Thursday, September 10, 2015

road trip!

Over the long holiday weekend Doug and I went on a road trip. First down to Missouri so I could be a bridesmaid in Jill (formerly known as Oklahoma Jill, then Kentucky Jill, and now Missouri Jill)'s wedding, and then since we were so close, we drove another 3 hours to Tulsa to visit a friend that I lived with back in 2003 when I was in Tulsa doing a year internship for a missions organization.
Jill's rehearsal started at 6pm so we left at 3am.
Never take for granted gas stations that are open 24 hours. Those poor workers, but lucky motorists.
The air flow vents in my car were stuck, so the AC was full blast on the feet. Brrr!! Doug had a great idea of me covering up in his sleeping bag.
A few hours later I awoke and we enjoyed a delicious breakfast, mmmmm, chicken on a biscuit, so good.
Such a great high was soon followed by a sad low
noooooooooooooo!!
I'm always afraid of some errant car swerving over and hitting me at 70mph, so we rolled out good old sleeping bag up on the hill and waited for the tow truck. At first it was ok, it was a nice day and we had a little wiggle room, but then we ended up waiting 2.5 hours, and were getting hot and mad. Finally the tow truck came and took us to a place where we got a new tire in just one hour.
This place had this crazy water fountain! Poor Doug got a face-full the first time he went to take a sip. Finally we were back on the road.
View of the St. Louis loop from the car.
We arrived at 7pm, totally missed the rehearsal, but arrived just in time for the rehearsal dinner. It was at this delicious Argentinian steakhouse.
Jill and her maids
The next morning another bridesmaid, a groomsman, Doug and I went early to set up the venue and decorate the gazebo where she was getting married.
It was a really pretty place.
The wedding went off without a hitch, and the next am Jill & her hubby flew off to Bermuda on her honeymoon and Doug and I headed on to Tulsa. (all those wedding pics are on Doug's phone)
I had seen my friend Kristen last when her oldest was about 6 months, she is now 8 and has 2 little sisters. But did I take any pictures!?! of course not :(
We arrived and spent time talking with her by the pool while her girls swam. They had prior plans that evening so Doug and I went out for a night on the town. We got delicious handmade chocolates and then went out to this fancy movie theatre.
Eating icecream and watching No Escape. Oh my gosh, suspenseful movie!!
The next day we went to the church I used to work at in Tulsa, and then went to get Thai at their favorite place. SO GOOD. We came home and napped, and then sat by the pool again. In the evening we ate dinner together and Kristen, the girls and I watched a movie while Doug went to bed early so we could leave early. It was a short but sweet visit. Everytime I talk to Kristen I just love being with her, she's so positive and a Godly woman, and full of ideas and ways to love the people in her life. It was so cool seeing her as a mother. I wish I could see her more, she is a total role model.
we did get this blurry one after our movie when I realized we didn't get any pictures together!
The next morning we left again at 3am, we had a long 16 hour drive home. I slept in the beginning a little again, and pretty soon Doug was stopping for gas and got me what he called "breakfast"
Right this way diabeetus
We were making decent time and were just outside St. Louis again when the radio suddenly died. We were pulling off at an exit anyway since the GPS was being weird when the car gauges all went down to nothing. We pulled into a gas station, and then the car wouldn't start up again. Sigh. Typical dead alternator signs, but could not have been worse timing to happen on the holiday. I pulled out the phone and started looking up shops. I called 41 car repair shops before finally hearing a human voice. Luckily we were in a bigger city, and so one place was open. The tow truck came pretty quickly this time and soon we were in there waiting. He told us 4 hours to fix it, but they had us back on the road in just 1.5 hours, although it was a lot more expensive that we thought it should have been. I guess in that situation you're just thankful you didn't get in an accident when it died, and we also might have had to get a hotel and wait there till the next day when the shops were open, so we thought that was good.
On the road again!
I tried to let Doug sleep a lot on the way back because he had to go to work the next day. We finally got home safe and sound just after 11pm.
To pass the hours one thing we did was get some books on tape. Doug picked out 5 options from the library. We listened to some of these 3, but they were all duds. The western was full of bad language, the dolphin one had weird spiritual stuff in it and when she started telling this true story of a girl who lived in a house with a dolphin and then fell in love (physically) we couldn't listen anymore, and finally that cat book we did kind of like (and it was read by the famous Balki Bartokamoose (altho not in his famous dance-of-joy tv voice)) but then it too started mocking Christianity. So fail. Books are usually worth a try!
and even with all the car work, our trip was a definite success :)

1 comment:

  1. Bummer about the car trouble, but other than that it sounds like a super fun trip!!

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