rest stops.

So there we were, on our way to West Virginia for a wedding when we realized that our ETA was ETWrong. This was mostly due to my penny sized bladder and love of coffee.  My dad, the camera man, had been asked to film the wedding and needed to be there at least a half hour before the ceremony commenced at 4. To our discomfort, the GPS had us arriving at our hotel to get ready around 3:30. With about a 20 minute drive from there to the church, going to the hotel first dropped off the list of options.
What did we decide to do? You know those "lovely" rest areas you pass about every half hour when you are on the interstate? You know, the ones that are perfectly clean and void of people ;)? We put our three brains together and decided that stopping at one of those to get wedding ready was as good an idea as any.
Imagine this scene... three road weary people walk into a rest area looking tired, wrinkled, and hurried. Barely recognizable, the three emerge 15 minutes later looking fit for a special occasion.
A tip I never thought I would have experience enough to give is as follows; never get ready for a wedding in a rest area bathroom. If the nasty bathroom floor isn't enough to deter you from this, then let me be the first to tell you... it should. Did I mention, most rest stops do not have AC, openable windows, or trustworthy mirrors? I laugh often when I look at myself through rest area mirrors. They are like funhouse mirrors. You either look 10 ft. tall or 2. When you get closer, your forehead looks like it houses the largest brain around.
All things considered, even though rest areas are hot, nasty and smelly, I sure am thankful for them. Without one, we would have gone to the wedding as we were; sweat pants and all. I'm sure the funny looks we got at the rest area as we scrambled to look presentable would have been nothing in comparison to the looks from wedding guests trying to understand how we could possibly think wearing sweat pants to a wedding was a good idea. Thank you rest area, thank you.

We ended up looking pretty good

...not as good as these two though! Congratulations Wes and Rachel Dean!