Why Didn’t I Do One of These Sooner!??!

Road Trip Houston!

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t what I think of when I think of a “true” road trip—going somewhere without any purpose other than just to go, because we went in order to attend a fellow GATA sister’s wedding, but other than that part, this was straight up a classic road trip!

We had the car packed—with both luggage and people—and we hit the open roads last Sat. morning!

I suppose it all began Friday evening. As far as I knew, Janaye and Stacia were going to arrive at my house around 7:30-8 PM and then Anna would come over later and we would all crash at my house and then leave the next morning for H-Town. Little did I know we would have another road-tripper!

So it was the Wed. before our planned trip that I get word from one of my best buddies that she isn’t going to be able to come after all. Granted, originally I had just asked Becca to come along for the fun of it, because I knew she didn’t have any plans on attending the wedding, but I wanted to see her and knew she knew the Houston, so I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask if she’d wanna come. So for most of the week I had gotten really excited thinking it was going to be Becca, Janaye, Stacia and I going to Houston. So it’s needless to say that I was a little disappointed Wed. night when she told me she wasn’t going to be able to come because it had been a really long week that week, with it being her first week of student teaching and school, and that she would need to rest that weekend and stuff like that (honestly I don’t even remember what all her other reasons were because I was so focused on the fact that she wasn’t coming that I didn’t care what the reasons were…HA!) So we won’t get into the whole thing about me getting sassy with her and having to call later that night once she had gone to bed and leaving a voicemail apology to her for being a jerk! HA! What can I say? Becca is a great friend and puts up with me being a jerk!

So I end up calling her on Friday around 6 PM because I’m bored driving around town running some errands. We chat for a little bit on the phone, but I could tell she was being really weird on the phone, not her normal talkative self, so I decided she didn’t really want to talk at that time, so I ended up letting her go.

Around 8:50 PM on Friday night I get a knock on my door and Janaye and Stacia arrive. They come in. Go to the bathroom. I show them my room. And then Stacia is like, “Can we bring in our things.” And I’m of course like “sure.” Well…I go out to help them bring in their stuff only to be asked to get the stuff out of the trunk, to which I open it and find Becca in the trunk! It was then that I slammed the trunk lid closed again! HA! What a great surprise (and not to mention a good explanation for why she was acting weird on the phone earlier—she was in the car with them when I was on the phone with her).

So that night was spent doing everything from Dance Dance Revolution, playing on the internet, them making fun of my swimsuit pictures, singing and dancing to Michael Jackson, and other fun random things. Luckily Becca and I hit the hay around 1ish AM, but the others…let’s try around 3-4 AM. HA! I would think it would go without saying that our plans to leave by 9 AM didn’t occur, but getting out of Irving by 10 AM wasn’t too bad!

The trip there was a blast! I drove my car which we successfully got all five people’s stuff in the trunk including a queen sized air mattress for a third bed in our hotel room. HA! Becca rode shot-gun and Anna, Naye, and Stacia entertained from the back seat! And when I say entertained I mean we got our fair share of laughs in! I think my favorite parts were the video taping of the cars we would pass! HA! It’s soo funny to see the random reactions you get from strangers when they think you’re video-taping them (we actually did hit record on some of the folks!).

Our stops along the way included a lunch break at Jack ‘N the Box, a stop in Willis, TX, to see Naye’s best friend, Ryan, and then we stopped in Conroe at the cemetery where Becca’s dad is buried, then the last stop was the Holiday Inn in Houston—HOME (for a night at least)!

Once we got all unloaded it wasn’t long before time to get ready for the wedding which was at 5 PM and about 15-20 minutes from our hotel. It was when we were getting ready that we made the interesting discovery that Stacia and Anna had packed similar outfits to wear to the wedding and then Janaye and I had packed almost IDENTICAL outfits. HA! Fun times though!

The wedding was GREAT! I loved how it was rather simple, but so cute! I’ve never really been one much for weddings, but this one had me smiling the whole time! You couldn’t help but be happy because Gina and Leland looked so happy! The whole time they had those huge grins that are practically laughs but not quite, smiles grinning toward one another. It was so cute! They seemed so in love!

After the wedding the reception was back at our hotel, so that was cool! The reception was pretty and fun. Good food and my favorite—DANCING! HA! Don’t worry, we busted our moves to several songs during the night, including our request for Michael Jackson! HA!

That night around 10ish, Becca took us out on the town! She drove us by AstroWorld, Reliant Stadium, the medical center area, Minute Maid Park, and Stacia and I’s first stop at a Taco Cabana…HA! Anna didn’t go for the night drive, so once we got “home” she had already crashed on the floor on the air mattress. Becca and I were beat as well, so we called it a night and hit one of the beds leaving Stacia and Naye the other bed, but they viewed the night as “still young”…HA! Time for prank calls (which included to many of our cell phones that were in the room with us) and then going to the lobby and hanging out with Naye’s friend Ryan till like 2 AM.

The next morning Church didn’t work out as originally planned, so we’ll have to work on that for next time, but it was time to evacuated the premises (AKA check-out time approached rather quickly). Once we were “on the road again” it was time to find food…we were STARVING! Picking food for 5 hungry girls isn’t always easy, but it came down to KFC and John Coney Island (Naye and myself needed out chicken...HA!). After lunch we hit Becca’s house (since I made her since she hadn’t told her mom she was coming to Houston…HA!) Then it was time to get back to Dallas.

We did stop in Huntsville at the HUGE statue of Sam Houston (since I’m related and all…I had to go give my condolences…HA!). It was there that was sang the GATA Fountain songs around a little statue of his head (since it was GATAs 85th birthday that day!). And we also did a pretend Pass the Candle for me there! Don’t worry, we got both of these on video…HA!

Now we were officially on the road back to Dallas! And what better way to pass the time than to call our fellow GATA sisters and greet them with a wonderful rendition of Happy 85th Birthday, GATA! HA! Yes sir, we sure did sing that song approximately 20 or 25 times!

So, that’s our story and we are all sticking to it!

And what is my overall opinion? A BLAST, of course! I wouldn’t trade that weekend for anything! Nothing beats memories with friends like that!

So, as the title might have suggested, I am all about these “road trips” with friends now! And actually I’m very serious about doing one that I’ve talked about doing for quite sometime now. San Antonio, baby! I’ve wanted to go to S.A. for a few years now, and I figure, why not just take off and do it some weekend! Honestly, the Houston thing was great even though we only stayed one night. It still gave us two full days basically to chill. And actually, the room in the Holiday Inn has beds for at least 4 (five if someone doesn’t mind the floor like in our case—air mattress, baby!) and it was only about $75.

So, I’m thinking the River Walk around late February or early March sounds nice! Any takers! ;)