Trippin'

[I actually started writing this on January 1, but everyone knows how time flies...]

Phew! We had quite a busy New Year's Weekend! Jube and I flew into Columbus last Friday afternoon, and immediately went out to dinner with old Friends. Brooke very kindly hosted us at her house, where we were able to meet her fiance and play a very strange card game. BB drove up from Springfield and Jube's old buddy came over to eat dinner with us. We went out to a couple of bars on Columbus's High Street and went to bed late.

The next morning we woke up around 9 to get dressed in our wedding finery. Catherine and her husband Chuck picked us up and we drove down to Batesville, Indiana for our friend's wedding. We had an interesting time finding the church... Catherine's MapQuest itinerary told us to turn left on a small country road. The road was only paved for the first 100 feet or so, when it turned into a gravel path that dead-ended in a cornfield. We turned around and stopped at the only house on the road to ask for directions.

"We're actually looking for a wedding," we explained.

"Oh, you're looking for the church! Everyone makes that mistake."

We found the small church at the end of a winding rural road. Now, the bride's father and her father-in-law are both Lutheran pastors, and they both officiated at the wedding, so we enjoyed two sermons. The bride was quite moved by her vows; she repeated them quite low and very emotionally. She wiped her eyes and made it through the rest of the ceremony without fainting, as Jube thought she might.

The hotel was in Cincinnati, so we drove back after the hors d'oeuvres reception to check in. It was quite luxurious (and expensive!), but we shared with Catherine and Chuck so it wasn't too bad. The reception was held in Newport, Kentucky, making it the first tri-state wedding any of us had ever attended. We ate in an Irish pub in a private room. The food was very good--and copious!--so we were very full by the time we were finished.

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed the last two open hours of the swimming pool. Catherine and Chuck had remembered their bathing suits, but Jube and I hadn't, so I bought some cheap pajama sets for us to wear. Jube was unhappy with his shorts, which were black with pink stars on the left corner. I know it sounds pretty girly, but they were the most masculine I could find! (Mine had pink hearts across the derriere.)

Of course no outing can be complete without a tiny hitch, and ours came when Jube forgot our (my!) digital camera on the shuttle between the hotel and the reception. I freaked out and yelled at him, but we were able to get it back in about 10 minutes, since the shuttle was on a loop. No Frenchmen were harmed during the reception.

Sunday: We woke up late and left the hotel late. Jube and I had a flight that left Columbus at 7:30pm, so we made a quick lunch stop in Yellow Springs, visiting BB and some other friends at Ha Ha Pizza. Then we drove to the airport and checked in quickly. Everything looked to be going well--the flight was on time, all the passengers were waiting at the gate... when five minutes before boarding a flight attendant announced that they "had just been informed that we were missing a pilot." What?? How can you suddenly discover that the pilot isn't there? He explained that a pilot had called in sick, and we were waiting for another pilot who was flying a charter plane in from Atlanta, etc etc... We finally boarded the plane at 9:15pm and took off at 9:40. We didn't get back to my dad's house until 11:00, where we ate dinner really quickly and then rang in the new year by banging pots and pans as usual.