Road that Trip...
Thursday:
4:13 pm- I get a phone call from Stephanie telling me that she's approaching Novi. She's driving from Grand Rapids to her parents house in Royal Oak today so that I can pick her up and we can get on the road. 11 hours from now, we will be in North Carolina.
5:26 pm-We go to dinner with her mom, and leave soon after that. Discussion at the meal was awkward, but interesting. Discussing the present climate between Zac, Ryan and Aaron, and how the latter two will be received at the former's wedding is cause for concern. In any event, we're both anxious to get on the road, so we bid farewell to the mom and get on the road.
8:35 pm- We're finally making some good progress on the freeway. Construction is officially out of control. I'm doing all I can to maintain my patience with non-existant work crews, but still having to drive 55.
10:23 pm- It's official. Ohio is the most boring state to drive through ever. At least in places like Idaho and Nebraska, you can marvel at modern farm practices. Western Ohio doesn't even have farmland to gaze upon. Absolutely nothing out here. No trees. No animals. Nothing. Just straight interstate concrete and construction. I definately made the wrong decision in driving first.
Friday:
12:46 am- I was about to hand the keys over to Stephanie, but she said she can't drive in the rain(?!). So I proceed to plow through West Virginia mountains and switchback roads. It's a fun drive, espicially when I pass trucks down 5% grades. Stephanie simply can't watch, for fear that the truck is going to tip over and crush us, or loose control down the hill, ram us from behind and force us off the side of the mountain. Girls are funny. After getting off I-77 to refill the tank and get some food, we try to make our way back to the interstate. First, we have to merge onto a state road. The arrow pointing to 403 is going down and to the right, but the road remains flat. Steph points it out, but I tell her "I can't go down on that one!!" Later, when we find the 77 on-ramp again, the aarow points down and to the left, but there is actually a hill going down to the interstate. Completely undaunted from my last remark, I tell her "HAHA! I can do down on this one!!" Later on while in the mountains, I mention to her that my ears are popping like mad. She said she can't pop hers all that well. Without another thought, I tell her that "all I have to do is swallow, and that fixes everything." Yes... we are college students, and yes, at the time, these were extremely, extremely funny.
2:07 am- Having successfully survived the fatal boring-ness of Ohio and expertly navigated West Virginia mountains, and shaving almost a full 45 minutes off our estimated time of arrival, I pull off and hand the keys over to Stephanie. Only Virginia and most of North Carolina to go, and they both look fairly flat and straight. We'll be to our hotel by 4:30 at the latest. As we went into the 'Omlet Outlet' or whatever the hell it was called to use the bathrooms, I noticed Stephanie had a terribly worried/scared look on her face as she came out of the establishment. I asked her what's wrong, and she just told me to get in the car. Appearantly, while waiting for the ladies restroom, she was being mentally undressed by some gentleman waiting for the men's room. Just as she was going into the ladies' room, she heard the woman that just came out call call him "husband dearest", and was a little shocked. As she came out, she heard the woman say, "Oh, her? Yeah, she's cute. Is that how large you want my boobies to be?" Pure comedy. She was mortified.
3:27 am- Stephanie's inability to pass trucks has caused us some severe time loss. I have made many good natured jabs at her to try and coax her into passing slow trucks as soon as possible, but to no avail. She contends that my car scares her, and that she is much more comfortable in her car. I tell her we should have taken hers then. I forget what reason she has for not letting me drive her car, but regardless, we will not be to our hotel until well after 5:30.
6:15 am- After wandering around surburban Charlotte for 15-20 minutes, rap blaring from the car, windows down, we finally find our hotel and inquire as to when we will be able to check in. The guy at the front desk informs us that normally, we wouldn't be able to check in until 3 pm. However, duely noting our state and figuring we're probably a danger to anyone else out on the road at this point, he tells us it's not a problem to check in now. 11 hours, 20 minutes and several cans of caffeene later, we finally reach our destination.
12:20 pm- I wake up and take a shower, then give Zac a call to see what he's up to. Stephanie is still in bed, but slightly coherent. Zac says he's on his way over, and that we can chill at his place until the rehearsal dinner. Stephanie and I pack everything we'll need up to that point, meet Zac in the parking lot, and follow him to his apartment. We meet and greet Kelley there, and just hang out until it's time to get ready.
