Monday Mug Shot

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Vacation 1992 was in the beginning of November. It was just a couple weeks after my brother’s first wedding and our family had been far more involved in the planning than I ever thought a groom’s family was. (This was when I firmly decided that IF I ever got married, I wanted nothing to do with a wedding.) I had started to plan my vacation week in September. Mom usually went with me. She and I were great travel companions. We were going to Atlanta by way of Chattanooga, a couple of my favorite cities. When Mom and I went on fall vacations we always asked Pop to go with us and he always had a reason that he wasn’t interested in going, but we tried every year. In 92, frazzled and celebrated out from the wedding, Dad took us up on the offer!

Pop’s birthday is November 8th and that was the Sunday of our trip, the first night in Chattanooga. My father is the one who got me hooked on trains when I was a small child, counting cars when we were stopped, even timing the stop when a train was coming so we had front row viewing. H loves train travel and we often traveled by train on trip when it was possible. Because he wound up with a daughter nuttier about trains than he is, he completely accepted that it was MY choice to stay at Holiday Inn Chattanooga Choo-Choo.

The background here is that I liked the idea at staying at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Holiday Inn, and more that I really wanted to stay in one of the guest rooms outside which were passenger cars transformed into rooms on tracks in the courtyard with the Chattanooga Choo-Choo engine. I wouldn’t spend the extra it takes to stay in the specialty rooms in town on a whim for myself, but for my Dad’s birthday, it would be totally worth it as a surprise! So, I reserved a passenger car room, but didn’t tell Dad. He thought we’d be in the hotel. Then I ordered a balloon bouquet and a cake to be in the room when we checked in. Before we left, after confirming that everything was set, I slipped a bottle of Asti Spumate in my suitcase. I was excited ab0ut Pop’s birthday, till a hotel night and a day away!

We left around 6:00 Saturday morning and headed south. It was a usual trip south with stops for meals and exiting to see sights or shop at anything that struck our fancy from road signs and travel brochures on the way. We played a road game where you looked for words on signs for every letter in the alphabet. This is the trip where, after looking for a “V” for a very long time, Pop saw a sign and announced, “Vah-Vaffle House!” Saying it was two Vs in Italian. Yes, Pop is where I get my bold and obvious attempts at cheating in games!

We stayed that first night in Corbin, Kentucky. I’d stayed in Corbin a time or two on the way to Atlanta because it was just a good stopping point on the first day and it never occurred to me, I never cared, that Corbin is in a dry county. After an all-day drive, my Dad wanted to unwind with a bottle of wine and some snacks. When he asked at the gas station next to our hotel when he could buy a bottle of wine, the woman’s behind the counter said, “Honey, you’re in a DRY COUNTY!” Pop was shocked. Dry County? He’d never heard of such a thing! We ended up taking a drive before dinner and sure enough we ended up almost an hour back north in Richmond, NOT a dry county. Pop got a couple bottles of wine and we had dinner before we headed back to Corbin. I sensed that drinking a glass of wine in a dry county made it taste even sweeter.

On Sunday we got into Chattanooga by a little after noon and went to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. Mom enjoyed the museum, as she always did enjoy the trains when we travelled, but Pop and I were in heaven. There were engines and cars and water tanks and all sorts of very cool railroad stuff, as well as a working turntable. Many steam engines can’t go backwards for any lengthy of time and had to be turned around for return trips by rolling onto the turn table which then turned around 180 degrees so the engine could leave the turntable facing to opposite direction. I was very cool to watch! We also took a steam trip on the museum’s tourist ride, a stem powered excursion through some beautiful wooded areas with fall colors still holding on to some of the trees and a ride over a very tall trestle with a both breathtaking and harrowing view.

After a few hours with the trains, there were more trains! We went to the hotel, “my” choice, the Holiday Inn Chattanooga Choo-Choo. While my parents marveled at the opulent lobby, Mom was in on the surprise for Pop and kept him distracted, I checked in and made sure everything was set. Remember it was my father’s birthday and neither Mom nor I had acknowledged it all day. I let them know we were checked in and could put our bags in the room before dinner.

