The Best Western isn't the BEST!

The following happened in the summer of 2006 when Matt started PT school, but because I hadn't started my blog yet, I never got to document it. So, for journaling purposes only, I am going to recount a little cross-country trip with my 8-week old Ava Ryan so that one day she will know just what Mommy went through to get her home to Kentucky...here goes, best as I can remember...
Matt and I loaded up and headed to Lubbock, Texas for his first summer session of P.T. School with a 4-week old baby and Kiski, the cat.

A new house and a new baby

Leaving for Lubbock

After a long two-day car ride and a baby that required us to stop every 2 hours to eat, we finally arrived in what I lovingly refer to as "the armpit of Texas." Lubbock is a very hot, very windy, very dusty place that the Dixie Chicks sing about in their hit song "Lubbock or Leave It." After just a few short days, I really began to understand the "leave it" part of the song. I guess it didn't really help that we were brand new parents just moving from a nice, new home to a furnished one bedroom apartment. Now, when I say furnished, I don't mean in this decade, or even last decade. This place was a little dump that I only called home for 4 weeks.

Mommy and Ava Ryan as soon as we got to Lubbock

Because we only had one car, I got up every morning to take Matt to school by 8:00 after getting hardly any sleep because of Ava Ryan's obsessive eating habits! So with baby in tow, Daddy went to class and Ava and I came back to our 1980's apartment for a quick workout to help shed some post baby pounds. Then, I would put Ava in her car seat and hop in the shower. I had to leave the bathroom door open so that I could see Ava- mainly because I couldn't get her car seat in the room with me- it was a VERY small bathroom (just picture being able to "take care of business" AND cook an egg at the same time). With most of my showers being cut very short because of one annoying fire alarm that would go off as soon as the steam from the bathroom hit it, I emerged from each and every shower with a maddening head ache. Some days I would just sit and cry,

Yep, kinda like this...

others I would work on contacting Universities about getting my Masters, while other days were spent strolling around the mall looking longingly at the cute clothes that my post-baby body had no chance of fitting into. Matt's study schedule was grueling, so we saw him less and less as the semester progressed. One of our most exciting outings was accompanying Daddy to the Gross Anatomy lab to take a look at all of the poor, very dead, souls that gave their bodies to science. I wasn't even able to keep up with primetime shows because, unfortunately, our "bunny-ear" antenna would only pick up two channels, with one being in English. I was getting hot and home-sick very fast! While I tried to stick it out the entire 8-week session, it just wasn't happening. Matt was very busy and I was very bored! That is when we made the call...
Adam, Matt's younger brother, agreed to go through Lubbock on his way home from Utah to Kentucky. So Baby Ava, Kiski, and I all hitched a ride with a very cat-phobic uncle. That is when the fun began...

