Celebrating My Dad's 29 Years of Service in Memphis

Hey Yall!  Recently, I got back from a short road trip back to Memphis over the weekend to celebrate my father's retirement from the Air National Guards/U.S. Air Force.  My father served our great country for 29 years!  I'm so proud of him!

On Saturday, at 12:20 am, my family and I took the 2016 KIA Sedona SXL for a 5 1/2 hour trip to Memphis, and boy did that trip feel like the longest trip ever!  Mr. M and I were both tired and switched off driving during our journey there.  Not a lot of cars on the road so the roadway was dark and seemed like the lines were disappearing, or maybe it was because we were both in need of sleep.





We arrived in Memphis at 5:30 am, and we were all looking like the night of the living dead, looking like we haven't slept in days!





Sometimes we stay at my father's house but since now I travel all the time I prefer staying in hotels so I can have privacy, plus I just like being in hotels so I can give my readers the scoop on what is the best hotels to stay at where I visit.





Let me tell y'all, I did not care too much for the hotel I stayed in, the Embassy Suites located at 1022 South Shady Grove Road, Memphis, Tennessee, 38120.  The reason for this because their customer service is in need of improvement.  Shoot....with a street name like Shady Grove, I should've known to pick a different hotel.





I booked the hotel on Priceline and Priceline told me if I need to do any changes to my itinerary to call Embassy Suites.  I called Embassy Suites several times to notify them I'll be a late arrival and not to mark me down as a no-show.  Front desk kept telling me I needed to call Priceline to let them know that because there is nothing they can do about it.





Are you kidding me?  Nothing they can do about it!!!!  I've called plenty of hotels I was staying at that I'm arriving late and hold my room, and there was no problem.  But yet, Embassy Suites wants to make things difficult for me.  It's not like the room wasn't paid for yet because it was.  So what's the problem with holding a room for me?





When we arrived at the front desk, the lady gave us a funny look, like "Who are you? And why are you here?"  Yes, we were looking a hot mess but you treat anyone that walks in with the utmost respect.





I told her we are checking in, and I have been the one calling to have our room saved for us.  This heffa acts like she couldn't find our reservation, even though I was showing her our itinerary.  And I know it was her I've been talking to on the phone because she had a foreign accent.





Then all of a sudden she just so happens to find our reservation and then try to say we only booked for that day and was checking out at noon.  Seems like she didn't want us to be there.  I booked a room for 2 nights, not 1!





Then, her feeling like she was doing us a favor changed our booking that we were leaving Sunday morning.  BUT OUR BOOKING WAS ALREADY THAT!!!!  I showed her my itinerary, and she didn't even bother to look at it.





You see here ladies and gentlemen, this is why I like paying for hotels myself instead of always getting sponsorships because I get to see the actual way of how the people who work at these hotels perform their jobs.  When they know media is coming, they put on their best knowing they don't work to their fullest potential.





The hostess after 30 minutes of her bad service placed us in a room on the 3rd floor far back in a corner with no view at all.  Thank goodness we were not staying in that hotel for long because while inspecting our room I found hair in my bed and the bathroom tub.  YUCK!   But I will say that the decor of the room is nice, a simple contemporary look.

I had no strength to go back down to the front desk and complain, so I hopped on Twitter and voiced my frustration to their Twitter account.  Surprisingly, they contacted me back and had me explain what was going on so they can tell management about it.  Unsure if they did.

@MissLouMae Our apologies. Please follow and DM with details, full name and location on booking to share concern with management. Thank you.

— Embassy Suites (@EmbassySuites) December 5, 2015

Head pounding due to the lack of sleep, I cleaned off the hair in the bed and quickly went into a deep sleep.   Sleep so deep that I missed my dad's ceremony.  I feel so awful!   And I found out that he mentioned all of his children during his speech.  Talk about feeling guilty for not being there during the most glorious moment of his life!





He spoke about how he wasn't in his children life and how sorry he was, but he is grateful that his children forgave him and loved him.





Only close people in my life know this, but I won't get in too deep about it, my dad and mom had me at a very young age.  My dad wasn't ready to be a father and left my mother to raise me.  For years, I never knew of him because my mom married my stepdad and I thought he was my dad for years.  But God had a plan for me, and he brought my stepdad in my life, the greatest father I'll ever have!





I met my biological dad when I was an adult and forgave him for leaving me.  People make mistakes, and I'm not going to hold a grudge, he's doing the right thing now, so that's all that matters.

I didn't miss my dad's afterparty, well I did miss the first part of it.  I heard that he arrived at his party Elvis style in a pink old school limo.  His party was at Marlowe's Rib and Restaurant, located on Elvis Presley Blvd, Memphis 38116, just up the street from Elvis house!  As many times I've been to Memphis, I haven't yet visited Elvis's house, on my to-do list though because my dad is conveniently located a block from it.

The food was catered for his party and by the time we got there, there was nothing but pork left, and if you know me you know I do not eat pork.  I sat around, sip some water, snap photos, and watched my father drink like a fish!  Bartender.....stop serving this man!!!!!  But I enjoyed seeing him so happy and surrounded by people who loves and admires him.

My favorite auntie!  My dad's sister.

My girls played with their cousins and had me buying Elvis souvenir at the restaurant's gift shop.

After, afterparty was back at my dad's house because the folks at the restaurant were ready for us to get up out of there, we were there deep, folks bumping into each other, and getting a bit rowdy.  Hey, what can I say, when my dad parties, he does it big!





We didn't stay too long at my dad's because I was still exhausted and wanted to make sure we had enough rest to do that drive back to Atlanta.





After spending about an hour at my dad's, we headed back to our hotel to call it a night.  Oh yeah, that lady with poor customer service was behind the counter, and I gave her the side-eye and kept it moving back to our dark dungeon she placed us.





Sunday arrived quickly, Mr. M and the girls had Embassy Suites buffet breakfast while I was getting dressed and getting everything packed.  Mr. M and the girls said their food was just okay and could've been a lot better.  They brought me up a yogurt to the room since I couldn't join them for breakfast.





My dad texted me wanting us to see him before we left town.  Once we checked out, we hung out with him for a couple of hours watching football and chit-chatting.





We asked him since now he is retired, what is he going to do with his life?  My dad said at this moment he wants to enjoy his retirement and also do some traveling.  He is still young so when the time comes he'll get back into the workforce, but no time soon.





Remember my post of his 50th birthday party in New Orleans?   He'll be 51 this year so he'll have a lot of time to sit back, enjoy his retirement, and enter back into the workforce when he's ready.

We said our goodbyes to my dad, but first before we took the trip home we went to Uncle Lou's Southern Kitchen located at 3633 Millbranch Rd, Memphis, TN 38116, they were on the Food Network show Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives back in 2008.  Excellent food I must say!  No wonder Guy took a visit there! We ate our food on the go home, so I don't have any pictures to show you, sorry!  My goal is when I travel I'm going to find restaurants that were on The Food Network to see if the food is incredible like the show be saying.






Until next time Memphis!