The plan was to spend the following day in Pigeon Forge, but somehow Mom and Dad found the energy to do a little more sightseeing that evening. After returning from the Smoky Mountains, Mom decided we should take a walk around the area where our hotel was. We had seen sight seeing trolleys going up and down the street and there was a stop right in front of the hotel. Mom and Dad both agreed taking the trolley tomorrow would be the way to go.
So, we started walking. Near the hotel was a gift shop advertising live alligators! And there was an alligator over the entrance! Of course, Mom wanted to go in and see the alligators. What a joke! They did have alligators, but the two they had were only about as long as Mom’s arm. Mom and Dad did end up spending about $50 on souvenir T-shirts though, so I guess the advertisement for live alligators did its job.
We walked down to the Old Mill area where the trolley station was and got wrists bands for the next day. They didn’t give me one though. I glared at her. The lady behind the counter explained that bears got to ride for free. It must be because we are so intimidating.
We saw another store on the way back. This one was decked out like a shark and claimed to have real sharks inside. Of course, Mom wanted to go in. The sharks were the size you’d find in a person’s aquarium. But, it had cool shirts too.
People in Tennessee are really big fans of President Trump! We saw Trump stuff for sale everywhere! I know when Mom was in Kentucky, Pastor Nathan said how much it hurt the people there when Obama shut down the coal mines. A lot of them opened up again under our new president. I wonder if Tennessee has coal mines too.
They are also really big into Big Foot. We even saw a crossing sign with Big Foot on it, but Dad thought it might have just been the reflection, or that the glass was misty. Mom and I aren’t buying it. It’s definitely a Big Foot crossing sign.
By then, everyone was worn out. We headed back to the hotel. They even let me stay in the room that night. I got to sleep on the coffee table. I stared at the second bed, sitting there empty all night long. It looked so comfortable compared to the hard wooden table. Earlier this year, though, Mom had stayed a night on her own at a hotel. At 5:00 in the morning, she was fully awake and decided she would read awhile. She turned on the light, threw back the blanket and found there was a bug in the bed, about the size of an apple seed.
Mom don’t like bugs. She got a tissue and picked it up to throw it away. But she didn’t want to just throw it in the trash so it could crawl out. So, she squished it. Blood spurted out. It only took a second for her to realize Bugs don’t have red blood. People do. That bug had spurted out her blood! Talk about a yuck moment!
She high tailed it to the front desk in her jammies and showed the guy there her squished bug and blood spotted tissue. That dumb bug had the audacity to move! If Mom hadn’t already been freaked out, that put her over the top! She nearly lost her lunch!
The guy profusely appologized and offered to put her up in a different room.
“It’s 5:00 in the morning! Do you really think I’m going back to sleep?!?”
Mom just went back to the room, googling “How to NOT take bedbugs home with you from a hotel”. She showered and scrubbed up well. Thankfully, her clothes for that day had hung in the bathroom overnight, so they wouldn’t be infected. Everything else she had with her was shoved into trash bags and the openings tied shut. She was packed up and out of the room before 6:00. The hotel gave her a full refund and told her to let them know if any bed bugs showed up at home.
Oh, like Mom was going to let that happen!
As soon as she walked in the door, what was washable was thrown in the drier on the hottest setting, tumbled through two cycles and then immediately put in the washer and washed. The suitcase spent the next two days in the deep freeze.
It all seemed nuts, but our house never got bed bugs.
I thought about that as I sat there on the coffee table staring at the empty bed. Nothing was on that bed. One suitcase was on the desk, the other was next to me on the coffee table. Both were zipped up tight. The backpack sat on the TV stand. Not one item was allowed to stay on a fabric surface of any kind. Not even the carpeted floor.
Except there was Mom and Dad snoring away in the other bed: big, soft, comfy and fabric covered.
Them: warm blooded, bed bug bait, allowed on the bed.
Me: no blood, ignored by bed bugs, not allowed on the bed.
Ironic, isn’t it?