rosieknight

We actually made it here about 2:15 or so, this is just the first chance I've gotten to post.

Yes, the Dog did allow us to sleep last night, so I'm feeling much more awake.

Breakfast was 2 eggs, bacon or sausage, toast or a biscuit, grits or hash browns, and coffee for free. None of my family got the coffee - we paid extra for orange juice.

The Dog got Dad and Mom's sausage patties and Bro's bacon, so she had a good breakfast too.

Other than restroom and gas breaks, we drove pretty much non-stop from Macon to Home. (I'm counting the semi-obligatory stop at Florida's Welcome Center for free orange juice or grapefruit juice as a restroom stop.)

I basically just listened to my iPod for the rest of the trip. (I managed to listen to 401 of 802 songs on this trip. That's half of my play list!)

*shrugs* Not much else to say, I know.

Good news is... Fic bit for tomorrow!

RK.

Today was the big day, the whole reason we made this trip.

My maternal grandfather turned 85 on Friday, June 19th, and all he really wanted was a family photograph with as many of his children and grandchildren as possible.

So, today he got it.

In an interesting note, we'd had a family portrait done for his 80th birthday and we'd managed to get the same photographer who'd taken that one to do this picture.

This morning - at 10, all of my mom's siblings, two of my cousins, and my immediate family gathered at the complex my grandfather lives in and got photographed. We did both indoor and outdoor shots, because the weather was nice and the complex has a beautiful garden right by the room the photographer set up in.

Hopefully, we'll hear about the pictures soon.

After the photograph session, we went to lunch at an nearby Marion's pizza. It's a family run restaurant, with good food. It's one of the restaurants that you should visit if you're in the area, just to say you've had it. It's a local favorite and the food's good too! (I just wish that my family hadn't been out-voted about getting pizza. We'd had it last night!)

After lunch, we introduced my Mom's sister to the Dog and got caught up with her.

We ended up talking until it was time to leave for dinner with Grandpa at a restaurant called the Golden Lamb.

The Golden Lamb is one of my Grandfather's favorite places to go for special occasions. It' the oldest continuously used hotel in Ohio and has been visited by 12 American Presidents and several celebrities, including Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.

Mom's sister has nicknamed the Golden Lamb the "slaughtered Lamb", as all the dishes include some form of meat, so vegetarians be aware of this.

Still, the turkey dinner they offered tonight was good and all you can eat. Desert wasn't included, but the raspberry sherbert was tasty.

Prices are on the steep side, though.

I do have to wonder how the Golden Lamb is as hotel, since I've never spent the night there. (I'm pretty sure it's not pet friendly, so we'd have to leave the Dog behind, and that's not happening.)

We chatted with Grandpa and the relatives a bit after dinner. It was nice and I learned more about Grandpa's time in the Navy during World War II. Amusingly, he'd been in the Navy for 38 months and was never on a boat during that time. He remained State-side as a teacher, instead.

Afterward, we headed back here, where we discovered that the hotel is playing host to a multi-year school reunion. I can currently hear part of it though both the music on my headphones and the closed business center door.

Hopefully, they won't stay too late and disturb the Dog to the point of keeping us up...

Oh well, I'll deal with that if it happens.

See you tomorrow.

RK.

If you can't guess from my afternoon posting time, we've reached our destination in Ohio.

Actually, we got here about noon and this is just the first chance I've had to post on lj.

Today's Major complaint - The Dog would not let us sleep. She kept whimpering for most of the night. We think she stopped about 2:30am for some rest. But, she resumed around 6:00am.

So, yes, I am posting with only 3 and 1/2 hours sleep, unless I dosed off before then and have no memory of it.

It should be noted that a whimpering dog does not make the most pleasant of alarm clocks.

Let's see...

The hotel in Corbin offered complementary breakfasts - continental style. That means, however, that I have no meal review of breakfast, as it was fairly standard for a hotel's free breakfast.

The Dog did get a sausage patty for breakfast there, so she was happy.

We left the hotel about 9am, an hour later than when we'd wanted to start. Still, only 3 hours to reach our destination isn't bad at all.

When we got here, our room wasn't ready. So, we went to lunch at a restaurant called "Max & Erma's". If you're ever in the Dayton and Columbus Ohio areas, I recommend Max & Erma's. Good food, reasonable prices, and a decorating scheme that can only be described as 'eclectic'. Where else can you visit a Sundae bar in a bathtub or sit on a bench with feet molded to look like shoes?

Thanks to an understanding manager, we were able to bring the Dog onto the outdoor patio and not have to spell each other while eating. The Dog behaved herself and got complemented for it.

Dad had a cheeseburger, Bro ate a turkey club sandwich, Mom tried a salad that I forget the name of, and I feasted on a salad called the "Aloha Bowl" and a trip to the sundae bar. The Dog enjoyed a plan hamburger patty and some water.

The current hotel is nice, though the room was larger in Corbin. This hotel has the advantage of giving us a handicapped room, so Mom can use the... facilities without needing a ton of help. Both the pool and business center here are larger, so those are both perks.

The truly nice thing about this area, though, is that both Dad and Mom grew up around here and know where all the parks and stuff are. Dad, Bro, and myself have already taken the Dog to one of the largest and safest those parks and let her run around sans restraint. She was leashed, but no-one was holding it. She did a lot of walking, met a new dog, and ran across a deserted baseball diamond. Needless to say, she's tired, happy, and has very dirty paws.

I really wish we'd brought a camera to the park, because the image of her racing through the clay of the baseball diamond, trailing her leash behind her, definitely deserves to be saved.

We haven't decided what to do with the rest of the day. I support exploring the area and recovering from traveling, but it all depends on Mom. If she thinks she's up to visiting her dad, we will.

I'll probably write again later.

'Till then,

RK

PS: If anyone is wondering what the Dog looks like, that's her in my icon. Sadly, she wasn't facing the camera at the time. She's a Bichon Frise, for those dying to know.