I've gotten behind on my blogging and meant to post this a couple weeks ago and am just now getting around to it :(
This past weekend, me, Beth, & Gavin took a weekend trip to Columbia, Kentucky. Growing up, our family spent our summer vacation here, visiting with all my dad's family and spending time doing various things in the area. This side of my family and these vacations were some of my best memories! I remember so many of the vacations and so many of the things we did on them. We went every year up until my dad passed away. Since his passing in 1997, I've only been back one time. I've been wanting to go the last couple of years, but never had. Then last year I had planned on going, but when I called to reserve a room at the Dreamland Motel, they told me they were selling it and weren't taking reservations. I was deflated! You can read about that post here. Earlier this summer, at the Jessee Reunion, I heard that the motel had new owners and was back open for business. I was excited and knew that I was going to go visit this year. I wanted to go a little later this fall when the leaves were changing, but was running out of weekends/time to go, so I decided to go back this past weekend.
I called and reserved us Friday and Saturday night at the Dreamland Motel. One room, two beds, two nights, $100. Not bad! I already knew going into it that it was not going to be a fancy motel, so I wasn't expecting much. More about that later.
The plan for the weekend was to stay at the Dreamland Motel, pick up Sissy each morning and then drive around and reminisce about old times, visit places we used to go to (if only to just snap a picture or two), and then also drive over to Cumberland Falls and hang out there.
Friday when I left my work picnic, I picked up and Beth and Gavin and we were off! As soon as we would pass the sign for "Adair County", my dad would say "now we are in God's county". We were so excited to see this sign!
When we got into town, it was chilly and raining. We checked into the motel. It was definitely more outdated and not as clean as I thought it would be, and there was a huge spider under the covers of the bed I was going to sleep in. Definitely not starting out good! Once we were in town, we discovered that I had absolutely no cell phone coverage. I couldn't make or receive a call or send or receive texts and had no way of letting Shawn, Mom, or Tommy know that we made it. Since I couldn't call Sissy and tell her we were in town, we decided to drive out to their house. I had been out there once, but wasn't familiar with how to get there. I plugged their address into the trusty (hmm??) GPS and off we went. It took us to the end of a very narrow road that turned from black top to grass and gravel. I don't think this is right. We had to turn around in a driveway that was the home of two black scary looking dogs! I tried to call Sissy, however we have no phone service! Oh this is not good! It's raining, we have no phone service, and we can't find their house, and it's dark! I had been there once, but it had been a long time ago, but I seemed to remember a little bit about it. We decided to drive back down the road and turn around and try it again. We found it...I'm glad I partially remembered what their house/car/drive looked like.
We visited with them for a little bit and then headed back into town to eat dinner at the Pizza Hut and then to the motel for the night. I remembered the McDonald's had free wifi so we pulled in so I could call Shawn and tell him we made it. However at the time, I wasn't thinking that you couldn't make a phone call on wifi. I ended up getting on Facebook and messaging a friend online and asked her to text Shawn to tell him we made and we had no phone signal and I'd talk to him later and for him to call my mom and have my mom text Tommy. What an ordeal!!!
Back at the motel, we unpacked and got ready for bed. I gave the covers a once over check again and decided it would be best if I slept in my clothes and on top of the covers. I had already brought my own blanket and pillow. Beth and Gavin shared one bed and I had the other. I slept alittle bit but not much at all. In fact, I think Beth and I were both up all night over this spider situation in my bed earlier in the day. Gavin snoozed all night! Oh to be a kid again!
Usually when I can't sleep, I get on the computer. However not having wifi was a problem. I ended up going outside to sit on the bench in the wee hours of the morning trying to get on the internet.
Between the spider in my bed, the daddy long legs in the shower and the little bug that ran across the bathroom floor when I was in there, everything was seriously doing me in. I was contemplating back and forth between checking out of the motel and seeing if the other motel in town had a room. If they didn't, then we would just either head towards Bowling Green and stay the next time, or drive into Campbellsville to stay the night and then finish out our trip in Columbia. I just hated that I had already paid for both nights and wondered if they would give me my money back, and whether or not the other motel would have a room, and yada, yada, yada. Between all that, the rain, and the lack of phone service, I was having a time!
Long story short, Saturday morning we checked out of the Dreamland Motel. I got my memories and more new memories. I also explained the situation to the owner and he gave me a refund for Saturday night's stay.
I did take a few pictures before we left the area.
