As the trip approached, Beth realized they had a family wedding to attend in New Orleans the first Saturday of the week and since it was right on the way to Gulf Shores that would be our first pit stop! As a bonus, Beth's sister Karen was going to join us for the wedding and the beach! Yippee! Then as a double, triple bonus Beth suggested I ask my sister to drive down from Nashville to meet us and we could have a sister's beach weekend! Woo Hoo!
It all worked out perfectly and I was very much looking forward to spending quality time with some of the best girls I know.
At 6:00 a.m. I was standing in my driveway with suitcases packed when Beth pulled up. I was just a little excited! We were off to pick up Karen and wouldn't you know that at 6:15 a.m. she was also standing at the end of her driveway with suitcases packed.
Let's go! All GPS estimations were that it would take us 7 1/2 hours or so to make the drive to New Orleans, leaving plenty of time for the girls to get dressed for the 5:00 p.m. wedding!
We chatted and laughed and listened to music for the first few hours. We took our first potty break at a gas station that had a Weikel's Bakery! The line was out the door for the bakery, so of course we jumped in line! It had to be good! While we were waiting, I heard someone call my name and it was a friend of mine from home. We visited while waiting in line and it turns out we were both headed to the same beach. Small world! We all got some delicious pastries to eat in the car (Do NOT miss the apricot shortbread bars if you ever go to Weikel's) and got back on the road.
About another hour into the drive Beth asked Karen to check and make sure her dress hadn't slid around in the back of the car getting wrinkled. Karen turned around to check and from the backseat we heard "Your dress is fine, but where are my wedding clothes?"
OH NO!
The realization quickly set in...she knew exactly where her clothes were....hanging up on her front porch! Ack, in the morning excitement of loading the car she had forgotten to grab them from the porch.
There is no way we can turn back to get them and still make it to the wedding so we all start inventorying what we had in our suitcase that might cobble together an outfit appropriate for a wedding. It was not pretty!
So, this is when our trip started to feel like we were contestants on the Amazing Race. We had a deadline and a problem to solve before we could arrive at our final destination. Karen had purchased her outfit at Steinmart so we start googling for Steinmart stores on our route. There was one really close to us, but it wasn't open yet. There was another one about an hour and a half down the road so we reset our GPS to the Steinmart in Beaumont. Fingers crossed they had the same outfit and shopping would be easy!
We arrived at Steinmart and immediately engage the staff to see if they could help us locate the exact replacement items. ACK - they don't have them! Nobody Panic! Okay - let's start throwing clothes into the dressing room and Karen was trying things on left and right. In 37 minutes we had a new outfit and were back on the road.
What started to become apparent was our pitstops to pee, eat pastries, get gas, buy clothes had eaten up quite a bit of time. Now the GPS was indicating we would arrive at the hotel at 4:00 p.m which would not give much time to shower, change clothes, put on fresh make-up and curl hair but it was still doable if we didn't squander any more time.
Lake Charles and Baton Rouge squandered every dang second of spare time we had. The traffic situation was awful and tensions were running high! As we watch the arrival time creep towards 4:20, out goes the chance to shower. Then it is 4:30 and there is no way there will be enough time to curl hair. Then make-up starts getting applied in the backseat. We tried a couple of alternate routes to gain back some time and wouldn't you know that we ran into two of the longest damn trains in the free world. It felt like each train had 1,000 cars! Time just ticking away, closer and closer to the 5:00 wedding time.
To help pass the time we played fun old lady car games that went something like this....
What's the name of that thing that spins in the wind on the roof of a barn? What was that movie with the lady with the short hair and the guy was President? She got stuck in Dupont Circle. What's the name of that thing I made that I love? I think it has parsley and bulgur? It was painful. Mostly, I was the one who couldn't remember anything and had to pitch out these horrible, vague clues until someone could think of what I couldn't remember. I need to get my address tattooed on my arm.
Finally, we had to stop for gas because like NASCAR racers it was too close to call. We had 174 miles to go and 170 miles of gas. Could we make it? We erred on the side of caution and stopped. I filled up while the wedding guests ran into the gas station to change into their fancy clothes. It was a pit stop worthy of NASCAR!
We skidded into the wedding parking lot at 5:11! We could see the guests assembling outside, but no sign of the bride and groom! I threw the girls out of the car and as they left I yelled "Don't forget to jump on the mat and find out what place we came in!" That is a reference from the Amazing Race show for those that might not know!
We had not stopped for food, so after dropping off the girls I immediately drove to Taco Bell and grabbed a bean burrito. It was so good! Then I drove to the hotel, checked-in and got into my big blue robe as fast as I could! It was so stressful! I don't like to be late and to know you are going to be late six hours before you are even late is a whole lot of time to feel late!
It all ended well and Beth and Karen saw every minute of the ceremony and enjoyed the reception!
I know this post is already so long, but please bear with me. I just have to tell you about my new best friend that I met at breakfast the next morning. Beth and Karen's sweet Aunt Louise took us to breakfast on Sunday morning and I had the pleasure of sitting next to Aunt Louise's best friend Ellie! Louise and Ellie started working together at Kellogg when they were 18 years old. They are 77 years old now. Ellie was the most fascinating woman I maybe have ever met! Ellie drove Louise down from Memphis for the wedding. She had just gotten back from a week in the Bahamas with her bowling team. They snorkeled and went four wheeling! They all drove their own four wheelers! Ellie went skydiving for her 75th birthday. It was her third time! She has para sailed and hot air ballooned. She plays Bunco. She is the birthday card writer for her church group called "Young at Heart". She was precious and inspiring and we are now Facebook friends. I want to be Ellie when I grow up! I just loved her and her spirit!
After our delicious and inspiring breakfast, we were on the road to Gulf Shores! Beach adventures coming up in the next post!
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