The Wedding (Part 2)

My previous post was about the events leading up to the our son Adam and our new daughter-in-law Melissa's wedding last weekend.  I wanted to include a lot of pictures and the blog was getting to be a really long post, so this is the second of two parts on The Wedding.

The wedding was Saturday @ 5 PM and in the early afternoon it was time to get dressed up and get over to The Hunter House.

The Hunter House was not far from Melissa and Adam's place and about 2 miles from the Mosaic District (trendy hotel and restaurant and shopping area) where most of the out of town guests were staying.  Pam and I and the Baker's were about 20 minutes away at the Lake Fairfax Park Campground.

We got to the Hunter House about 3:30 PM with plenty of time 'for contingencies' in case something didn't go according to plan.  But it was all looking good, and we wandered around and took some pictures as everyone else was arriving.

The event rental company had already set up the tent and chairs, and flowers were set out all around the place accenting it with some color.

Before the ceremony, the family gathered upstairs for a few more pictures

and the signing of the Ketubah - the marriage contract.

Then it was downstairs for the procession and public ceremony.  Not surprisingly, as the father of the groom with a front row seat, I did not get any pictures of the ceremony...

The tent was packed to capacity with 100+ guests and they had to bring in more chairs to get everyone inside.  It was a wonderful, joyous event with family and friends from all over:  a good friend of theirs flew in from India, friends and family came from Philadelphia, Boston, out West and many other places.

We got to meet them and it was just one great moment after another. We had a lot of pictures and here are a few:

 Melissa's family:  parents Jeff and Marilyn and brother Rich

Kelly and Jon with Brad (Meghan's brother)

Meghan's parents and Brad with Adam and Melissa.

Jeff and Marilyn and us with the bride and groom.

Another picture of the twins:

Melissa and Adam had some great ideas it all turned out to be perfect.  Instead of catering, they went with two food trucks.  The green truck was for the main meal - they offered chicken, lamb and a combination along with rice and chic peas, spinach, okra and a couple of other items.  They also had a vegetarian plate.

Tasty Kabob was exactly that Tasty!  And then for dessert (if you didn't want the cupcakes that were inside) the pink food truck had freshly made donuts.

The donut bits were a bit hit and we had some great food with all we could eat!

We stayed and talked to a lot of people and didn't leave until about 9:30 PM then went back to the campground.  

Sunday morning we said goodbyes at the Hyatt House before folks returned home.

It was one of the most supportive, family, friendly,  and generous times we've had in a long time.  And as far as I know everyone had a good time. 

We learned a lot about the Jewish wedding ceremony and some traditions.  Most of all, the bride (The bride is always beautiful!) and groom were very happy.  It all came off very well and we have some new and renewed friendships, great memories and lots of smiles over the events of last weekend.  We couldn't be happier for Melissa and Adam.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

The Wedding (Part 1)

Melissa and Adam got engaged last year, and they tied the knot this past weekend, October 3, 2015.

It was a terrific few days and lots of fun---before, during and after the wedding.  They had loads of friends and family to help them celebrate. The wedding itself was an outdoor event so there was some concern about the weather; despite hurricane Joaquin lurking offshore for a few days, it all went off very well.

One of the things I like about these occasions that we get a lot of time to see the extended family and visit with friends and get to know each other better.  Melissa and her family are mostly from the Philadelphia area and Adam's relatives are predominately from 'out West'.  It was really fun.  I haven't hugged that many people so many times in a long time.

Many guests stayed at the Hyatt-House/Merrifield in the Mosaic District of Fairfax (VA); it was the perfect location. The rooms were efficient and high tech and the full breakfast downstairs each morning was well done. The hotel was in the same city block as a Target and a number of trendy restaurants (all within walking distance of a block or two).

On Wednesday evening, Pam and I joined Adam, Melissa, and her family at the True Food Restaurant, where we had a chance to meet Jeff and Marilyn again and spend some time together before things got busy.  Melissa's brother, Rich, works and lives in DC and he came out to join us too.  It was a great way to start off the wedding festivities.

Friday night before the wedding, Out-of-Town relatives all met at the Matchbox Restaurant in a private party area, which worked out well and the food was excellent.

This was the first real chance to meet and greet all of Melissa's and Adam's relatives and family and extended family.  It was really fun and we all had a great time.

 The prospective bride and groom --

Interestingly enough, Melissa's dad is a twin (on the right) and Adam's dad is a twin (second from the left).

One of many group shot of the twins with Melissa and Adam

Here's the only photo I got of Melissa's Aunts and Mom (with Uncle Mel and his daughter)

Aunts: Gail, Debra (Debbie), Mel, and Melissa's mom Marilyn on the right

Warner and Goldman women: Adam's Mom (Pam), Aunts (Amy, Elena, and Sue) and sister (Kelly).

