Trip from H*ll

I know that a long time ago I mentioned our trip to Memphis, but we need to document this trip. This trip is bringing many memories - fond and well let's leave it at that for right now. The occassion was my cousin Andy and Ginni's wedding.
We left for a "relaxing" trip on Thursday after work/school. We didn't get out quite at the time we wanted, but that is how it goes with kids and sub plans! We got the kids supper at their favorite Golden Arches and we were off.

I was against stopping since I knew that would add on to our trip to STL for an overnight stop at the McLaren's. I was so excited to visit where I call home since it is where we started our family. Our plans were to take our time on Friday and maybe stop at the zoo and get to Memphis late afternoon for the wedding rehearsal.

(relaxing at Auntie Melody's)

Jason told me that we were going to have to stop to let the kids go potty - I think it was his excuse so that he could go. I kept pushing it off a few more miles. I was half asleep when I felt the rumple sticks as we call them. Jason slammed on the brakes and yelled for a flashlight. In my half daze slumber, I start searching trying to figure out what the HORRIBLE noise is. The engine sounded as if a huge chunk of rocks was flying through the fan.

If you know us well you know about our engine problems. But really can the fourth engine in this van be bad? Yes - Amy K I know your opinion! According to our GPS we were 19.8 miles south of Hannibal. We weren't too excited about leaving our kids on the interstate while we tried to figure out what was wrong, but we didn't know anyone and it was 9:30 p.m. After many frantic phone calls, Randy called a tow truck for us and told us he would come get us. The tow truck was going to take it to St. Peters where all the work had been done on it. Thank the Lord for friends that were willing to help us!

Randy let us use his car so we still got to go to Memphis! We didn't get to take our time since we had to mess with the dealership - we have an extended warrenty on the van which "should" cover it - hopefully there are no loop holes.

When we got to Memphis, we headed to the Pig and Wiggle restaurant - sounds a little weird, but it was good BBQ. We got there about 30 minutes early and called Chris and Amy to see if they would meet us early. Amy told me they were there. Hummm I don't see you. After both asking if we were at the wedding rehersal, we found out that we were at the WRONG wedding rehersal. The right one was 30 miles away. Rats for being on time. Can this trip get any better?

After settling into our hotel the girls head over to Ginny's for a personal shower. No mishaps and turns out to be a lot of fun with lots of stories. Girls love to chit chat.

On Saturday my family headed down to Beale Street to eat lunch and see the sights and sounds. We had an awesome lunch and headed back to the car to find a parking fine - what? Jason paid at the entrance in the box. Well we needed to get going so I just handed my credit card to him to find out that he charged me $75. Many of you have never seen Jason mad or angry - we saw both that afternoon. We had no choice but to pay it or we would never leave Memphis and probably get towed. Calmly I said I would work on it when we got back. After a week of calling the parking company and talking to many nice people, they decided to refund the money because we handled it so nicely. In reality they couldn't prove that we didn't pay. The parking guy wasn't doing his job correctly with pictures and stuff.

The wedding was beautiful and we had fun at the reception. Ally and Abby sang karoke.

So did Jason and Chirs - Sorry it sounds like blah blah blah oh boy and it dark but we were laughing hysterically. I wish I would have gotten the one of Andy and Ginny singing "I Got You Babe."

Van Update: After several weeks without the van, we picked in up in STL on May 23rd. A couple belts were making this sreeching noise and our dealer fixed them As of June 5th, it has been running great.