Telling Daddy goodbye

Little did we know that this day would begin with a faulty cell phone alarm and end with a hotel fire. After a little bit of a late start, we loaded into Uncle Adam's Explorer. I waited until he got to our apartment to surprise him with the news that Kiski, his most "un-favorite" cat in the world, would need to hitch a ride home, too. I am pretty sure Adam is a bit allergic and very terrified of my little furball. But, seeing as how I couldn't leave her with Matt, we had no choice but to load her up in the back seat, drug her, and assure Adam that she wouldn't set into "attack mode" until after her meds wore off. Reluctantly, Adam placed her in the back seat, we loaded Baby Ava, and we were off.
Our first stop...Amarillo, to check on our lease agreement with the Renaissance Apartments that I had been signing and faxing long distance. Everything seemed in order, so we toured the apartment one last time, took some measurements for furnishing purposes, and headed East on I-40 (well, once we found I-40). All seemed to be going well, though we were still having to stop every 2-3 hours to feed/pee/grab something to eat/get gas, etc. Our plan was to make it to Memphis before stopping- approximately11 hours from Amarillo, yet only 7 hours from home. So after many stops, a lot of caffeine, and one very interesting encounter with a woman taking a bath in a rest area sink, we made it to West Memphis, Arkansas around midnight. We knew we had to find a hotel that accepted pets, or at least one where we could sneak in a sufficiently drugged cat for a little rest and relaxation. Our night began at a booked and very pet-unfriendly Holiday Inn and after many failed attempts at getting a room, ended at a little gem of a place called The Best Western- West Memphis. After getting the thumbs up from Adam that rooms were available (and pets were accepted), we got ready to unload the car. The representative at the front desk, that Adam and I like to refer to as "Shaniqua", asked us to pull around to the "side door" to pick up our bed linens. Now, I don't know about you, but this sounds a little like a drug swap to me! However, at the time, we were so tired and so ready to lie down that we just followed orders, met Shaniqua at the "side door", and settled into our room. The first thing that I noticed was the small stain on the couch pull-out bed. It looked as if we might have been entering a murder scene. Adam wasn't very pleased that this would be where he would sleep, but I told him to suck it up and lie down- that must have been my postpartum hormones talking because I generally wouldn't insist someone sleep in a blood stained bed. Because I knew Adam was terrified of Kiski, just coming out of her "cat-coma", I proceeded to set her up in the bathroom so that she wouldn't bother him.
While Ava slept on the bed, I took a hot shower. As I was leaving the bathroom, Kiski somehow escaped, sending Adam into complete hysterics. I have never seen someone jump up on a bed so fast in my life. It was quite amusing to watch Kiski chase Adam around our raunchy room, both of them leaping from bed to bed, squealing. Once I was able to catch Kiski, Adam sufficiently calmed down and settled into his blood-stained couch bed once again. I tried to lock the door to the hallway, but found that the deadbolt was broken, so tired and irritated, I placed every bit of luggage in front of it, chained it closed, and called it a night.
The first sound happened after about 15 minutes of shut-eye. It sounded as if bugs were buzzing behind my head board. So, in our pitch-black room, I woke up Adam and tried to reenact the sounds that I was hearing. My rendition sounded a little bit like a lion, so Adam assured me that no lions were behind my bed and to just get some sleep. Literally, 5 minutes later, we heard a squeaky door sloooowly opening. At first, I assumed that someone was breaking into our room, so we both sat straight up in bed, hoping our eyes would adjust to the light so that we might be able to accurately describe our assailant if confronted with a line-up. However, the squeakier the door got, the more light that shined onto the front wall of the room. In an instant, a giant cat-shadow cast on the wall. It was like Kiski, but 100 times larger. Now, I am not scared of cats, but after hearing a lion, doing a sheet swap, and hearing a squeaky door open at 1am, I was a little terrified myself. We quickly flipped on the light only to be met with "meow." By this time, Adam was back on his feet on the bed in what I can only describe as a "warrior position." He looked like he was going to go Jackie Chan on someone. Apparently, kiski does have an opposable thumb, because she was able to open the bathroom door.
After making sure Adam wasn't going to have a heart attack, I placed Kiski back in her bathroom, pulled the door shut, and blocked it. We shut off the lights, laughed a little about the scary situation and dozed back off. But not for long...soon, we heard a loud thud in the room right above us. Sitting straight up in bed AGAIN, and beginning to beg Adam to load the car and take us to a different hotel, I began to get a little scared and very emotional. Adam assured me that someone above us probably just fell out of bed and that as soon as it got light we would leave. I wasn't loving the idea of staying, but the room was already paid for, so I tried to stick it out and settled back into bed...until...there was a knock(well, pounding) at the door. Sitting straight up in bed yet again, I thought, "this is it, the final straw, I AM LEAVING THIS DUMP!" Adam ran to look out the peep hole and saw a Mexican running up and down the hall screaming, "fire, fire!" We looked at each other confused because there was no fire alarm going off, so we thought it was a scam. Within minutes, the piercing alarm began sounding and hoards of people (mainly in their underwear) were stampeding the halls searching for the nearest exit. I grabbed Ava, yelled for Adam to get Kiski and our bags and headed to the very famous "side door."
Once entering the parking lot, I was met with 2 fire trucks, a few police cruisers, many scantily clad hotel patrons, and one large fire- RIGHT ABOVE OUR ROOM! Shaniqua was standing out front, apparently not too happy, arms crossed and foot tapping. Soon, Adam emerged from the fiery building with Kiski and bags in tow. He didn't look too happy and at this point all that I could do was break out into uncontrollable laughter. I was so exhausted and just knew that I could never recount this story like I had experienced it...I just hee-hawed.

Sleeping in the Best Western parking lot and missing ALL OF THE FUN!

After watching firefighters fight the fire for awhile, I decided it was time to get the heck out of dodge. However, the police cruisers and firetrucks were blocking all of the exits. So, I ever-so-politely (or as politely as 3 am would allow), asked the police officer to move his cruiser so that we could leave. I was then told, "Maam, this is being ruled as arson. A small bomb was set off in one of the rooms (obviously, the one above us- hence the loud thud) and you are all SUSPECTS!" WHAT?? Now, I still wonder how we, of all the hotels along I-40, ended up at the one hotel that would burn down and accuse us, a couple of 20-somethings traveling with an infant and a very "human-like" cat, of arson. Trust me, I was waaay too tired to set fire to anything, much less a hotel! I managed to hold back both my tears and laughter and went to tell Uncle Adam the news- we would be stuck in the parking lot for a few more hours, awaiting questioning. We then began to get a little giddy and make jokes about approaching Shaniqua about whether or not there would still be a continental breakfast! Right as the sun was about to peek above the horizon, we loaded into our car and filed out of the hotel parking lot. Needless to say, no one stayed in that Best Western that night and thankfully everyone's money was reimbursed.
Thankfully, the rest of our trip, while exhausting, was rather uneventful. I am sure as we rolled up to my parents house we looked like death! The next 24 hours were a blur, as I quickly handed Ava Ryan off to my parents, took a hot shower to rid myself of any Best Western germs, and slept and slept and slept...

A much happier Momma and Baby- rested and out of Lubbock!