5:45 pm- Zac, Kelley, Stephanie and I arrive at the church to find no one else there yet. One of the lights on a main intersection is out, and everyone we are missing is involved in the insuing traffic jam. While we wait, Zac introduces Stephanie and myself to one of Kelley's relatives who will be coordinating the wedding. She proceeds to ask us how long we've been married. This makes me smile. I don't even have to make stuff up on the spot for these people. They do it for me. Before I can weave a story together however, Stephanie tells her we're just friends in for the wedding. I smack her after the coordinator walks away and tell her to run with it next time. The rest of the rehearsal goes off without a hitch, and everyone then heads to Charley's for the rehearsal dinner.
10:25 pm- The dinner is finally clearing out, Zac and Kelley are anxious to get out of it so we can head to the bar. We follow them to Phil and Tony's, some bar located in the middle of an outdoor mall. It's pretty crowded, but we manage to push our way into a table and set up shop there for the night. Zac walks over and asks if anyone has change, Kelley's sister and brother in law are stuck at the door without cash. I walk over to them, hand them a $10, and head back to the table. I'm not exactly sure if Ryan (Kelley's brother in law) recognizes me from the rehearsal until he finds me at the table with Zac and Kelley, but he promises to get me back in drinks. I buy Zac a couple shots of Jose, then a couple Prarie Fires, and he hang out for a while. Several 7&7's later, I ask what Ryan is drinking, he says Guiness, so I bring back two Car Bombs. He's vaguely fimiliar with the concept, but I explain the finer points to him, we take it, and the rest of the night gets hazy. I remember Stephanie not being there anymore. Appearantly, she disappeared with the guy she kept flirting with at the bar. Zac, Kelley and I, not exactly in any shape to drive back, proceed to walk the couple blocks to the apartment. What I wasn't informed of, however, was that there would be fence jumping and tree dodging involved. Kelley was a trooper and made the whole trip without shoes. I still to this point have no idea how she did that.
Saturday:
11:34 am- I wake up on the couch to what seems to be an empty apartment. I slowly open the bedroom door, as that containted the only bathroom, and saw that Zac was still out. By the time I get out of the bathroom, he's out on the couch watching tv, and informs me the family in on the way. I pull myself together as best I can, greet the parents and siblings, and chill out until they go to get Zac's car. I tag along, grab mine, and head back to the hotel until the wedding.
5:29 pm- Stephanie is complaining about her dress falling below bra-line, and tries to send me out to get safety pins for her. I inform her that I have to be at the church in half an hour to usher people in. She gets a little bitchy and calls the front desk, they hook her up and we're on the road. Amazingly, we make it to the church in 6 minutes. I'm just that good.
7:00 pm- Absolutely beautiful wedding. I'm honored to be standing up in it. Considering the other two guys involved are one of his friends from the Marines and his brother. Things go over well, I get compliment after compliment on my suit. You people don't know it, but when I clean up, I go all out. Pictures are on the way, fear not. After the wedding, we take some bridal party picutres in the church, then get released to the reception.
8:33 pm- I finally get to hang out with Ryan, Amanda, Aaron, and Ryan's parents. We grab a table, some beer and some food, hang out, catch up, the usual, then the cameras came out. Each table was outfitted with two disposable cameras, and everyone had their own personal cameras. I think I corrupted as many if not more pictures with my unannounced prescence as I was supposed to be in. Can't wait to see those developed. Leaving me in charge of a free disposable camera will prove to be the death of some people.
11:04 pm- Things started to dwindle down, so we all made plans to meet up at Morehead Tavern just outside of the city. Stephanie gets directions and we head out. As I'm driving around, all I'm seeing is conrfields. Stephanie calls to make sure we had the right directions. Stay on Providence until you pass the hospital and the YMCA. We pass the hospital, then the YMCA, and then 10 minutes of nothing but corn. We call Zac, and come to find out, we made a right on Providence when it should have been left. How in the hell do you pass both a hospital and YMCA going in the wrong direction?!?
