A Thanksgiving Adventure...

This Thanksgiving we decided to make the hike down to Biloxi, Mississippi to visit James's brother and his family for the holidays. James and I started out ready and excited for our trip Tuesday after school. We rushed out of school by about 2:15 and were on our way home to pack up the taurus (we were taking this down to give to James's nephew Austin) and grab AJ to be on our way. We left the house shortly before 3:00 and made a quick stop at Petsmart to get AJ's nails clipped and went to Target to get some allergy medicine (there family has two husky's and I was a little worried about my allergies)...turns out my allergies were going to be the least of my worries over the next 24 hours!

Anyways we were on our way to Biloxi by about 3:30 that afternoon and after about 2 1/2 hours we decided to stop for dinner and to switch so I could start driving. About 30min into my drive I noticed that there was some smoke coming out of the back of the car...so we stopped in a gas station and James checked everything out and it seemed to be alright so we got back on the road. We kept on eye on things and from what we could tell the smoking had stopped. All seemed well until my surprise the car decided that it no longer wanted to accelerate while I was driving...I kept pressing on the gas and the engine would rev but we weren't going anywhere. Luckily God was watching out for us and we were able to make it off the expressway as the car continued to slow down and there was nothing coming at the exit so we didn't have to stop in order to make it into the gas station that was there. A very nice guy helped us push the car up under the lights of the gas pumps so that we could open the hood and take a look at things. To make a long story short here the gas station was getting ready to close (it was 10pm) and we could not get ahold of the tow truck company and there are no cab services in town...we were both in good spirits the whole time though I have to admit when I looked around and realized that we were in the middle of nowhere at a gas station that was about to close...I got a bit scared. Lucky for us it seems that everyone in the town of Madison, GA is incredibly nice and both the cashier at the gas station and a customer offered to take us (along with all of our stuff and little AJ) to a hotel at the next exit so we pushed the car back into a parking spot and off we went to the hotel.

James's brother decided that he was going to drive up from Biloxi (a 6 hour trip) to meet us and give us a ride to his place and just tow the taurus back behind his car so that he could figure out what was wrong with it so his brother Robert and his wife Misti set out to come rescue us. We were able to get a few hours sleep but it turns out that while we were sleeping poor Misti got a speeding ticket and they also decided to stop mid-trip and get a little sleep at a hotel. James and I got up early the next morning and James spent probably a good two hours on the phone looking for a u-haul place that had a car dolly. During that time I decided to walk to a gas station and get us coffee and then I came back to take a shower. That was when the first smoke alarm went off. It appears that the alarms in this hotel were INCREDIBLY sensitive to smoke, steam, or anything else that came up next to them because both James and I set it off during the morning.

Robert and Misti finally arrived just after noon and we were on our way...or so we thought. We ended up having to stop and get an oil change in their car (which seemed like it took hours) and then we went to get the taurus. The rest of the trip back to Biloxi went a lot more smoothly though it seemed to take forever. It was alright though because we were able to do a lot of talking and laughing with Robert and Misti in the car with us to pass the time. We finally made it home by about 9pm Biloxi time, which is 10pm Charlotte time. That means that our trip that we thought would take about 10hour ended up taking approximately 31hours and THAT my friends has been our Thanksgiving adventure so far!

We will update when we get home with pics and stuff from the trip but just thought I would let you all know how things are going so far...say a little prayer for us on the way home on Saturday that things go a bit more smoothly!