Pop was a little confused when instead of towards the hall, we went outside to the courtyard. I explained that they had passenger cars that were transformed into room. When we got to our car I stopped and said, “Here’s our room!”

Pop looked surprised and smiled. Then he asked me how much a room like this costs. I told him to never mind because it’s something I wanted to do, so it was worth it to me to save up. When we got in it looked like the entrance to a passenger car, the thin hallway had the very spacious for a train bathroom with décor and amenities that matched the grandeur of the lobby. A little further down was the main living area with a queen bed and daybed, refrigerator and microwave, all the look and feel of a high-end hotel room. But the first thing my Dad noticed was how all-out they went. “They even left balloons!”

The balloons were attached to a coffee mug filled with chocolate kisses. I told him to read the balloon. It said “Happy Birthday Popsie.” He looked at me with a huge grin and gave an equally huge hug. He opened the cake and said we could have it after dinner with the other bottle of wine he’d gotten in Richmond.

“How about with the Asti I brought from Michigan?” I smiled.

I got a little harassment because we’d ended up so far north before we got a bottle of wine the night before, but really, explaining why I was travelling with a bottle of sparkling wine would have inevitably spoiled the surprise.

I was a mushy moment and a fun evening enjoying cake and champagne after dinner in our private train car.

Links

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum

Monday Mug Shot

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Probably my best Chattanooga story is about my Dad and a glass of wine to unwind after all day driving.

Background of the story is like this: Mom, Dad and I were going on vacation together in the beginning of November, 1992. It was a few weeks after y7 brother’s (first) wedding, which was a major and stressful event for both families making it happen. Oh, it was stressful for me too! The Braves were in the playoffs and I was a bridesmaid. It told them both that if they scheduled the ceremony while the Braves game was on, I’d have my watchman on while I was standing up by the altar with them. Luckily, the game wasn’t until later, during the reception! But the whole wedding thing was stressful for the immediate family members who didn’t have one of their teams in the playoffs too. So, we ventured off on a well-earned week’s vacation, traveling to Atlanta by way of Chattanooga.

The night we got into Chattanooga was going to be November 8, Dad’s 48th birthday. As I was planning the trip, I wanted to do something special for Pop. He wasn’t as good about taking vacations as Mom and I were. It took a few weeks of quoting Stephen Covey to him and repeating the “sharpen the saw” mantra before he agreed to go.

My love of trains really does come from Dad’s romanticized view of them and I knew he’d love to stay at the Holiday Inn, Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Better than that, I got us not a room at that hotel, but a night in one of the renovated passenger car guest rooms in the train courtyard. I also ordered a balloon bouquet and a cake to be waiting in the room when we checked in.

We left very early in the morning on November 7 with a plan to go as far as Corbin, Kentucky that day. I was already excited about the next night, the surprise cake and balloons waiting for Pop and I had also out a bottle of Asti Spumante in my suitcase to put on ice as soon as we checked in to have with the cake.

It’s about 10 casual hours on the road with stops and all to get to Corbin from Northville. We checked in to the Knights Inn, where I’d stayed a few times myself, at around 4:30. After driving all day, my Dad wanted to have a glass of wine and unwind a little before we ventured out to find a restaurant for dinner. We went over to the adjacent gas station to fill up the SUV and ask where the nearest liquor store was. Dad went in to the store to pay for the gas and ask. He came out with a silly, I mean strangely silly, smile on his face. When he got back in the car, Mom asked him what was up.

He said “I can’t get a bottle of wine here,” sounding a bit perplexed. “When I asked the girl where I could get a bottle of wine in town, she said ‘Honey, you’re in a DRYYYY county!’”

I’d never thought about that. I mean I always stopped at that Knights Inn in Corbin because it was clean inexpensive and close to Cracker Barrel for breakfast in the morning. Generally, if I drive all day, I like to relax with a good cup of coffee. Dry county, hmph. I guess I never really thought about it. I knew the Jack Daniels distillery is in a dry county, which is an odd bit of irony, but, okay, so no wine tonight.

But NO!!! Pop said after he told us about the very quaintly Southern way he was told about it, that the woman in the store told him the closest places to get wine were about an hour north in Richmond or south into Knoxville, TN.

