Last Leg Of Our Road Trip To Alabama & Present update

                                             Tuesday 10/28/2014


          Just a quick note to update you on some present issues before I continue my blog. I ask for all your prayers for Mallery. We were woke up Tuesday morning at 5AM with her coughing and gasping for air. This use to happen all the time, but she has not done this for a very long time. We always had to calm her down by petting her and letting her know she was OK. When you wake up unable to breath, it sets off anxiety. Anxiety causing the situation to get worse, by causing inflammation.  Unfortunately we could not get her to calm down, and the labor breathing and coughing continued. We called and made an appointment to see a vet, but she couldn't be seen until 4PM. I gave her Benadryl, something I was told to do by previous vets because it has a calming effects. I was told I could drop Mallery off at the vets before hand, but I knew how much she hates vets, which would have made things worse. 1I was told the Dr had gone into emergency surgery, so I knew she probably would not be seen away. By the time she was seen at 4PM she was coughing and wheezing almost constantly with just a few 5 minutes stretches throughout the day where she finally would fall a sleep per exhaustion. As soon as the vet saw her and getting her history of collapsing trachea diagnosis at age 6 and a tumor in her trachea diagnosed in October, she took her and gave her a shot, 1/2 intravenously and 1/2 under her skin. The first was for immediate help, and the second for long term effect. She sent me home with antibiotics and prednisone with hopes the change to humid weather had caused inflammation in her trachea. It took almost 1 1/2 before Mallery started to calm down. By 12:00 that night she had started to wheeze and cough again. I was instructed only to give her the prednisone during the night if she really needed it, otherwise give it to her in the AM. I gave her her first dose at 12AM. It took 2 hours before she calmed down and then slept until 4AM. Again at 4AM she got another dose, with the same results of 2 hours of stress until she calmed down. She then slept til 8AM. Today I talked to the Dr. and because I got some result of quiet time, she wanted me to start the prednisone before the coughing started so it would not take so long to get the inflammation down, as well as increasing the dose. Today we have not had any coughing but still lots of whizzing, which is uncomfortable for Mallery somewhat. The hope is that her trachea got inflammed from the 11 hours of stressing from non treatment. If we can not get her back to the way she had been, than that indicates the tumor has grown and is cutting off her air and is the cause of the problem. If that is the case all the medicine in the world is not going to help. It is evening now, even though Mallery had a pretty good day, like most people, the evening is when things get worse. I gave her a dose and 2 hours later she is still wheezing and stressed. The Dr gave me some medicine that I could put on her gums that would calm her down in more of an emergency situation. I reluctantly gave her that because I didn't want her stressed anymore. In about 5 minutes she stopped wheezing and now is resting quietly. This couldn't have happened at a worse time with News Years Eve and vets extremely busy yesterday and today and closed tomorrow. Please pray that I make the right decisions and help Mallery get better or help her go in peace to her final home in heaven.

After 4 nights in Nashville it was time to hit the road again. It had been pretty hot and we were anxious to get to our final destination for the winter.

Our campground at Two Rivers Campground was on the NE side of Nashville right off I-65. We really had to be on our toes as Nashville had several quick turn off and lane switching one right after the other.

We were glad to be out of the city, and don't look forward to this route again though it is the most direct route from Boyne City MI. to Gulf Shores, AL. Maybe after a few times of doing this route it will become familiar, but with our memories I doubt it.

No mountains to go through on this route just hills.

We left Tennessee and enter into "Alabama The Beautiful".

Across the border is a rest stop with a space shuttle visible for mile. We didn't stop because we had only been on the road for a short while.

When we did stop for lunch Mallery took a nap after her short walk to take care of business.

As the afternoon drew late we hit fog, which you see a lot of in Alabama, and also more construction.

We were stopping for the night just north of Birmingham, AL., so I checked out the weather. A little cooler than Nashville with rain that evening.

The fog got thicker quickly.

Then the fog lifted as fast as it came upon us. I watched this truck from afar, and wondered what he was hauling. As I got close, I realized it was a transplant tree.

We arrived into Gardendale, AL. and right after we got off the interstate, we missed our turn. Our turn had lane barriers up and the GPS didn't tell us to get over until we missed the lane opening. We made the next turn in hopes to get back on track, only to see what Joe thought was a dead end,

so not knowing what to do, he made a snap decision and pulled into the Comfort Inn parking lot.

This is where we realized, making snap decision can create more problem, and if you are on a "not so busy street", which we were, it is best to just stop and evaluate the situation before making a move. Too late now, so we hoped this decision wouldn't be a big problem to get out of.

Once in the parking lot we saw the yellow poles at the exit and the exit was also way to narrow for us at the angle we would be coming from. First thought was " what have we got yourselves into this time"? Joe got out and walk around the Comfort Inn and thought there was enough room to go out that way. Next he walked down the road and found the dead end looking road was not a dead end after all. The barrier was to let drivers know not to go straight but to make a turn. That was good news.

With the driver back in his seat, we started our drive around the Comfort Inn. We were blessed that there were no cars in the parking spots or this would have been much trickier.

The back side of the Inn was no problem.

But turning to the next side of the Inn,

would have been difficult again if there were cars in the parking lot.

There was one truck parked, but it was in one of the last slots, so we cleared it. As you can see on the turn, we had to drive into the empty parking spots.

At last we were almost ready to exit where we entered.

Good bye Comfort Inn, so glad you didn't have many guest on this day.

We make the turn we should have done before we entered into Comfort Inn.

At the Super Wal-Mart, we see more yellow posts, but this one was for a low entrance. Luckily there was a truck entrance we could access to get to our Wal-Mart parking spot for the night. All the trials and tribulations of Rving.

