Last week I took off Friday and headed down to North Carolina.

Jackie, one of my friends often referenced in this column, is a collegiate consultant and was working down at N.C. State last week. Her last day at the school was Friday, and she had the option of leaving any day that weekend for her next stop, which was at Barton College (which is about an hour away).

We come up with a plan that I would come down Friday afternoon, pick her up at State and then hang out for the weekend before dropping her off at Barton on Sunday morning.

Then came the wrinkle in the plan.

I had to be back in Suffolk Saturday night for a baby shower.

So, we decide we would still do the trip, but I would just drop her off Saturday afternoon.

Then, came another wrinkle – well, a self-imposed wrinkle.

NC State is a couple of hours from UNCW, where a number of our friends go to school. We decided that to be so relatively close and not stop in would just be a waste of a trip. So, we scrapped our plans in Raleigh, and figured we’d spend the night in Wilmington and just drive straight to Barton in the morning.

As plans often do, this one seemed to unravel.

I was late to NC State after some rain made drivers feel unable to drive anywhere close to the speed limit. Then, after Jackie and I got in the car, we could not seem to find the highway that would get us to Wilmington. Oh, we found highways, just none of the right ones.

We got to Wilmington later than expected, which actually turned out to be “perfect” timing. We met up with friends, explored the town and had a great night, but we didn’t see everyone we wanted to on Friday night, so we planned a quick lunch Saturday morning before heading back.

Well, the quick lunch turned out to be not-so-quick, and it was 2 p.m. before we left to hit the road for Barton, which is a couple of hours away from Wilmington and then another two hours from Suffolk.

In my head, it was like Cannonball Run, with the deadline for this baby shower looming.

To make a long story short, I was a little late and therefore a little scattered for the shower, but it all worked out: I made it just in time for present opening, the birthing horror stories and the always wonderful taste-then-guess-the-baby-food-game.

Quite the weekend, indeed.