left the house just before midnight after I had gone through a bin of ducks to find the one that Grammie had given me when I was little.  There is this picture of me when I was between one and two sitting in a small tub in the greenhouse playing with this rubber duck.  It was important that I find that duck to take with me.  I also took a picture of her with me.  I was pretty calm on the way to the hospital.  Doug drove.  We found a parking spot and walked in, mom and dad got there about the same time I did.  Dad's complexion was pale and you could tell he was holding in all of his emotions.  We rode up the elevator together and I dreaded walking off.  I did not want to go in.  I wanted my last memory of her to be alive.

I sat in the hallway and I was fine until Kevin and Tracy came out of the room.  They said a few things to me and I completely lost it.  I could not control the crying or the noises that came out of me.  I was a 34 year old adult crying uncontrollably.  I physically could not stop.  My body was in shock.  The nurse told me to go into a room so I wouldn't wake the other patients.  I sat there for a long time while people came in and out.  I had so many unanswered questions floating around in my mind and I know they will never be answered.

Around 1-1:30 is when we helped grandpa take bags of Grammie's stuff to his car.  He drove the car around to the front and we helped him load them.  I gave grandpa a hug and told him that I was sorry.  On the outside he was very calm and stoic but on the inside I'm sure he was struggling just like all of us were.  I felt so bad for him because they did everything together and that was now gone.

What was life going to be like without her?  What were holidays going to be like?  She was such a big part of my life and everyone else's it was hard to even imagine it.  I knew for a fact there would be less Joy in it.

Doug drove us home and I couldn't sleep.  I have never lost a family member before let alone a grandparent so I didn't know what to say or how to feel.  Doug and I stayed up the entire night talking about random things because we couldn't sleep.

All those years listening to people saying life is hard I know what they meant by it now.  Losing people is one of the hardest experiences we as people go through in our lives.  It was worse than anything I have ever had to deal with even the physical pain from illness and injuries I have suffered throughout my life.  Those heal and get better.  This doesn't.

A part of me also died that day.  I miss her very much and life will never be the same.

Next Adventure:  Going to Nashville, Tennessee via Houston, Texas Red Eye