It rained a little throughout Friday... more like a steady drizzle. Saturday morning, the skies were a bit overcast, with some misty rain from Joaquin which was off shore.

Thankfully, it moved from the Caribbean and started heading north and away from the East Coast.  It could have been a factor in the [outdoor] wedding, but was never a problem.

Saturday morning, our Grandson Brooks made an appearance.  Kelly and Jon were staying near friends Jeff and Tiffany who babysat him both Friday and Saturday nights. He wanted to see everybody, so Jon and Kelly brought him over to the Hyatt House on Saturday morning during breakfast.

After breakfast, we ran some errands and then met Marty & Elena, Brad & Sue, Reid & Amy, and Marg & Bill at the Red Apron for lunch.  

We didn't have to be over to the wedding site until 4 PM.

Pam and I stayed in Reston at the Lake Fairfax Park Campground and were joined there by Marg and Bill who drove down from Ontario with their RV and had the campsite next to us.

This has turned into a really long post, so I am going to end it here and pick it up with my next post at the venue.  More pictures and details to follow...

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Brookings to Port Huron

It has been a week now since we left the good folks in Brookings, SD.  We have traveled a good piece and are in Port Huron, MI.

From Brookings we went south to Sioux Falls.  We have our mail forwarding service (Alternative Resources) there.  Since we are residents of South Dakota, we went to the Court House and tried to pay our yearly RV and automobile taxes.  But they are not due until November and we were too early, so we will do it online.  We also stopped our RV insurance place (Dougherty and Associates) which is next door to Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls.

The best thing about Sioux Falls was seeing Steve and Therressa.  They are friends from Pam's early Air Force days in the late 1970's.  It was great to see them again and we had a very good time going out to dinner, seeing the sights in Sioux Falls and hanging out on their back porch.  

From Sioux Falls, we continued  50 miles south to Council Bluffs, IA.  It is about 10 miles from our friends Gary and Rebecca who live in Papillion, NE.  We have know them since we were all stationed in Kunsan AB, Korea in 1980.   It was our first time seeing them and their girls since then.  We had another great time and short visit with promises to get together more often.

From there, we drove a long way (550 miles to a Walmart parking lot in Benton Harbor, MI.  We have stayed at Walmart 4 or 5 times and this was fine.  We must have found a good place because there were 7 or 8 tractor trailers in the parking lot with us.  (I was going to say 18 wheelers but some had more than that.  Have you seen how many axles some of these semi's have in Michigan?)

Then we made the last 240 miles to Port Huron where we are settled in for the next 10 days or so.  We are here to see Meghan's parents Marg and Bill.  And hopefully we will be able to see Rod and Lisa again as well as new friends George and Sharon whom we met in March in Tucson and live here in Port Huron.  

For the next few days though, we will be taking the Honda and going up to Tobermory, Canada for a few days with Marg and Bill at their cottage.  The weather looks good here and we are looking forward to it.  

Meanwhile, we are concerned for those on the east coast and the effects of Irene.  I hope everyone is safe!

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles today!  Until next time...

Roadrunner Reflections - Where To Next?

I have often been asked, "How do you decide where you will go after your stay here?"  Interesting question and I would say ~ "It depends".

There are a lot of factors in deciding including:

• How Long We Have Been Full-Timing
• How Long We Have Been at the Present Location
• Friends
• Family
• Projects We Have Signed up for (NOMADS and Habitat for Humanity 'Care-A-Vanners')
• Interesting Places
• Locations on our 'Must See' List

During our first few months on the road we were eager to see as much as we could, so we were not inclined to stay in a place for a long time.  Our first trip out of the blocks we went from Virginia to Tennessee (and see Pam's sister and family [Joan & Mike]) After about 4 or 5 days in one place, we were ready to move on.

That was the same kind of feeling when we got to Ft Worth, Texas.  We got to see my brother (Brad & Sue) and we liked being there, but after about a week, it was time to move on.  We stayed a couple of days in Oklahoma City to see friends but then drove on to our first NOMAD project in Pontiac, IL.

Our first 'long' stay was at a NOMADS project in Pontiac.  We also spent a month last year in Galveston, TX at a NOMADS project and will be here in Moss Point, MS for a month.

We spent a couple weeks in Albuquerque seeing my brother (Reid & Amy) before we went to Santa Fe because we signed up for a Habitat for Humanity RV 'Care-A-Vanners' project.  We stayed there three weeks.

Other times, we stay at a location because we it is something we wanted to see.  We spent about three weeks in South Dakota seeing friends in Sioux Falls and then making our way out to the Black Hills and Mt Rushmore.  It is a great place to see and we liked being there in the Mid-West.