We ate breakfast at the Circle R Restaurant. It wasn't the same Circle R Restaurant that we used to go to as kids, since the original one caught fire a few years ago. After breakfast it was raining so we drove around for a little bit and then drove over to the Best Western and reserved a room with two queen beds. I had requested a ground floor room so that I wouldn't have to lug luggage upstairs for me, Gavin and Beth. She just had surgery and isn't supposed to lift or carry anything heavier than a gallon of milk. The room was $95. :( I didn't care tho, I was just happy to be in a cleaner, newer motel. And they had a phone in the room with free long distance, so we would finally be able to call everyone!
After that we drove out to Sissy's house to pick her up and get one the road to Cumberland Falls. Sissy wasn't feeling well so we went without her. You can read all about our trip to Cumberland Falls here. On the way back, we stopped at the Natural Arch. That was a really neat place to visit too. Once we got back into town, we had supper at a Chinese restaurant that was really good. Bethie was feining for Chinese!
Time to check into the motel and hopefully get some sleep! When I checked in, they had us in a room on the 2nd floor with two queen beds. I asked if they had a ground floor room cause of Beth's situation. The front desk clerk, whose name was Chico, said he would help me carry the luggage up. He did check and said he does have a room on the ground floor, but it only has one bed and it's a king bed. Fine with me, Gavin can sleep between us. He asked if I wanted to sign up for the BW rewards program. I asked if it would give me a discount on tonight's stay. He said the rewards program wouldn't, but he could give me a discount. So I ended up getting our room that night for $85. Not much, but every little bit helps. Our room was heavenly and huge! Gavin loved running around playing in the room. He was the most impressed that there was a coffee maker in the bathroom. LOL! And he loved playing with the old school telephone and calling his Nan, his dad and Uncle Shawn. Sissy came over and visited us some in the room.
Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast in the hotel and then checked out and started our day out reminiscing. Sissy was supposed to go with us to drive around and reminse, but she still wasn't feeling well. She did ask to catch a ride back towards home with us so that we could drop her off at her daughter Jessica's house in Morgantown so she could go to her doctor. So Beth, Gavin, and I tooled around to a lot of places that we used to visit as kids.
We visited the Holmes Bend Marina and then went to the Green River Lake area.
This building is the Adair County Progress. My Aunt Beattie and her family owned this before they passed away. My Aunt Beattie and Uncle Jimmy lived in the trailer behind it.
These apartments are where my Aunt Patty Jo lived after she moved out of her house on Guthrie Street. I remember as a kid running down the stairs to be the first one to knock on the door when we got into town.
We always played on the playground of that apartment.
This is the Stotts Phelps McQueary Funeral Home. Unfortunately, we visited here often for funerals. I remember coming here for Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Patty Jo, and Patty Jo's son Ollie. I know we were here more often, but those are the ones I remember.
This used to be a convenience store at the end of Guthrie Street. I remember always going in there to get giagantic chocolate and vanilla twist ice cream cones.
This was my aunt Patty Jo's house on Guthrie Street. I remember the house being green and having a little porch on the front. I was friends with the little girl that lived in the house to the left of it when we were younger.
After we did our driving around and reminiscing, we headed to Sissy's to pick up her and Elijah before we headed on the road. While waiting for Elijah to get there, I got a little instruction on riding the 4-wheeler. Shawn's always wanted one, but not me. It was fun riding it. Maybe in the future ;)
This little market is Coomer's Market. As in the Coomer's of Backyard Oil Barron. My cousin Sissy's husband Bradley is related to all of the Coomer's. This little market and the next few pictures are featured on the show.
We visited the cemetery where we have a lot of family member's buried at. Each time we visited Kentucky, we came out to this cemetery.
George Calvin Jessee - my dad's brother who died as a small child.
Pauline Breeding Jessee - my dad's mom. I don't remember a lot about Grandma Pauline, but I do remember some things. And I remember my older cousins call her Grandma with the blue hair!
Patty Jo Jessee Hale - my dad's sister
James Dennis Usrey - one of my cousins
James Olie and Beattie - my dad's brother and his wife
My dad's grandma and grandpa's grave
I never knew this, but Sissy told us that the mountains we see in the background are the Blue Ridge Mountains. Not sure if that's true or not.
My cousin Sissy and her grandson Elijah
This is my cousin Ollie's grave - he is buried in a different cemetery then the rest of the people above.
Gavin was THRILLED to have back seat passenger's with him for part of the ride home. We stopped in Bowling Green at the White Castle for supper and then chucked on down the road towards Morgantown to drop them off and get ourselves home.
We had a great time visiting Columbia and family despite the few problems earlier in the weekend!
