Jared & Hannah Wedding Rehearsal In The Rain

We had two events about to collide on Friday, October 7, 2016.  Hurricane Matthew was heading for us and we were heading to the wedding rehearsal for grandson Jared and Hannah.  It was touch and go for the wedding since it was to be held outside, and if the winds exceeded 30mph they couldn't put up the 100 x 50ft tent.  There wasn't room in the house to hold the wedding and guests, so everyone was on pins and needles.

Jared had his boat at Lake Gaston and had to remove it since the Hurricane was heading our way.  He also needed to take it back to his boat slip on Lake Norman near his home.  

Barbara and I helped them by staying out of the way.  The spot where we're standing was covered by about a foot of water on Monday after the hurricane came through.  There were small fish swimming around the spot.  The deck behind us was under water and not usable.

We went back to the very large house where the wedding and reception were held.  It was take some picture time of the wedding party and grandmothers.

Granddaughter Stephanie on left next to Taylor (wife of grandson Sean) and Hannah in white dress.

Gerry, Hannah & Elizabeth (Jared's paternal grandmother)

 
It started raining hard about the time we held the rehearsal and everyone had to walk through the rain to the tent.  The bridesmaids all wore boots or sandals and waded through the mud.

The girl in the red boots was smart and brought useful boots to the wedding and they were needed.  Eventually they all had on boots.

The rain came down hard about this time and everyone went back into the house for dinner and drinks.  They had prepared a low-country-boil for dinner with all the sides and fixin's.  I can't eat shrimp so I concentrated on the sausage in the meal.  There was a nice cake with icing in the East Carolina Univ. colors.  Jared is a graduate of ECU.

We left the party after dark and drove back to the motor home.  It was eerie driving on I-95 as we were the only car on the road.  They had the highway blocked due to flooding from our exit, south. We lucked out and made it through there all right.

It was raining quite hard by now and the winds were in the 25+ mph range and blowing sideways.  The road leading to the campground was also blocked with cones due to water running over the road.  I could see it wasn't that deep and we drove through it with no trouble.  Later they closed the road with a DOT truck there enforcing the closure.

This is getting to be a habit with us since last Thanksgiving we were caught in a huge storm in the Arlington, TX  area and had to leave the campground because of flooding.  And you wonder why we love the desert so much.

That was our day and Saturday was even more difficult, but I will blog about that tomorrow.

Leaving The Cabin

October 4, 2016

We finally got the motor home loaded and closed up the cabin for the season.  Actually, Cassie and Jack will use it this month on the weekends and they will winterize it for us.

It was touch and go if we were going to be able to get back on the road since we had a lot of rain the week before departure.  The motor home sits on a gravel driveway and it is a very tight fit to get it on the road.  I have to go back and forth with the motor home to be able to make a very sharp turn because there are trees on both sides.  They were calling for rain on Wednesday so it was imperative we leave no later than Tuesday.  We made it onto the lane and just ahead of the next bout of rain.

We drove to just north of Richmond, VA and stopped at the Americamps RV Resort.  Our campsite was labeled VIP 1 and it 
 was just a gravel pull through with full hookups for $50/night.  Not much competition in the area and it's near Kings Dominion park.  They didn't have cable tv but it wasn't a problem since we visited with our friends Carolyn & Mann.  We always have a lot to talk about with them and the conversations just flowed.  It was great to see them but we had a tight schedule and were heading down to North Carolina and wanted to beat the arrival of Hurricane Matthew. 

It was a short ride down to Roanoke Rapids, NC and we pulled into our reserved site at the RV Resort at Carolina Crossroads.  We had a nice pull through except for the bushes on the driver's side.  They were too close and it was difficult to hook up the sewer hose.  

We arrived on Thursday just before Hurricane Matthew arrived on Friday.  Cassie, Jack and Belle joined us on Friday.  The wedding rehearsal was on Friday with the dinner Friday night.  I will go into more detail how we made out in a huge tent with rain and 25 mph winds whipping around in the next blog.  It was interesting to say the least.

I didn't have a good internet connection the last few days and it was impossible to put a blog out there.  We now have a good 4G connection so I will try and blog a little more often when we do something interesting.