The weekend

Wow, what a weekend! We had a blast! I'm not sure that I wanna do it again real soon, at least not the driving part of it! (We drove over 1000 miles in 3 days, ick!) We always have fun when we're with Christy and Richard, though! :)
Let me fill you in a little bit on the weekend.
About a month ago, we made plans to go down to GA to visit Morgan and Nicholas for their Georgia Reception. We didn't realize at the time that Hurricane Ike was planning on making an appearance in the gulf. It was a good thing that I gassed up Thursday, because early Friday afternoon, we started hearing horror stories about the gas prices going up (and up and up and up) I started to get spooked... after all, our "Big Blue" (Expedition) LOVES to drink gasoline! I was not excited to hear that in some places the gas price was already over $5.oo/gallon, and places were running out of gas quickly. Come on, now... we've got a road trip this weekend! Cut us some slack here! Anyway, we'd already promised M and N that we'd be there, and Christy and Richard were waiting to ride down to GA with us, so off we went. The Expedition was cram packed again. We picked up Stuart, and headed down the road. (By the way, if you ever hear stories about teenage boys always being hungry... they're all true!)
We left town at around 6:30, and stopped in Greensboro for dinner at Bojangles. The chicken that they gave us was spicy, but pretty good, regardless. After dinner we got back on the road again, stopping a couple more times (when teenage boys eat as much as they do, they have to make "pit stops" a lot) and finally arrived at the Letanosky home sometime between 10:30 and 11:00. Christy had found a station that had gas at what we decided was a fairly good price ($3.79/gallon) so the two R's went to top off Big Blue. We sat around and chatted while watching the Weather Channel for a while (I'm working on getting Jim Cantore for you for your birthday, Christy!) before heading off to bed. (It always amazes us how quickly Richard can start snoring!!!) Kirby and Tanger (the Letanosky kitties) decided to come to visit a couple of times during the night, which thrilled me, but not so much Ricky. :) Meow Meow, kitties!
Saturday morning we got everyone up, loaded back into Big Blue, and headed down the road. We stopped for a delicious breakfast at a restaurant in Shelby NC called Ken and Mary's. It's obviously a local favorite, because both times we've been there, it's been packed! After breakfast, we resumed our journey. Christy, Richard and I had fun rolling up a bunch of one dollar bills and stuffing them into the holes of little plastic "practice golf balls" for part of a gift for the newlyweds. Christy tried to sweeten me up by showering me with miniature bit o'honey's. (we kept finding them all over the car all weekend!)
We finally made our way to GA, where we stopped at Walmart for new shoes (for Ricky) and birthday cards (for Charles), at Lowe's (so C could give her daddy a gift card as a joke for his bday) and at a bbq place (also for a gc for Charles), and finally at Krystal for a very late lunch. Since we had eaten early that morning, and hadn't had anything since then, and since Ricky, Stuart and I had never been to a Krystal, we all enjoyed our meal. We kept getting phone calls from Morgan and Nicholas wondering where we were... I think we got 10 calls before we finally showed up in the driveway. I guess they were anxious to see us!
We had some time to relax and visit with Morgan, Nicholas, Kim, Charles, and Christina before the reception started, which was held at the "Hart Bed and Breakfast" (my nickname for Kim and Charles' place) There were around 60 folks there to celebrate the marriage. :) M and N got a couple of nice gifts and bunches of cards with money/gc's in them. The food was terrific (typical cookout fare, as well as Charles' famous chicken salad) It was fun being around so many people that we recognized from the wedding and/or from being down there before.
After a while, the crowd started to thin out, so we went up to Morgan and Nick's apartment to get ready for bed. It had been a very long day!
Sunday morning, we got up and got ourselves ready for the day, then went over to the Big House for breakfast. I have to admit that Kim's biscuits are just as good as the ones that Charles makes! :) She makes really good sausage gravy, too. After breakfast, we had time to chat with everyone again for a while before it was time to head back up the road. I had thought it would be hard telling Morgan goodbye again, but fortunately for all of us, she left for church before we left to come home, so it was easier.
We finally left, to go on a gas hunt. There was very little gas to be found, but after striking out two times, we finally found gas for $3.99/gallon at a Shell station somewhere in Paulding county. We were able to fill up there, and again in SC ($3.89/gallon) and that was enough to get us home.
On the way back up to Christy and Richard's house, we kept seeing neat stuff. We saw a monkey in a porsche (I'm NOT kidding!) and lots of Hurricane relief/repair vehicles. We saw 3 trucks/trailers from the Southern Baptist Convention, 3 buses from FEMA, 6 truck loads of generators, several tree service trucks, and at least 25 Electric company trucks. It was amazing!
Once we got to SC, it was very breezy, so we turned off the A/C and rolled down the windows. Christy and I were having fun playing with the wind, but it wasn't much fun trying to get the tangles out of our hair later.
We arrived at Christy and Richard's house, relaxed for a few minutes, then went to dinner at an Irish pub in Charlotte called Murphy's. It was good, but loud in there! (the football game was on every tv in the place until we got them to put the race on in the room we were in) There was a sign with an Irish Blessing that said "As you slide down the bannisters of life, may the splinters never point in the wrong direction." I liked that one! Next time, I want the quesadillas, Christy! You're right... they're yummy!
After dinner, Christy and Richard headed home, and Ricky, Stuart and I continued on up the road toward home. We hadn't gone far when we hit some major traffic near Concord Mills. We ended up inching along for almost an hour only going 5 miles or so. After that, it was smooth sailing all the way home. We dropped Stuart off at his house at 9:30, and got to our house shortly after that.
Thank you, Heather, for picking up Jeremy and Carrie for me, and for the other stuff that you did over the weekend! Thank you, Christy and Richard for a great weekend, for helping with gas, and for dinner yesterday! Thank you Kim and Charles for letting us crash at your place again, and for all you do for Morgan! Thank you, Christina, for being Morgan's friend as well as her Sister-in-law! Thank you, Linda and Al, for kid-sitting this weekend, and getting them to their games, etc. Thank you, God for allowing it all to happen!