There was a little parental grumbling. Mom figured he’d be fine without a glass of wine that one night, Pop said let’s just go for a ride through the state forest area and look for someplace to have dinner. As we drove around, we kept driving by places that had soda machines in front of them. That became our joking symbol of a dry county. When we passed a small country store with a Coke AND a Pepsi machine, my Dad proclaimed it to be REALLY dry! Funny thing is, it was true. We didn’t see nearly as many soda machines outside once we got into Richmond, and yeah, you KNOW we got all the way BACK north to Richmond before we stopped for dinner! Since we were in a wet county anyway, Dad stopped at a local party store to get a bottle. In fact he got two, just in case, since I didn’t know Corbin was in a dry county, he wasn’t taking any chances with Chattanooga.

Of course, the whole time we’re on this forage back north for a bottle of wine, I had a bottle of sparkling wine in my suitcase. Driving towards Chattanooga the next day, Mom and I tormented Pop with jokes about desperately seeking wine in a dry county. I did tell him to “remind me tonight to tell you a funny story about wine.”

When we checked into the Holiday Inn Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Pop was amazed. Mom and I had been there to the shops before, but it was mt Dad’s first look at the former train station turned into opulent hotel. I had made my Dad promise to let me pay for the hotel in Chattanooga before we left. I just couldn’t have him paying the extra cost for a train car and his own cake and balloons! But he did come up to the counter with me. After marveling at the train cars and smiling with interest when I told him they were actually guest rooms, he was wide eyed and grinning when he clerk confirmed that we were staying in a car.

I said, “Happy birthday, Popsie!”

He hugged me and said that it was a just awesome present. And he hadn’t even seen the room yet!

We got to our car and climbed on board. The first thing as we entered was the bathroom door, renovated to be more spacious than the standard train car bathroom, it had Hollywood vanity lights and the Chattanooga Choo-Choo logo on everything. The soap, shampoo and lotion was in a glossy cardboard foldout of the logo in black and gold. It was pretty cushy just walking in!

We walked into the main part of the room where there was an elevated area where the master bed was and a really sweet daybed, where I’d be for the night. On the table next to the TV and chairs was the cake box and a mug with candy in it and balloons tied to the handle.

“Talk about making you feel welcome! Balloons?”

I smiled, “Pop, look at what the mylar one says!”

The mylar balloon was a Happy Birthday balloon with Popsie in stickers at the base.

“Oh! This is you too??”

Then I opened the cake box, it too said “Happy Birthday Popsie.”

I got another big hug and a kiss. Then I smiled at him. “Remember that funny story I was going to tell you?”

I went to my suitcase and unzipped it. I pulled out the bottle of Asti. “We need to put some ice in the ice bucket for this!”

His eyes were wide. He asked me how long that bottle of wine had been in my suitcase and I told him since we left home.

“You mean we drove all the way back to Richmond and you had a bottle of wine the whole time?”

He asked Mom if she knew I had the wine. She confirmed that indeed she did.

We had a good laugh and after we came back from dinner, we shared a bottle of wine, a great cake and more laughs and birthday revelry on the start of a great trip.

Monday...Tuesday Mug Shot

Sorry I’m late with this week’s Mug Shot, but it’s for a good reason, well a good reason for me. I’m working on an ad that may very well score me an interview for a full time job! I’m not counting any chickens yet, but I have a nice egg. This would be a job writing in a style that is very similar to the compensated posts I do here. I’m kinda excited about it, so I got right to work on my sample copy. Wish me luck!

