In 40 hours.
Yep. We left Longview at 720 p.m. Friday night and drove all night mostly without incident. I say mostly because we accidentally drove off without paying for gas and a place in Mississippi that we could not find on the way back. Caleb had my credit card so as to pay for the gas at the pump. He gave it to me when I was inside the station with some oil asking if I could pay for the oil with it. I think he may have mumbled something else, but, neither of us remembers as it was a little after midnight and we'd been driving for 5 and a half hours and me asleep because I'd been working all day (caleb drove the first part.) Anyways, I didn't know I was supposed to pay for the gas inside. Thus I didn't. Somewhere at a McD's in GA when we stopped for a breather and breakfast, I asked Caleb about the receipt and we discovered to much chagrin that we had a problem.
But on we went. Josh drove across Alabama, which I'm sure he'll tell ya all about. I tried to stay awake for him, but I couldn't. I drove for an hour and a half through Atlanta, and than slept the last little bit to Sunny's. We arrived at 9 a.m. their time and after crashing in the morning, kept Sunny company through the afternoon so she wouldn't become too stressed while all her family was setting up and decorating.
And then, we went off for the picnic and ceremony. They did a fabulous job decorating and it was a rather pretty little park that they picked. The food was good, especially the iced tea. and we enjoyed visiting with some of their family and meeting other LU people there. and than, after milling about for an hour while they changed for the ceremony, it was time. It was just special to watch Sunny and her girls walk down the road behind the falls and across the bridge as the sun went down. Brenton was grinning the entire time. Their parents had the look of happy sadness. Brenton's dad gave a rather good wedding sermon with a few jokes here and there. Sunny's gals--Cara, Katy, and Brenton's sister Tori, were all gorgeous too. and the guys looked spiffy in the tuxes. Than we had delicious cake and punch (Brenton's chocolate cake was decorated with statics equations...well, and one certain "dynamics" equation....) and we threw the birdseed and watched them run off to start their married life. We had decided during our hour milling about that we would drive all night back to Longview instead of sleeping at Sunny's parents place. and thus, after helping them to clean up and getting lost on the way back to the house, we arrived at the house, packed up our stuff, gave many thanks and hugs to Sunny's mom and family, and left. Lindsay drove from Toccoa to the eastern state line of Alabama. Morgan drove across Alabama until we reached Mississippi and than Caleb drove. I drove across Louisiana into Texas excepting the half hour we were on the side of the road paniced that something more serious than a overheated electrical box had occurred as the electrical system had died and than the van itself. Thankfully, it wasn't. and I think we were all thanking God and saying a few prayers for the last few hours back for safety and getting back soon. We rolled into Longview around 11 a.m. Josh crashed. I stayed awake and had lunch and started Phantom Tollbooth until the coffee from this morning had worn off and I crashed in the living room.
It was worth the trip though. I am extremely glad we made it. It meant a lot to me to see another pair of very dear friends get married and know that God was smiling down on them. The weather was absolutely gorgeous...cool, and sunny for the afternoon and evening. and now, I must rest a bit more because I'm flying to Nebraska on Tuesday morn to help my sister out with the precious Sarah and toddler Caedin for a little over a week. and I'm working all day tomorrow.
Posted by Anna at August 15, 2004 05:35 PM | TrackBack