Grand Ole Opry House

                                             Sunday 10/26/2014
             
          I know it has been a long time since I last blogged, but now that we are with family, it has got a bit hectic, with the grand kid's activities, Thanksgiving, shopping, and Christmas. All is well with us, and Mallery is doing good. I hope I will get caught up before we leave Gulf Shores, AL., on April 1, 2015, to go back to Iowa. So lets get back to where we left off..........

I last blogged with us in Nashville. On our second full day in Nashville, we drove to the Grand Ole Opry. The Grand Ole Opry was just blocks away, but we didn't know that and took the interstate down a few exits to get there from our campground. This is the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, which is walking distance to the Grand Ole Opry. The resort has a golf course, indoor and outdoor swimming pool, and gym. Rooms start at $191 a night with 1 king size bed or 2 queen size beds. There are rooms that face the atrium, but are at a higher price. It is a very beautiful resort from the pictures I saw on the internet.

Out front of the Opry is a billboard informing who you can see during the month of your visit.

Since we were here for just a overview of Nashville, we didn't see any of the shows. Maybe next time when we are driving south from Michigan to Alabama some other year.

Joe standing next to one of the extra large giant guitars.

I guess he is being a ham now!

It was a park like setting up to the Grand Ole Opry House.

And here it is! Some how I thought it would have been much more grand!

Another view of the Opry House.

You can take tours of the Opry House daily, beginning at 10:00 AM.

Tour are every 30 minutes until 5:00 PM. An adult ticket cost $20.00. I think not for these two penny pincher. We will see it someday when we see a show.

Right next to the Grand Ole Opry is a mall. It was a hot day and Mallery was not doing well, so we made our our trip to the Grand Ole Opry short and went back home to check on her.

Downtown Nashville, TN.

                                            Saturday 10/25/2014

While in Nashville, Joe and I decided to check out the downtown area. We could have taken the shuttle from our campground, Two Rivers Campground, for $10 per person round trip, but I wanted to bring Mallery and of course dogs are not allowed on the shuttle. Neither of us had ever been in Nashville other than just passing through the city.

As soon as we got downtown we saw the pedal bars. I had never heard of these, but Joe said he had seen them on TV. The customers pedal the bar around town as they drink.

We found a free 15 minute parking along the river and parked to look around. Across the street Joe pointed out the Coyote Ugly Bar. Here again I had never heard of the bar, so Joe had to tell me it is based on the Coyote Ugly movie. He always say's, "You been living under a rock, how have you not heard about these things"! Since we have been in Gulf Shores, AL., we have been enjoying free movie channels from our Direct satellite company. I caught the Coyote Ugly movie recently, so now I understand the connection.

This back door to the bar also gets you to Dick's Last Resort Restaurant.

There is also a back door to the B.B. King Blues Club.

On the other side of the street is the General Jackson Showboat that cruises the Cumberland River.

Also along the river is Fort Nashborough.

The fort was presently under construction, so we didn't get to go in to see it.

Across the river is the Nashville Titans Stadium.

The show boat is an authentic paddle wheel boat and one of the biggest in the country. The boat has lunch and dinner cruises with live shows of entertainment.

We left the river boat area and found a parking lot in the downtown area.

We walked about 3 to 4 blocks to the main hub of the downtown of Nashville.

It was Saturday so the downtown was all a buzz!

I had Mallery in her stroller, and she was not enjoying all the music coming from the bars. I guess I should have left her at home, but because I had never been to downtown Nashville I didn't know what to expect. While we were in Nashville, we were having a heat wave of about the mid 80's. Mallery was not doing so well with the heat. When we took her for walks in the campground, she just stood there. Literally she didn't walk anywhere. After just standing for about 10 minutes she would lumber over to some grass and do her business. We had been having trouble with her eating also, so mother hen didn't want to leave her behind.

We strolled up and down the main street to get the flavor of the city.

The Nashville Party Barge went by with a group of hooting and hollering riders!

If you get tired of walking, you can catch a horse buggy ride for $30. Don't think Mallery would be too keen of the clip clop sounds either.

There are many breweries and restaurants to pick from including the Hark Rock Cafe up the block from this restaurant.

There were more cowboy boot shops in Nashville then in Fort Worth or Austin, Texas combined it seemed.

We found the front door to Coyote Ugly and I told Joe he could go down the stairs to check it out, but he passed. I guess I should have checked it out, to see if girls were dancing on the bars, but at the time I had not seen the movie yet, so I didn't know they did that! Mallery would hate all the noise, so someone had to stay outside.

This is the front side of Coyote Ugly, Dicks Last Resort and Hard Rock Cafe in Nashville. The city has done a great job keeping and restoring their old buildings.

The old spaghetti factory is also on this block.

Dick's Last Resort and Coyote Ugly building from their front doors.

The Nashville Party Barge has stopped for either drink or bathroom breaks.

They are still in their animal animated mode!

As we walked back to the parking lot, we saw a pedal bar waiting for more customers. One of the females sitting at the bar, hopped off her seat and had to come over to see Mallery. Everyone loves Mallery. If I could get a dollar for every "oh she is so cute" or can I pet her, I would be a rich women! I told her to be careful crossing the street. Once a mother always a mother. I didn't want the young drinking women (about my daughters age) to get hit by a car while coming to see my sweet Mallery!

We payed $5 for parking that day because when we pulled into the lot earlier, someone was leaving and said he would sell his ticket for 1/2 price. Joe jumped at it. To park in the lot all day is $10. We saved our self $15 by not taking the shuttle from the campground.

If you are going to stay in a hotel in downtown Nashville, you will want to stay as close to Broadway and 2nd Ave., where all the action is. Seems like a fun city to visit again some day without a pooch.