Travel “Tails”

I figured I should at least pop in here and let y’all know I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth.  I apologize for lack of blogging lately.  I wouldn’t, except that I belong to a couple of blog rings and you are supposed to post at least weekly.  I knew this summer was going to be hectic for me, I just didn’t realize quite how much.  We traveled to Lubbock this past weekend, to go with my son to an AJGA golf tournament.  We have three more big golf trips between now and this time in August.  That’s a lot of traveling in a short period of time.  But, I don’t want to look back on this time and regret not doing this.  My son is heading into his senior year of high school and I intend to make the most of his last year at home.  Plus, he would really like to play college golf somewhere, and these tournaments are good to have on his resume.

I thought I’d amuse you with what happened to me on our trip to Lubbock.  We have two very spoiled canines.  So I book our reservations at pet friendly hotels.  I looked on the internet for pet friendly hotels in Lubbock, and then started calling for reservations.  I called, rather than booked online to avoid any unpleasant surprises.  And, the first hotel I called that was listed as pet friendly, no longer was, as of about a year ago.  So, I end up booking a non-smoking room at a Best Western, that looked nice enough in the photos.  I told them I was bringing two dogs.  No problem.  Ya right.  We get there Saturday.  I’m checking us in, and mention the dogs again.  This time I’m talking to a man, who I assume was actually an owner/manager person.  First, he takes my room key cards back, and says he will have to move us down the hall to a different room since we have dogs with us.  Then I sign the “rule” sheet, which states that the dogs cannot be left in the room unattended.  ??????????  “Not even in their kennels?”, I ask.  He is shaking his head no and saying “they must not bark”.  Well, that would have been a nice detail to know BEFORE I booked here.  So, we all get settled into the room, trying to figure out our next move.  I got out the laptop, and started searching hotels again.  Found a Marriott TownPlace Suites.  Call them.  Ask if you are allowed to leave your dogs in the room while you go do other things, you know, like eat.  “Oh yes, of course”, was the reply.  Ok, so do you have anything available like right now?  They didn’t have anything for Saturday night, but could accomodate the rest of our stay.  Yay!  And thankfully so, because on top of the dog dilemma, our “non-smoking” room kept filling up with gross cigarette smoke all through the night.  I could not wait to get out of that stupid Best Western the next morning.  My son and husband had a tee time for a practice round at the course at 10:40 Sunday morning.  The check-in time for our new room was 3:00, but they told me they could most likely get me checked in early, just call them at noon and see if they had a room ready.  I figured “the girls” and I could make it ok til noon.  Now, let me also tell you that I am not a navigator type person.  I get turned around, lost, etc.  Hate driving around in larger cities.  Especially alone.  But, I had no choice.  My husband offered to stay with me, and leave Derek at the course, but I insisted that he go play, too.  I assured them we would be fine.  I had my Garmin Nuvi (which I call Dumb-Dumb because sometimes she gives silly directions).  We drop “the boys” off at the course about 9:30 so they can hit range balls, etc., and, long story short, the girls  and  I end up having to drive around Lubbock for 4.5 hours.  We drove, we would go to the hotel parking lot and get them out to walk in the pet walking area.  I had a container of water for them, so I’d give them a drink.  We would go drive some more.  It was almost 100 degrees outside that day, so I couldn’t even run into a shop for a few minutes, with them in the car.  I took my husband’s set of keys with me, so that if I needed to run in and pee somewhere, I could leave the Tahoe running with Libs & Lu locked safely inside, with the motor running, keeping them nice and cool.  At 12:00, we go to the hotel to check on the room.  The people that were in “our” room, didn’t check out til right at noon, so they were not able to check me in til 2:00.  After learning that it would be two more hours, I looked up Petsmart on Dumb Dumb, and headed there.  I killed about an hour of time, with Libby on her leash and Lulu in the basket, just going up and down the ailes at Petsmart.  Then back to the hotel for another walk & drink, then out to a Sonic for a drink for me.  Finally, it was time to try our room again, and yay! It was ready.  And it was nice.  A lovely suite with two bedrooms.  And no stinky cigarette smoke blowing in from anywhere.  We made it! But what a day.  They were such good girls, though.  And I discovered that I can navigate myself around in Lubbock quite well.  Good to know. 🙂

So, all the rest of our summer travel reservations are at pet friendly Marriott hotels.  Thank you, Marriott.