Now, I’ll take a moment to do an uncompensated plug! I have tried a few nominally priced resume distribution companies. By moderately, I mean around $25. Think about that. When you have no income, three of those services equal a month of groceries or a big portion of the heating bill. One place will distribute my resume for $20 a month and will even show me where it went and if it was reviewed, because they have a money-back guarantee if it isn’t reviewed by a minimum number of companies. BUT, if you want to see WHO reviewed it so you can follow up, that's another $10 a month. That’s the site that hooked me up with the company that will do my resume and teach me how to job hunt for ten thousand dollars. Then there’s iHire Marketing.

iHire Marketing is part of the iHire network, this one specializes in marketing. You can post your resume for free, but you need to be a premium member to apply for listed jobs. At first that made me mad. I am not a premium member because paying to apply for jobs just seems like too big a financial risk in this job market. But what they will do for free is have your resume searchable by their member companies and do a limited distribution. Buy limited, I mean for a fee, I can send full resume and cover letter. In the free distribution you get to write a short paragraph to sell yourself and a listing of what you have done and what you CAN do with your name and contact info. The introduction is emailed and faxed to companies in specified area codes.

I’d done this once in Michigan a few years ago. On the day they email and fax your introduction they send an email letting you know how many companies got your stuff. On the very day they sent out my information in Michigan, I got two calls that resulted in interviews. After the sticker shock for that career rapist, oops...I mean counselor, career counselor, I decided to try the iHire Marketing distribution in Toledo. Yesterday morning I got the email confirming that they’d emailed my introduction. Yesterday at noon, I got a call. If you are in the job market and have just a little or nothing to spend, try the iHire network! They have many sites that target on specialties and that summary blast is available on all of them from iHire Dental to iHire Construction to iHire Clerical or iHire Trucking! I can only give a testimonial for iHire Marketing, but even if you have nothing to spend, what they can help you with for free is worth more than most of the pay services!

Ah, but before I return to proofing my sample ad and packaging my requested application in response to my happy call yesterday, you didn’t come here to read about my job status. You came here for the “It’s about time” Mug Shot! And here it is...

Chateau Grand Traverse
Michigan Wine Country

In August of 1998, Mom and I were enjoying a long weekend with Grandma at her house in Hale, Michigan. Hale is in Mid-Michigan. If you make the mitten shape of the Michigan Lower Peninsula with your left hand, Hale is at about half way between the base of your index finger and the first knuckle at about mid way across the finger. This is Michigan Geography! Traverse City is roughly a half inch above the tip of your pinky. Imagine that the nail of your pinky finger extends to the tip of the ring finger, but there’s a space. The tip of your nail is where Old Mission Point lighthouse is. Keep in mind that this is a “quick map” of the Motherland and not necessarily to scale. Length of fingers varies from “map” to “map.”

Mom and I decided that we wanted to take a day trip to try out some of the tasting rooms at the Michigan wineries in the Traverse City area. What was a weekend trip from home, was an easy day trip from her place. We tried and tried to get Grandma to say “yes” to going with us, but she insisted that we go without her. Eventually Grandma won, because Grandma ALWAYS wins, and Mom and I left in the morning for our trip to WIne Country.

We took non-expressway state roads across the state. It was a gorgeous sunny day and there was very little traffic on the trip. When we got into the Traverse City area, the sky changed to that bright and clear blue it turns on a sunny day when you get near a large body af water. I have always loved that about the Great Lakes, how clean and fresh everything looks and feels. We drove into Old Mission Peninsula and took the road that followed the shore. There were hills and fields of grape vines everywhere! The signs directed drivers to the various wineries with which the vineyards were associated. We stopped at two wineries’ tasting rooms. We tried Cabernets, a couple different whites and of course the local specialty, cherry wine. Chateau Grand Traverse was the second winery we stopped at. We wanted to stop at one we’d never heard of and one we knew we like the wine from. We’d enjoyed the Chateau’s wine for a few years, so that was a particular destination.

After packing up more souvenir wine and this mug, we headed to the Old Mission Point Lighthouse. Mom was a lighthouse fan and I enjoyed finding them with her. We spent some time enjoying the beach and snapping shots of the lighthouse and the sign that told us we were at the 45th parallel, half way between the north pole and the equator. One step farther and you’ll be farther away from the sun, closer to the frozen north and hypothermia than the life-sustaining light and warmth at the equator. Yeah, I’m being melodramatic. Funny, I recall Mom saying the same thing at the time.

We stopped for dinner on the way back to Grandma’s house, but we enjoyed a bottle of Cherry Wine with Grandma that evening as we told her about our day and the breathtaking views in Michigan Wine Country!