Traveling.  That’s how I would describe these two days.  We left Honolulu on December 29th at around 9:00pm HST, and arrived in Lubbock at around 11:00am (Central) on the 30th.  Another horrible experience — it took the Lubbock Airport a little over an hour to get our bags…anyway, we then spent an hour or so with Rebecca’s mom and sister, having lunch and then departed on our long drive back home.  We stopped in Dallas to have dinner with my Dad and his brother.  We then left at around 8:30 to see how far we could make it.  We ended up stopping in Shreveport, LA after about a 520 mile drive from Lubbock. 

The next morning (New Year’s Eve), we woke up at 8:00am (Central) and headed to Raleigh.  I drove until we hit Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Then, Rebecca took over and drove until Birmingham, Alabama.  Determined to make it to Raleigh as close to midnight as possible, I then took over and continued driving until we hit Raleigh at around 12:45am (Eastern).  That drive covered 1000 miles and took us about 16 hours. 

It was definitely nice to be home.  We had Daisy (our dog) with us, and she was happy to be home too.

Hawai’i!!  We woke up early and took a ride to the Lubbock Airport for our flight to Honolulu.  This was definitely the single longest flight I’ve ever been on.  I’ve never flown abroad, and after this — I’m not sure I want to.    It was really uncomfortable and of course the anxiety of going to Hawai’i probably had something to do with it.

When we arrived, we forgot where we rented our car and didn’t really have anything printed out — so, after some phone calls, we got our rental car — a Pontiac Torrent.  Actually, having a rental car isn’t that useful when you stay in Waikiki – but I didn’t know that ahead of time.

I’ll spare the day-by-day details of the trip — but our hotel was awesome.  We were in an Ocean View room on the 23rd floor of the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort and Spa.  It was gorgeous – and there was SO much to do within a short walking distance.

Some of the activities we did in Hawai’i (O’ahu):

• HeliUSA – Oahu Grand Circle Island Helicopter Tour
• Parasailing
• Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay
• Body boarding at Waikiki
• Visited the North Shore
• Visited Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial

I have some pictures that I’ll try to post soon…  Rebecca mentioned that vacationing is hard work — I agree.  We were up at 8am every day and were dead tired by 8-9pm every day.

The wedding went extremely well.  There were no major problems whatsoever.  You ask why I mention that?  The entire morning, I worried about messing up something — why would I worry about that?  Because that’s how I am – I worry about everything!  But, it went very well – short and quick.  My buddy Daryl, whom I haven’t talked to since his wedding back in the summer was also present.  It was great seeing him along with other close friends and family.

Afterwards, all of our close friends went out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants – Olive Garden. 

Tomorrow, it’s off to Hawai’i.

Today was the day of the rehearsal.  We went to the mall in Lubbock to pick up a few items, and then went to eat at Fuddrucker’s.  Richard wasn’t able to make it to the bachelor party last night, but he met us for lunch.  After that, we went to the Men’s Wearhouse to try on the tuxedos and then went back to the hotel to watch some Dave Chappelle.  The rehearsal went very smoothly – my dad had food catered there, and well, we had WAY more than enough.  It was Blackened Chicken and Brisket – the leftovers were donated to feed the homeless.

After the rehearsal, we all went bowling.  Not to brag or anything, but I was the high scorer for both games.  (Sorry, Clay – I had to do it)  My second game was a 179….not too bad for a noob.

Today was the day of the bachelor party.  Marc picked me up at my Dad’s house, and we drove to Lubbock.  My dad rented a couple of rooms at the Embassy Suites in Lubbock, and we met Clay at the hotel.  We began the evening with free drinks at the hotel and then headed downtown to visit a couple of bars to play some pool.  Lots of drinks later, the night ended in misery for me. 

Relaxing.  That’s how these two days have been.  I’ve slept in, and enjoyed not spending the majority of the time in a car.  Today, I helped my Dad fix up the new house.

Tomorrow…another trip to Lubbock.

Today was yet another busy day of traveling.  We had to make it to Lubbock, TX today to get the marriage license.  Texas requires you to do this 72 hours before the wedding.  I didn’t realize how far Lubbock was from Dallas.  We got to Lubbock at around 2:30pm or so, went to the court house, got the license and Rebecca headed to Hobbs with our dog, Daisy.  I came back to my Dad’s house…the trip for me was around 590 miles round trip.  That brings my travel tally to somewhere around 1900 miles.  I still have another trip to Lubbock to make, a round-trip flight to Hawaii, and then the long journey back to Raleigh.

For day two, not too much to report.  We left Monroe, Louisiana for the Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas at around 8:00am.  It took us until about 1:30pm to make it to my dad’s house in Granbury.

Rebecca got to meet my dad’s brother for the first time (even though we’ve dated over 6 years, their schedules just never aligned).

As you may know, Rebecca and I are getting married in Lubbock, TX on December 23rd. Today, we began our trip to Texas to visit with family up until the big day. We decided to drive from North Carolina since we have a ton of stuff to bring, and thought it would be a nice trip. For day one, we made it to Monroe, Louisiana. Here’s a recap of the trip statistics for Day 1:

897.3 miles traveled
66.5 miles per hour (mph) overall average
70.6 miles per hour (mph) moving average
94.7 miles per hour (mph) maximum speed
13 hours, 29 minutes total time
12 hours, 42 minutes moving time
46 minutes stopped time

During the trip, we discovered five new states we’ve never been to: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and now Louisiana. All in all, the trip hasn’t been that bad so far — I expected to be dead tired by now…

The plan is to drive another 351.6 miles tomorrow to make it to my Dad’s house for the night.