I'm technically on vacation right now but for the rest of the week we are doing a "staycation." However we just got back yesterday from a short road trip.
On Sunday after worship, Bob and I went to a parishioner's home who was having a good luck party for their son who is being sent to Afghanistan in March. We left there around 2:30 to head to Philly - the first leg of our trip. Now there really is no good way to drive from Georgetown to Philly. Either you have to go through New York Traffic or you have to drive way out of your way to avoid it. Being it was a Sunday afternoon we drove through NYC and oddly enough that was the easy part of our journey. It was the New Jersey Turnpike that was slow and go pretty much the entire way. It also didn't help that we were getting on the turnpike which is near the Meadowlands shortly after the Giants game ended. Errr Anyway we made it to Philly met up with our friends Becca and Gary (yes her name is also Becca, I am not typing about myself in the third person) had dinner and went to bed. We also stayed at the seminary I went to which reminded me how much I do not miss living there. The rooms are never bright enough during the day nor dark enough at night.
The next morning we got up WAY too early and hit the road in order to avoid traffic. Bob, Becca, Gary and I got on the road by 6:15 and headed towards Roanoke. We made it there by around 1 had some lunch hung out got ready and went to the church.
The entire reason for this trip was that two seminary friends, Ben and Marissa, were getting married. The wedding ceremony was beautiful, but some kids made it memorable.
I have this theory that at every wedding there is something that happens that make it memorable and it is something that you can never predict. Sometimes it is something that goes wrong or a prank that the groomsmen pulled on the couple, but for Ben and Marissa's wedding it was the kids. During a solo a friends almost three year old daughter sitting behind us said in a ever so cutesy voice "that's beautiful" and then about a minute later announced in that same voice "opps I farted." Now granted she didn't say this loud enough for that many people to hear but it was quite memorable.
However the real show stopper was the first reader. The girl who read was around 8 years old and she read a children's story version of Daniel 3. She was a great reader other than she read so fast most people could not understand what she was saying other than Nebuchadnezzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which actually she pronounced better than many adults I have heard read the same story. But what does an 8 year old do when you get to the end of the story while reading in public? Well it wasn't "Word of God, Word of Life" or "Here ends the reading." Instead she said paused looked up and said quite loudly and proudly "That's it!" to which everyone responded with applause and laughter.
The reception was wonderful, some great memories (some of which I can't share so that they may be used as blackmail at a later date), lots of friends and plenty of dancing (my legs still hurt). Thank you Ben and Marissa! I had a wonderful time and I pray that your marriage may be blessed and fulfilling.
On Tuesday morning we headed out for a long day of driving. We were going to Becca's parents house in Albany by way of Philly to drop Gary off. Things were going well, until we got to Pennsylvania. We stopped to eat lunch at a Wendy's in a small town just north of the Maryland border. Now something you must know about the state of Pennsylvania, it really is a land of two city states and not a whole lot in between. There is Philadelphia on the east side, Pittsburgh on the west and in the middle is a land better known as Pennsyltucky and we had lunch in Pennsyltucky. We also stopped to get gas and switch drivers, and Bob went to the back to get some stuff to work on since he was no longer going to drive and four beer bottles that we had left over from the night before came spilling out of the car and broke on the ground at this gas station. We picked up the gas, the station attendant came out and swept the area for the small pieces and we were on our way.
However bad karma must have followed us. Probably just as someone else got a flat from a small piece of glass that wasn't picked up, I hit something and our front drivers side tire popped. I'm not talking about any old flat but a loud pop that sounded more like gun shot. Luckily no one was near me and I was able to pull over quickly and Bob was able to put on the spare without much problems. We were also near the western suburbs of Philly at the time and was able to find a tire place easily, but had to go to three places to find one that could helps us since the first was too busy, the second could only fix a leak and not a replacement. So 2 1/2 hours and $250 (for two tires and an alignment adjustment) later we were back on the road and made it to Philly and Albany safely but much later than we wanted.
After a night and most of yesterday in Albany with Becca's family, we made it back to Georgetown safely and now I'm watching the snow fall silently and thinking what a great year it has been and what 2010 will bring. But I think those thoughts will be saved for tomorrow.
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