Sunday:
12:13 am- We finally catch up with everyone at the bar, order some drinks, play some pool, hit the dance floor. I swear, you will never find anyone getting more attention at a bar than a Marine in his dress blues and his new wife in her wedding dress. Cracked me the hell up. We closed the bar, sent Zac and Kelley on their way to the honeymoon suite, and headed back to the hotel.
10:35 am- Stephanie wakes me up with, "JIMMY!!! It's almost 11!!! We have to pack!!" If we didn't leave in 25 minutes, we'd get charged with another day, and neither of us really had that kind of money. So we pack up, call Zac to see what he's doing. He gives us directions to his friends place down on some lake in South Carolina.
1:36 pm- We get some pictures developed, waste an hour in Wal-Mart, then head down to the lake. It was a really chill place. Hung out with Zac's parents, brother, and a bunch of their friends. It starts to pour, so we decide to eat there, wait out the storm, and then start back.
5:28 pm- We say our last goodbye's, then get in the car and head back. As soon as we cross the Virginia state line, we get pounded with this storm that we thought was heading east, but was in fact heading north. So now I get to drive through the Virginia/West Virginia mountains in a terrential downpour.
Monday:
1:15 am- I get us into Ohio, top off the tank and turn things over to Stephanie. This whole car thing is getting really, really old to me right now. No offense to Stephanie or anything, but at this point, I've spent waaaay too much time that close to her as well. The concentration of time spent together just... yeah... I don't know. You just need more of a break than a day, y'know?
5:04 am- Finally roll up to her house, get her stuff out of the car, start back to my parents house. A cop yelled at me for accidentally running a red light on Woodward. I don't quite remember if I gave him a pissed off look or laughed at him.
5:25 am- Get back to my parents house, unpack the car, and pass out in my bed.
All in all, one hell of a trip. I saw one of my best friends marry an amazing woman, got to meet some great people and am definately considering a return trip this year. I may be absolutely insane, but if you ever get an opprotunity to drive down I-77 in a big ass rain storm, do it. You may not want to actually be driving, but it's one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I was actually driving THROUGH THE RAIN CLOUD. It was crazy. I would easily do it again, only next time a little more awake. I'm definately adding the Carolinas to the short list of places to move to.
4:13 pm- I get a phone call from Stephanie telling me that she's approaching Novi. She's driving from Grand Rapids to her parents house in Royal Oak today so that I can pick her up and we can get on the road. 11 hours from now, we will be in North Carolina.
5:26 pm-We go to dinner with her mom, and leave soon after that. Discussion at the meal was awkward, but interesting. Discussing the present climate between Zac, Ryan and Aaron, and how the latter two will be received at the former's wedding is cause for concern. In any event, we're both anxious to get on the road, so we bid farewell to the mom and get on the road.
8:35 pm- We're finally making some good progress on the freeway. Construction is officially out of control. I'm doing all I can to maintain my patience with non-existant work crews, but still having to drive 55.
10:23 pm- It's official. Ohio is the most boring state to drive through ever. At least in places like Idaho and Nebraska, you can marvel at modern farm practices. Western Ohio doesn't even have farmland to gaze upon. Absolutely nothing out here. No trees. No animals. Nothing. Just straight interstate concrete and construction. I definately made the wrong decision in driving first.
Friday:
12:46 am- I was about to hand the keys over to Stephanie, but she said she can't drive in the rain(?!). So I proceed to plow through West Virginia mountains and switchback roads. It's a fun drive, espicially when I pass trucks down 5% grades. Stephanie simply can't watch, for fear that the truck is going to tip over and crush us, or loose control down the hill, ram us from behind and force us off the side of the mountain. Girls are funny. After getting off I-77 to refill the tank and get some food, we try to make our way back to the interstate. First, we have to merge onto a state road. The arrow pointing to 403 is going down and to the right, but the road remains flat. Steph points it out, but I tell her "I can't go down on that one!!" Later, when we find the 77 on-ramp again, the aarow points down and to the left, but there is actually a hill going down to the interstate. Completely undaunted from my last remark, I tell her "HAHA! I can do down on this one!!" Later on while in the mountains, I mention to her that my ears are popping like mad. She said she can't pop hers all that well. Without another thought, I tell her that "all I have to do is swallow, and that fixes everything." Yes... we are college students, and yes, at the time, these were extremely, extremely funny.
