Day #18 - Muldraugh,
KY to Clarksville, TN Meeting Kimberly
and Barbara
Doryn and I
slept in a little more today because we had a short drive ahead of us. Once we left
we enjoyed even more green on the roads on the way to Tennessee. We were headed
to meet our clients Kimberly & Barbara at their work, and we were probably
as excited as they were. When we arrived, I put together my special packages
for them and we walked inside. Luckily their boss had set time aside for them
to spent time with us, which was awesome! As we walked in, it felt like a big
family, everyone working there was wearing the pendant necklaces that I made
Kimberly through our Personal Fundraising Program that she was a part of years
ago. Barbara was the first to come out to meet me and she greeted me with a
huge hug. She referred to her fellow employees as her family and spoke about
how they had helped her so much while she battled cancer. Shortly after,
Kimberly came out and rushed over to me, I walked to her to greet her, we had a
GREAT hug! Just like the other clients I had helped and met for the first time,
we all felt like longtime friends, which was a nice feeling! They walked us to
the employee lounge, where we chatted for a bit and met other employees and
fellow supporters of the duo.
We spoke for
a while and then headed outside to record video testimonials for UCAAN. There
was a moment in the break room, where Kimberly told me that she was still
waiting for test results to a biopsy done 2 years ago. We discussed how she had
family pay for the test because she didn’t have the funds to do so. I told her
that she needed to fight for what she needed and what she had paid for. I told
her if she didn’t fight for it who would? It was a great moment and I hope she
takes my suggestions I gave her to deal with the situation. In many instances
cancer patients who don’t have an advocate and tend to get taken advantage of.
I was not about to let this happen to Kimberly. J Before we left, we hugged them
again, it was beyond wonderful to meet them!
As we got in
our car we smiled because we knew that we still helped where we could,
providing support, encouragement and empowering Kimberly to do what she had to
for her health. We drove away to our hotel to check in and rest, it had been a
long day. As we arrived in town at our hotel, I walked in to check in. The
woman at the counter seemed confused when I mentioned that I was there for a
reservation “We don’t have any” she responded. I told her my name and she said “Your
reservation was cancelled. And the company you booked through should have told
you.” When I told her I didn’t know she gave me a number to call. We were left
without a hotel the day prior to the 4th of July. So I tried the #
and it was for another company, not the one I booked through. So I called a few
local hotels till I found one around the corner, we drove over and spoke to the
woman at the desk. She suggested we book the hotel through Hotels.com for a
large discount and we did. She asked for my id and then Dory n’s. I was
confused as I was never asked for both ids. When I asked her why she said that
they did a sex offender search on all people that came into their hotel. Doryn
had lost his wallet (somewhere in a bag) and so I showed her his facebook. She
searched him and claimed he had something online, he didn’t and she cancelled
our reservation. As we walked out, I walked to the car and we were still
without a room and nowhere to go. Doryn and I searched the car, removing bags
and searching them, the wallet was nowhere to be found. Eventually we did find
it under a lot of other items deep in my center console – whew!!!
I
immediately got on the phone with Travelocity and explained the situation, we
had just driven 6 hours and dealt with hotel issues for 2 hours, we were
exhausted and needed some rest. The agent was helpful and amazing and without
getting into detail I’ll tell you what happened. She called the other hotel and
found out that the reservation was cancelled by corporate due to over booking,
my guess is they forgot to cancel with Travelocity. So the agent cancelled our
old reservation and refunded me for it and then she was able to obtain a credit
for next hotel room. We ended up with an awesome hotel room with a sofa and TV,
a king bed with another TV, table and a jetted Jacuzzi tub!! Doryn and I had
scored a great deal and only paid $31 for the room!!! We thoroughly enjoyed this
upgrade and this awesome room!!
As Doryn
rested, I went to Walmart to grab food for dinner. I got back and used our
awesome electric skillet and cooked up asparagus, zucchini, franks and beans! A
whole new delicious meal and a favorite we both had as children! We enjoyed our
meal, relaxed and after a soak in the tub, we headed to bed for some much
needed rest!
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