WARNING: This post includes a section that may not be good to read if you are eating or have just recently ate…in other words, watch out if you have a weak stomach!
They say Life makes for some good stories and although I have told some of my friends some specifics about my crazy honeymoon, I have never sat down and done a full post about it…until now. People always warned me that things would go wrong on your wedding day and for the most part, it was pretty smooth, although there were a few minor things but that could be a whole other post in itself. Suffice it to say that apparently having a fairly great wedding must have thrown my life out of balance too much and they say something’s got to give….well, it definitely GAVE when it came to my honeymoon.
I guess you could say the omen of a bad weekend started as we drove off with a little over $100 in our pockets and about $50-60 in Target gift cards….all that had to last us for the whole week so we were starting off on a limited budget honeymoon. Our hotels were already paid for though so at least that was not a concern. As we left our wedding venue, we got no further than a 3/4 of a mile down the road and had to pull over due to a loud racket coming from the roof. Turns out, the balloons tied to my car antennae were causing the antennae to attack my roof…we had to get them cut off so we could continue down the road to Motel 6, where we were staying for the night. A lot of wedding guests called and inquired if we were alright as they zoomed past us on the road. “Yes, we’re fine, the decorations on my car were attacking us…that’s all!” and off we went….another mile and stopped in a McDonald’s parking lot to take off the noise making devices from our bumper. After the threat of an exterior attack by what some prankster family members deemed decorations, we were on the road to the motel.
We got there finally, tired because I had slept virtually none the night before and I was losing my voice. It could have possibly have been from having to raise my voice some….not that I did it a lot ~cough cough~ but maybe that was why. My new husband was also exhausted and newly sick. I didn’t make him sick…his mother, step brother and one of his nieces were at my wedding with some kind of stomach virus which I didn’t know about until AFTER and my husband apparently caught it from them. So my honeymoon night involved me as the going hoarse and exhausted wife and him as the upset stomach, running back and forth to the bathroom, husband. Such fun!
In the middle of the night, we discovered our toilet refused to flush. Since there was no plunger, we were both tired and I didn’t feel like calling the front desk, I figured I would just leave it for the housekeeper to deal with. We would be up early and heading on the road to San Antonio anyways, so why bother?
I woke up the next morning grumpy, still hoarse, still tired and realized my husband had “gotten sick” and left a mess in the bed. I had no cleaning supplies obviously and we were on a limited budget which I was in no way willing to waste a dime on for this situation. I used towels, water, soap, whatever I could find and cleaned up after my sick husband. Yes, I was grossed out but I still loved him. He was sick, not his fault!
We grabbed up our stuff, checked out and headed out on the road. Apparently it had rained the night before so the colorful and entertaining sayings on my vehicle were almost completely washed off. The sun was up and I was in good spirits considering everything. The day was looking up…or at least I thought so. We had to make a stop in the city we got married at to drop off our marriage license. The way certain things were going, I didn’t want to trust the mail to get it there safely and I was afraid it might get lost if we waited. So marriage license turned in and everything official now, we got back in the car and I started to get the directions from Jacksonville to San Antonio….only one problem….no directions! Where were the directions? I could have sworn I got them from the hotel room but obviously not…..I must have left them behind. Oh well, we decided to change our plans a bit. Since we were both sick, albeit of different afflictions, and I didn’t exactly have any medicine for either with me AND the limited budget….we decided to drive the hour back to where we lived and get some medicine and we would then look harder for the directions AND coupons I had found for the trip.
In all honesty, this didn’t bug me too much. I had my nieces in from Indiana and my 2 great nephews that I didn’t get to see very much at all. I kind of looked at it as an excuse to see them a little longer. Once we got there, we met my mom and nieces/nephews at Wal-mart and my mom offered to get us a few things for the trip. We ended up getting a medium sized cooler and some crackers and snacks for the road. We cleaned the car out good and no luck on the directions or coupons. It was either print everything out again or go back to the motel.
I finally gave in and called the motel. They seemed nice and helpful as they asked what room we were in and said they would go check. After a bit of a hold, the manager appeared on the line and started yelling at me. According to him, we had left the room a horrible mess, there was “shit” on the walls and everywhere and the toilet was left full. He HAD found some papers but they threw them away because of the state of the room and I was BANNED from Motel 6 for the rest of my life. I got off the phone in tears and drove over to my Nanny’s to see my mom and family again. I was still bawling when I arrived there to tell my story of the Motel 6 manager. I was horrified! He made me feel filthy, gross, disgusting. The only truth to what he said was the toilet being full because it wouldn’t flush! I cleaned up that room as best as I could and there was no “shit” on the walls! What a ridiculous, horrid thing to say! Apparently as I was carrying things out of the room, I must have laid the papers down on the desk and forgot to grab them back up. After all, I had ALOT on my mind, you know?
Thanks to my wonderful mom and my nieces, I calmed down enough to go back to my parent’s house and reprint directions and as many of the coupons as I could. I was still incredibly hurt by the words I was told over the phone and I couldn’t help but feel like I was dirty even though I knew what the man had said were lies and nowhere near the truth. My niece Beckah mentioned calling the Motel and hollering at them for the way they treated me…I don’t remember if she ever did but I wouldn’t be surprised. She’s an awesome woman…I’m incredibly lucky to have her as a niece AND a best friend.
We headed back on the road after everything was printed and ended up at our hotel in San Antonio around 8 or so that night….It was extremely rainy and windy but we made it there safely. That place was way nicer and I would definitely stay there again. Days Inn at WindCrest, you are awesome! 
The rest of the honeymoon was definitely hard with the budget and being sick…stay tuned for a part 2 later……