2:07 am- Having successfully survived the fatal boring-ness of Ohio and expertly navigated West Virginia mountains, and shaving almost a full 45 minutes off our estimated time of arrival, I pull off and hand the keys over to Stephanie. Only Virginia and most of North Carolina to go, and they both look fairly flat and straight. We'll be to our hotel by 4:30 at the latest. As we went into the 'Omlet Outlet' or whatever the hell it was called to use the bathrooms, I noticed Stephanie had a terribly worried/scared look on her face as she came out of the establishment. I asked her what's wrong, and she just told me to get in the car. Appearantly, while waiting for the ladies restroom, she was being mentally undressed by some gentleman waiting for the men's room. Just as she was going into the ladies' room, she heard the woman that just came out call call him "husband dearest", and was a little shocked. As she came out, she heard the woman say, "Oh, her? Yeah, she's cute. Is that how large you want my boobies to be?" Pure comedy. She was mortified.
3:27 am- Stephanie's inability to pass trucks has caused us some severe time loss. I have made many good natured jabs at her to try and coax her into passing slow trucks as soon as possible, but to no avail. She contends that my car scares her, and that she is much more comfortable in her car. I tell her we should have taken hers then. I forget what reason she has for not letting me drive her car, but regardless, we will not be to our hotel until well after 5:30.
6:15 am- After wandering around surburban Charlotte for 15-20 minutes, rap blaring from the car, windows down, we finally find our hotel and inquire as to when we will be able to check in. The guy at the front desk informs us that normally, we wouldn't be able to check in until 3 pm. However, duely noting our state and figuring we're probably a danger to anyone else out on the road at this point, he tells us it's not a problem to check in now. 11 hours, 20 minutes and several cans of caffeene later, we finally reach our destination.
12:20 pm- I wake up and take a shower, then give Zac a call to see what he's up to. Stephanie is still in bed, but slightly coherent. Zac says he's on his way over, and that we can chill at his place until the rehearsal dinner. Stephanie and I pack everything we'll need up to that point, meet Zac in the parking lot, and follow him to his apartment. We meet and greet Kelley there, and just hang out until it's time to get ready.
5:45 pm- Zac, Kelley, Stephanie and I arrive at the church to find no one else there yet. One of the lights on a main intersection is out, and everyone we are missing is involved in the insuing traffic jam. While we wait, Zac introduces Stephanie and myself to one of Kelley's relatives who will be coordinating the wedding. She proceeds to ask us how long we've been married. This makes me smile. I don't even have to make stuff up on the spot for these people. They do it for me. Before I can weave a story together however, Stephanie tells her we're just friends in for the wedding. I smack her after the coordinator walks away and tell her to run with it next time. The rest of the rehearsal goes off without a hitch, and everyone then heads to Charley's for the rehearsal dinner.
10:25 pm- The dinner is finally clearing out, Zac and Kelley are anxious to get out of it so we can head to the bar. We follow them to Phil and Tony's, some bar located in the middle of an outdoor mall. It's pretty crowded, but we manage to push our way into a table and set up shop there for the night. Zac walks over and asks if anyone has change, Kelley's sister and brother in law are stuck at the door without cash. I walk over to them, hand them a $10, and head back to the table. I'm not exactly sure if Ryan (Kelley's brother in law) recognizes me from the rehearsal until he finds me at the table with Zac and Kelley, but he promises to get me back in drinks. I buy Zac a couple shots of Jose, then a couple Prarie Fires, and he hang out for a while. Several 7&7's later, I ask what Ryan is drinking, he says Guiness, so I bring back two Car Bombs. He's vaguely fimiliar with the concept, but I explain the finer points to him, we take it, and the rest of the night gets hazy. I remember Stephanie not being there anymore. Appearantly, she disappeared with the guy she kept flirting with at the bar. Zac, Kelley and I, not exactly in any shape to drive back, proceed to walk the couple blocks to the apartment. What I wasn't informed of, however, was that there would be fence jumping and tree dodging involved. Kelley was a trooper and made the whole trip without shoes. I still to this point have no idea how she did that.
