For anyone who doesn’t know me: I was so freakin’ excited about Joe coming home, we got to the hotel in Nashville before Joe even boarded the plane in Seattle. *Note: Moses Lake is about 3.5 hours away from Seattle, and Nashville is about 4.75 hours from Asheville, and he had a 4.5 hour flight.*
We stayed in the Red Roof Inn–North Nashville, 15 miles north east of downtown, in a town known as Goodlettsville. We left the house at 8, got to the hotel at 12, check in was at 1. I had honestly timed it right, with the exception of forgetting the change from Eastern to Central time on the way, so the lady let us check in early.
While I was impressed with the hotel and service, I was not impressed with the T-Mobile Hot Spot service I purchased to use my laptop in the room. I had to call 4 times, because each time I lost signal, I could not login to my account because I couldn’t log out….and once you’re logged in, it says it can’t find an account with your name if you try to login again. It’s not Red Roof’s fault, but I now loathe T-Mobile. 
So–we left the hotel at around 4:15, since Joe’s plane was to land at 6:05 and I didn’t want to risk Nashville traffic killing us. It was a freakin’ nightmare from hell. We got to the airport relatively fine, but parking was insane. Once we sorted out that measure, I got to the ticket counter, and politely told the lady I was there to get a security escort pass to meet my 5 year old unaccompanied minor arriving from Seattle on flight 1658. I’ve flown with Southwest many times, and have always had a lovely experience…until now.
She asked me his name, and I’m very used to having to spell our last name. I said, “Joe, W-A-T-R-O-U-S.” She proceeds to tell me she can’t find him, and I kept insisting he was on the flight. At this point, she tells me I must have the wrong airline, even after I was able to provide a confirmation number, the departure time and estimated arrival time of the flight from SEA (this is a non-stop, by the way.) My husband walks away and starts making phone calls to get verification information–because we’re both starting to get angry. We went through this whole, “W as in Watch. A as in Apple….” routine and I was about to jump over the counter and look my damn self.
I’m generally a very nice person, even when I shouldn’t be. At this point, I raised my voice, requested another attendant, and eventually they found my child, under Joe, W-A-T-E-R-O-U-S. Had they not, I would have been arrested by the TSA for barging through security screaming like a banchee.
Now, when I booked the flight, and when I looked at the confirmation, the name was spelled correctly, so this error must have been made at the SEA airport earlier that morning. She had the flight and was able to tell me 10 UM’s were on board, yet couldn’t see my son. I wanted to slap the twit.
Anyway, we got to the gate she told us to go to. I’m calming down from my adrenline rush, and then, we have to back track to another gate. I’m antsy as hell, sweating at this point (hey, it’s a LONG walk from the garage to the gates and I’m out of shape!) and really pissed off.
Finally, we see our son–and the lady who brought him to us said he was the “highlight of the flight.” He apparently entertained all those around him with stories of Ron (his build a bear birthday present) and Mom and Dad. In fact, a lady approached us after we signed the documents to release him to us and said, “Oh, you must be Cindy and Jaytee.” I looked at her like, “How in the hell do you know that?!” but then I realized, she sat next to Joe on the plane and he talked about us the *whole* flight. I was so worried he’d be the brat child from hell, but he was the “perfect angel” I didn’t know I had.
We waited 45 minutes for bags. Joe immediately said, “There’s mine!” and back to the hotel we went. I temporarily lost the ticket to leave the airport and almost had to pay $22 for parking, but we found it and only had to pay $3. Our funds were limited, so I almost cost us our dinner! I cried for about 30 seconds before I realized I had the ticket still.
The whole way, Joe chattered and looked at his lego catalog. It was so awesome. He’s got quite the sun tan, and is way more blonde now than when he left. He’s grown an inch or two. He lost a good bit of his southern accent.
We decided to go check out this place, Center Point BBQ for dinner. You see, NC is big on BBQ, but TN is even bigger. Hubby ranted about finding a good BBQ place from the moment he found out we had to go to Nashville to get Joe. This place was *amazing.* We got there just a few minutes before they closed, and they still let us order. We got it to go, in spite of the invitation to stay and eat. They were so friendly, I was shocked. The walls were covered in famous autographs, including: Merl Haggard, both President Bush’s, and even Conway Twitty. (There were more, but I couldn’t possibly remember them all.)
The moral of this story: If you have to travel to BNA, plan ahead of time, be prepared for idiots at the ticket counter, stay in a hotel outside of town, and eat awesome BBQ.
Though it was hectic for a bit, I had a great time, and I am sooooo soooooo sooooooo very happy to have my Joes! I do not intend to ever have Joe fly as an unaccompanied minor ever again, but finances made it a have-to thing this time.
We left this morning and got back 5 hrs later. We’ve played hard since then and I’m going back to work early in the AM.
Anyone else know of any good BBQ places in Nashville or have Southwest horror stories?