Road Tripping

Last weekend, Wade and I went on a road trip to Jackson, Mississippi, to attend the wedding of my good friend Brad Overcash and Ms. Jennifer Jill Smith.  It was my first and only assist (in dating terms, an assist is when you are the last person to date someone before they date the person they marry).  The assist may have taken a while to come to fruition, but I could not be happier for Brad and Jennifer to have found each other.  I've gotten to know her a little bit on a couple trips and visits while she and Brad were dating, and she is truly the best girl I could think of for such a dear friend of mine.

Anyway, the wedding was in her hometown of Jackson (well, nearby Carthage, MS), so I broke the trip up into 6 hour segments and drove first to Wade's on Thursday, then with him to MS on Friday, back to Chattanooga on Sunday, and back to Charlotte on Monday.  24+ hours of driving in 5 days.  Phew.  The first two legs of the journey were RAINY.  Lots of storms moving through the southeast.  Not tons of fun, but I managed.

The Marriott

We stayed in the Marriott in downtown Jackson, and let's just say they were strugglin'.  I will give them the benefit of the doubt, because there were power outages all over the city and I think they had a lot of airport overflow guests.  But our room smelled like smoke when we walked in, and Saturday we spent 3+ hours trying to get lunch, to no avail.  The guy at the front desk told us where to walk to find a restaurant... there was no one on the streets, walking or driving, and when we did find the ONE restaurant, it was closed.  So we came back and tried to order pizza - the only place nearby was a Domino's the guy said - after numerous attempts at getting through, we found out there was a 2-hour wait for delivery.  Um, no go.  

So we were in the room snacking on grapes and trail mix we did happen to have available, and decided to just order room service pizza even though it was overpriced.  At that point it was about 2:00 - we need to leave for the wedding at 3:30.  Surely in an hour and a half they can bring us a pizza from downstairs.  40 minutes after ordering it, Wade calls again to see where it is.  "Oh, our system went down and we must have lost your order.  We'll get that right up to you."  30 minutes later, he calls again.  "It will be on its way up very soon."  It will be?  What does that mean?  Look, we have to leave in 20 minutes for a wedding, so please bring it as soon as possible.  We start getting ready for the wedding.  15 minutes later, Wade calls again.  We're leaving in 5 minutes, so if the pizza is not on its way up right now, please cancel it.  "Oh it's on its way up."  5 minutes later - no pizza, so Wade calls to cancel the order.  Knock knock... pizza!  Too late, we're walking out the door to go to this wedding.  Sorry bud, take it back.

So we never got to eat lunch and needless to say we were very grateful for the food at the reception!

The Wedding

The wedding was beautiful and simple - small church that seated about 70, pretty flowers including hydrangeas, which I love.  We got to the church an hour early so we would get a seat and ended up sitting right behind the family rows - go us.  Brad and Jennifer, you set a new record for the shortest wedding I've ever been to.  From the seating of the first grandmother to the exit of the last processional - 15 minutes flat.  Git 'er done!

The reception was at the country club nearby, and they had a great little beach music type band I really liked.  And FOOD!  Ahhh...  

Brad and Jennifer's first dance was Carolina In My Mind - what else?

Cutting the cake - Brad's distinguished look with the glasses and bowtie, Jennifer's gorgeous look with sparkling white dress :).

The Game

Sorry I didn't get more pictures of the wedding and festivities.  I spent part of the evening in an alternate universe.  One in which the Tar Heels get down 28 points to Kansas in the Final Four.  One in which they go 16+ possessions without scoring.  One in which the whole team other than Hansbrough has a total of 4 points in the first 12-15 minutes of the game.  Yeah.  We did come back to within 4.  I was really starting to think we could pull off the unthinkable.  Nope.  Locoya summed it up thus, "If we lose this game, I am NEVER going to forgive Brad for getting married on this day!"

The Craziness

On the road trip back to Chattanooga, Wade got a little antsy.  Like begging me to stop at Miskelly's Furniture Cafe for lunch instead of someplace normal that we had heard of.  (Miskelly's was closed, and we couldn't find Fernando's Mexican either, so we ended up eating Papa Johns - satisfying our pizza craving from the day before!).  Like turning on my emergency flashers and honking my horn repeatedly in the middle of the highway.  Like putting CD 1, song 7 on repeat and repeat and repeat (the Friends theme song I'll Be There For You).  Like the pictures below.

Wade out the window

Wade's hair after being out the window

At one point, we stopped so I could take a break from the road, and I tried teaching him to drive a stick shift.  He did a good job, but no one learns to drive a stick in 10 minutes, so I continued the highway driving.  He also bought a road atlas and decided we should stop at random tourist attractions (and I use that term loosely) along the way.  I sound sarcastic, but it was a lot of fun just being together, being carefree and not having a schedule to stick to.

This is Wade at Noccalula Falls in Gadsden, Alabama.  I wish I could've taken more pictures but my camera died.  It was really pretty though, even though the park was closed.

And alas, the final day of the trip came, and I had to make the trek back to Charlotte.  I drove through Knoxville and Asheville to avoid Atlanta traffic, and I do love the pretty views on that drive, through the mountains.  Below is approaching the mountains from Tennessee, heading towards home.

Only a few more weeks and Wade will be coming this way too... for good!