the beard will protect us

This past weekend we took a road trip to North Carolina. Thursday night after I got out of class (yeah that’s right at about 9pm), Phil and I packed up our things, picked up Jon & Erin in Indiana and headed south to North Carolina for Phil’s friend Pete’s wedding. The total driving time was somewhere between 11 and 12 hours…which means we made it there about 11:30am on Friday. There was a small delay at about 6:30am in West Virginia when a semi-truck jack knifed across the highway and spilled diesel fuel all over the place… meaning we were completely stopped in traffic for about an hour (at this point we had all been up for over 24 hrs).


We finally made it to the hotel, which was shadier than we thought. Apparently someone set the Wal-Mart on fire right by the hotel and the national disaster team flew into to help and was staying at our hotel. I could go on and on about how “great” our hotel was, but let me just sum it up by saying, Jon & Erin’s toilet seat was not attached to the actual seat, their “non-smoking” room could have given anyone with asthma a serious attack and our toilet took 2 or 3 tries to flush each time…in short, it was the type of place that you wore shoes in the shower. The pool had no water although we were assured that it would be open by the end of the week… not sure how they measure weeks in North Carolina, but apparently not the same as we do in the North.

Friday afternoon, Erin & I went to a “winery” for some taste testing & wine purchasing. I use “winery” in the loosest sense of the word, as it was a store in a strip mall. Friday night we attended the rehearsal dinner at Pete & Crystal’s house (that was 1.5 hrs away from where we were staying and where the hotel was… but that is another story). Saturday morning, we took a trip to a cool little park that was nearby that had tons of things to do like a petting zoo, mini-golf, gem finding, paddle boats and train rides. On our way, we stopped at a “yard sale” where Erin bought an antique coffee maker. At the park, we played mini-golf and went paddle boating. It was a very fun day.


We made it back in time for a few drinks before we went to the “dry” wedding… which is a whole different post. Saturday night was the (what we will now call infamous) wedding. Sunday morning the boys woke us up at 5am to get started on our drive home. The drive home was relatively uneventful aside from Jon’s muffin/granola bar stick challenge.


Here are some pictures from our trip: (there are lots more pictures on my snapfish link http://www2.snapfish.com/photolibrary/owned_view=owned_2007/t_=74959280)

Jon & Erin on the way down.


Here we are completely stopped in traffic at 6:30am.


Erin & I at the "winery."


Erin, Jon & I on our way to the rehearsal dinner.


Erin & I at the yard sale.


Playing mini golf. By the way, all of us got hole in ones... except Jon that is.


Phil after


Erin & Jon on the paddle boats... we really wanted to rent the swans... but we were denied!


Pete & I dancing at the wedding.


Phil, Mike & Jon doing... boy things at the wedding.


Phil and I at the wedding.


Jon & his muffin with granola bar stick, it's better not to ask.