Krysta's Wedding Trip: Day 4

It was a fun trip, but Liz and I were both ready to get on our way, so we got up and checked out fairly promptly at 8:00 am. We made a pit stop at Flappy Jack's pancake house in Orange in order to meet up with a roommate of mine from before the mission. Kimberly Anthony and I lived together before we both served missions and I was there for her marriage in the San Diego temple. It had been about nine years since we'd seen each other and it was so nice to visit and catch up.

After breakfast we spent another uneventful 6.5 hours in the car and arrived at Liz' house at 4:00 pm. She and her family were so happy to be reunited, and I figured there was no compelling reason to delay my return home, so after a bit of a rest and a bite to eat, I set off for New Mexico at 4:30 pm. It was 112 degrees in Mesa and my van has never done very well in the heat, so the drive got off to a rough start. I then hit a crazy storm in the mountains and had to pull over for a while to let the winds and rain calm down before proceeding. The storm clouds made it quite dark before the sun even set, and after a full day of driving, I was pretty tired long before I was anywhere near home. When I reached roughly 200 miles from Albuquerque, I turned up the AC and started blasting techno dance music to keep me alert. The powerful combination of crunchy snacks, gum, and lots of prayer kept me awake until I pulled into our driveway at 1:30 am.