Saturday:
11:34 am- I wake up on the couch to what seems to be an empty apartment. I slowly open the bedroom door, as that containted the only bathroom, and saw that Zac was still out. By the time I get out of the bathroom, he's out on the couch watching tv, and informs me the family in on the way. I pull myself together as best I can, greet the parents and siblings, and chill out until they go to get Zac's car. I tag along, grab mine, and head back to the hotel until the wedding.
5:29 pm- Stephanie is complaining about her dress falling below bra-line, and tries to send me out to get safety pins for her. I inform her that I have to be at the church in half an hour to usher people in. She gets a little bitchy and calls the front desk, they hook her up and we're on the road. Amazingly, we make it to the church in 6 minutes. I'm just that good.
7:00 pm- Absolutely beautiful wedding. I'm honored to be standing up in it. Considering the other two guys involved are one of his friends from the Marines and his brother. Things go over well, I get compliment after compliment on my suit. You people don't know it, but when I clean up, I go all out. Pictures are on the way, fear not. After the wedding, we take some bridal party picutres in the church, then get released to the reception.
8:33 pm- I finally get to hang out with Ryan, Amanda, Aaron, and Ryan's parents. We grab a table, some beer and some food, hang out, catch up, the usual, then the cameras came out. Each table was outfitted with two disposable cameras, and everyone had their own personal cameras. I think I corrupted as many if not more pictures with my unannounced prescence as I was supposed to be in. Can't wait to see those developed. Leaving me in charge of a free disposable camera will prove to be the death of some people.
11:04 pm- Things started to dwindle down, so we all made plans to meet up at Morehead Tavern just outside of the city. Stephanie gets directions and we head out. As I'm driving around, all I'm seeing is conrfields. Stephanie calls to make sure we had the right directions. Stay on Providence until you pass the hospital and the YMCA. We pass the hospital, then the YMCA, and then 10 minutes of nothing but corn. We call Zac, and come to find out, we made a right on Providence when it should have been left. How in the hell do you pass both a hospital and YMCA going in the wrong direction?!?
Sunday:
12:13 am- We finally catch up with everyone at the bar, order some drinks, play some pool, hit the dance floor. I swear, you will never find anyone getting more attention at a bar than a Marine in his dress blues and his new wife in her wedding dress. Cracked me the hell up. We closed the bar, sent Zac and Kelley on their way to the honeymoon suite, and headed back to the hotel.
10:35 am- Stephanie wakes me up with, "JIMMY!!! It's almost 11!!! We have to pack!!" If we didn't leave in 25 minutes, we'd get charged with another day, and neither of us really had that kind of money. So we pack up, call Zac to see what he's doing. He gives us directions to his friends place down on some lake in South Carolina.
1:36 pm- We get some pictures developed, waste an hour in Wal-Mart, then head down to the lake. It was a really chill place. Hung out with Zac's parents, brother, and a bunch of their friends. It starts to pour, so we decide to eat there, wait out the storm, and then start back.
5:28 pm- We say our last goodbye's, then get in the car and head back. As soon as we cross the Virginia state line, we get pounded with this storm that we thought was heading east, but was in fact heading north. So now I get to drive through the Virginia/West Virginia mountains in a terrential downpour.
Monday:
1:15 am- I get us into Ohio, top off the tank and turn things over to Stephanie. This whole car thing is getting really, really old to me right now. No offense to Stephanie or anything, but at this point, I've spent waaaay too much time that close to her as well. The concentration of time spent together just... yeah... I don't know. You just need more of a break than a day, y'know?
5:04 am- Finally roll up to her house, get her stuff out of the car, start back to my parents house. A cop yelled at me for accidentally running a red light on Woodward. I don't quite remember if I gave him a pissed off look or laughed at him.
5:25 am- Get back to my parents house, unpack the car, and pass out in my bed.
All in all, one hell of a trip. I saw one of my best friends marry an amazing woman, got to meet some great people and am definately considering a return trip this year. I may be absolutely insane, but if you ever get an opprotunity to drive down I-77 in a big ass rain storm, do it. You may not want to actually be driving, but it's one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I was actually driving THROUGH THE RAIN CLOUD. It was crazy. I would easily do it again, only next time a little more awake. I'm definately adding the Carolinas to the short list of places to move to.