What a long, strange trip it's been.

Jennifer, my patient sister, and I traveled to Virginia this weekend to see my BFF Keely graduate from University of Mary Washington. And what a trip it was!! Friday night when we got there, we met up with Keely and friends to eat at T.G.I.Friday's. Then, we were fortunate enough to spend the night shopping at World Market, Ross, and Marshall's. Although I did shop in Ross for 45 minutes before realizing that it was not, in fact, Marshall's after all. But alas.

Saturday morning, Jenn and I enjoyed a relaxing breakfast at our cute hotel before heading off to graduation. Upon reaching graduation, we realized that maybe we misjudged the smallness of UMW. There were NO seats left except for reserved seating. By some miracle, we found two seats waaaay off in the distance that we were able to sit at. Behind hundreds of people, all standing to see the one person they were there for. I wish I had binoculars to see Keely!! Unfortunately for us, after about an hour and a half, it started misting, which turned into sprinkling, which turned into full out rain. And graduates hadn't even started walking yet! Did I mention it was in the 50's as well? So unlike May! This was the best view of the stage that we could get:




So, since we were there only to see Keely and not the rest of the graduates, it didn't take us long to figure out that we could sit out the end of the graduation somewhere warm, dry, and tasty! In other words... Einstein's Bagelry!! Mmm... much better:




After graduation ended, we were waffling between heading home or heading to Centreville for Keely's party. But eventually, we didn't hear from Keely so we had to start heading home. We were a bit delayed because we drove about 40 minutes out of our way to eat at Fuddrucker's. So worth it, by the way! As we were leaving Fuddrucker's, I noticed that my front tire was a little low. Not wanting to drive 4 more hours on a low tire, we decided we would learn how to put air in the tire. Don't judge. We really did think we had it figured out. The tire was definitely filling up with air!!

After about 50 miles or so, we were cruising along singing to "Big Butts" (you love it!) when we noticed this van beside us honking and waving uncontrollably at us. Well, you guessed it. That tired was FLAT. I mean, we were lucky to not be riding on the rim! As I was telling Stephen this, he questioned how I didn't feel the car driving differently... then he realized if I was listening to "Big Butts" I was probably dancing along to the music. He knows me so well. Anyway, the place we landed on I-95 was in the middle of buttcrack nowhere. We were nowhere near a mile marker, exit, town sign, nothin'. Which AAA just loved. Thanks be to God, a policeman pulled up after only a few minutes and talked to AAA to refer a towing place nearby. He also stayed with us until they got there and then drove us to the repair station. Oh, and P.S. this cop was a driving MANIAC!!! I wanted to grab Jenn's hand but I was scared quit clutching the seat. I have never ever driven like that in my whole life. He was very erratic! Jenn said that all she could think was, we made it that far only for him to kill us!!

The town (if you can call it that) that we landed in was Stoney Creek, Virginia. 170 miles from home. We won't be visiting that town ever again. But it was a great place for picture taking!

They certainly weren't in a hurry to fix my car. It sat like this for over an hour:




Here comes the mechanic!! Maybe he can fix it!!

Well, anyway. It definitely makes for great blogging. We finally got in late Saturday night, safe and sound. I'm so glad Jenn was with me. Her patience was unbelievable. I like to think that the weekend's soundtrack had mellowed her enough that she couldn't get upset about the trip. She was definitely a trouper!!

The other good thing is I am able to cross off #57 - Say no to something I would normally say yes to but feel burdened.