We made it a point to go out to San Diego last Christmas to see family and spend the holiday on the beach.  We were there about 10 days before we moved on and headed back to Quartzsite, AZ.  It was on our 'Must See' list and we were out in the boondocks for about 10 days.  We loved it and stayed in Arizona another month, holing up in Tucson for almost all of February.

Then last spring, we headed to Michigan to be with Adam and Meghan as she went through her final days with breast cancer.  We ended up spending three months there and also another month in Canada with Meghan's folks (Marg & Bill) and also a week at Tiffany and Jeff's cabin.

Then in late summer, Kelly landed a job in Virginia Beach and we beat feet back to Dallas to help her move, and decided to spend October - December in Virginia Beach.  

You can see there are a variety of reasons for moving on.   We find ourselves staying in locations longer than we did when we first started Full-Timing.  We have slowed down a bit and no longer feel the need to 'hit the road and see things' like used to.  

From here, we plan to head west, see friends near Austin and San Antonio before going to Bracketville, TX.  We will probably stay there for a week or so and we want to see Big Bend National Park which is not too far from there.

Our plans for the Spring and Summer include time in Tucson, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and the Northwest.   

~ Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Snow Related Issues

First, I want to welcome our newest Followers!

Gregg

Angry Charlie

Libby

The Old Geezer

Jo Beth and Catherine

Thanks for joining the Roadrunner Chronicles!  (If they have a blog, I have linked it to their name.)

--------------------------

Over the past week we have had really cold weather (last night it was down to 20 degrees) and some snow.  The cold weather affected our heater (among other things).  Our front a/c heater unit on top went out.  Heat pumps are not the way to go in cold weather.  So we are using a lot of propane for the heater and hot water.  

On Saturday we called around and decided that on Monday we were going to fill up with propane.  Uh--it was snowing pretty good on Monday.  We decided to pack up and go get the propane tank filled anyway.

This is one thing I have feared and avoided for 18 months:  Driving in the snow.  The whole idea freaks me out a bit.

We packed up and headed out.  It took us about 30 minutes to unhook everything and put everything away.

Yikes!
I found out the snow we were dealing with wasn't all that bad.  It was like driving in rain and I kept the speed down.  My issue isn't really the snow, it is my fear is ice of black ice.  The thought of skidding and sliding around in my one and only home does not appeal to me.

I think it is more about nerve...like learning to drive these big RVs for the first time.  The main thing about getting confidence is thinking about the right things.  ~ Like where I want to put the left wheel as I go down the road.  Or watching my mirrors and going slowly through tight places.  Not thinking about what could happen or oncoming traffic or who knows what else...

As I said, I took it fairly slow and we waited until about 1030 AM to get going, so it was warming up a bit.  It was probably about 35 or 36 degrees by that time.  (This is Virginia Beach?)

Since I called earlier, our guy was waiting for us and jumped right on it.  He made the hookup and filled us up in about 15 minutes.

Then it was back to the campground.  I wanted to avoid the noon time traffic and it worked out fine.

We got back to the campground, eased the Roadrunner back into our spot, hooked up the electrical and had lunch.

That was interesting!.... all these months and now we can say we have driven in snow.  Instead of dreading the thought, now I know we can do it if we have to.   (But I know this is not real snow, like what they are going through in Canada near Marg and Bill's, or in Buffalo, NY near Jon and Barb's.)    But that is fine with me -- I have no intention of ever needing to drive in the real snow, an inch or a light dusting is enough for me.

Later that day, we decided to see if we could do something about our a/c heat pump unit.  We found Meyer's RV Service which is a mobile service.  He came to our campsite yesterday.

 Tanner jumped on top of the Roadrunner and took the cover off our Coleman unit.  He found a burned up capacitor that needed replacing.  Aside from the 30 degree weather, it was a pretty easy job.

James asked about our Norcold refrigerator and we discovered we missed the recall on it in October.
He called the company, set us up and got registered, then replaced a component on the back side of the refrigerator.

They blew a fuse while working on it and after a couple of phone calls to Tiffin, we found out where it was located.  He replaced the automatic reset unit and we have that issue solved.  It took them about 2 1/2 hours to replace the capacitor in the heating unit, replace the recall item in the refrigerator (and fix the slow leak they found) and to replace the fuse.  James and his son Tanner at Meyer's Service do great work and charged me $183 which I thought was reasonable considering them came to me and it was hassle free.  I recommend them!

It has been an interesting time the last few days, but we have added to our RV full-time adventures with some cold weather experience.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  I hope you are warm were you are and enjoying the holiday season!