On Monday morning I checked out of the Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport, and headed downstairs for my US Airways flight to Nashville (via Charlotte). Both flights were on time, and uneventful which is the best kind of flight. Once in Nashville, I had a two and a half hour drive to the rural Kentucky town of Albany, where I stayed for the week.
I stayed at the Best Western Albany, which is the ‘best’ motel in town. (There are only two motels in town, so that wasn’t too hard to beat. The property was ok and for the country area actually very nice. I was on the second (top) floor and the room was very quiet. There was no elevator available to guests, but fortunately I was traveling light with one small bag and my laptop bag. The room smelled a bit smoky even though it was non-smoking, but think that was actually from the sheets; the laundry people must smoke while doing laundry I’m guessing?
The small town is ‘dry’ so no alcohol is to be had at least to go, although the very few restaurants they had didn’t seem to serve it either. I got thru the week ok having salads for lunch at the one Burger King, or the Tastee Freeze in Cumberland which was half an hour away, and where I was also working. Dinner was a bit of a challenge for my new diet, but I did order a pizza from the sole Pizza Hut, which sustained me for a couple days as I had a fridge and microwave in the room.
On Thursday night I drove back to Nashville, encountering some beautiful scenery on the way. I stopped to take this photo of a former one-room school house, and took this photo of a silo as along the way. I grew up in Virginia, and one of my favorite photos I took was a barn and silo covered with snow, on Thanksgiving Day. I had it blown up to 20 x #30 poster size and hang it up every winter. While this is summer-time, I still like the photos of the countryside farms with their silos.
Once in Nashville, I stayed at the Hyatt Place Opryland, which was just down the road from Opryland. It was a bit of a touristy area, and high season with lots of families vacationing there. I spent the one night there, and headed to the Nashville airport in the morning for my flight to Charlotte, and eventually Orlando. Here I am in Charlotte waiting for my gate-tagged luggage to be brought out from the tiny RJ (regional jet).
My USAirways flight from Charlotte to Orlando, unfortunately would be delayed two hours due to weather in the Orlando area. We had already pushed back from the gate when we were delayed by the control tour. Fortunately after half an hour we went back to the gate and were allowed to get off, and I had a quick lunch at Phillips seafood before heading back to the plane.
I got back to Orlando around 5pm, and Dos was patiently waiting for me. Had dinner at home on the barbecue, and did my packing/unpacking ritual for next week’s trip back to Kentucky.
As we had dinner by the pool, we discussed the week and looked forward to this week’s staycation, this time in Orlando! (next post).