Strong In The Broken Places: Our Arkansas Adventure, Part 1

Last weekend, DH and I headed south to Arkansas for the Wedding Blessing ceremony of one of my best friends. I am her Maid of Honor, and we recently calculated that we have known each other over 20 years, having met in our freshman year of college. I have been with her through many different relationships, so I am thrilled that she has found such a wonderful guy, and am happy for her and her husband to be. The actual "legal" ceremony will be here in June, but her future father-in-law will not be healthy enough to make the trip. So, they took the wedding to them, and had a beautiful blessing ceremony in the Ozarks.

Of course, it wouldn't be my life if there weren't some adventure along the way. First of all, we had to drive through Iowa. DH ~~really doesn't like~~ isn't terribly fond of Iowa. No offense, please, to those of you who love/are from Iowa. I thought it was a perfectly fine state. He's complained the whole way through the state when we've gone through before, so I expected no different this time. He actually held his tongue pretty well, but then, we drove through the whole state without stopping.

Our first stop was our first minor adventure. We stopped at a small gas station right on the Missouri side of the IA/MO border. This was, apparently, the Gas Station That Time Forgot. I know I'd rather forget the bathroom there. We did decide to pick up some snacks, and DH decided on Dots. You know, Dots candies? Those hard, lumpy, waxy things that are the last things eaten out of the Halloween bag? The ones you eat when the SweetTarts are all gone? Yea, apparently DH loves them. He has a particular way of eating them which involves squishing them between his fingers until there soft and then letting them melt in his mouth. Um... yeah.... The things you learn about your spouse on a road trip!

Anyway, DH selected his Dots, disappointed that they only sold the small size. As we started underway, I set some out for his enjoyment. But... OH NO! These were substandard Dots. They did not squish right. They did not melt right. They did not taste right. Horror of horrors! DH decided they were out-of-date Dots because the gas station was so remote. I decided they were out-of-date because he is the only person on this planet who eats these things by choice, and he hadn't been there recently! (OK, ever... they must have been holding them just for him... the sole Dots customer in the US)

So we cruised on through Missouri, made our way through Kansas City, and continued south towards our destination, the far northwest corner of Arkansas. About 1/2 hr. north of the border, it began to rain. Then it began to pour. Then it began to hail. I don't mean itty-bitty-pitter-pat hail. I mean big-honking-dime-to-quarter-size hail. The kind that leaves lovely dents on your car, and piles into drifts like snow. It was so loud, we couldn't hear each other over the pounding. It was almost impossible to see, but we decided our choices were to keep going, slowly, and try not to rear-end the person doing the same in front of us, or pull over and try to wait it out, hoping desperately someone else didn't rear-end us. We chose the former, and at least that meant we eventually drove our way out of the storm. Just as we pulled out of the last of the hail, we could finally hear the radio again. The first thing we heard was a storm-warning announcement for heavy hail in the county we had just left. Nice to know, huh?

About an hour after that, we arrived safely at our hotel in Rogers, AR, and headed out to dinner with the groom's family. Great people, and we had a lovely time. We all headed home early, as the next morning was the ceremony.

The actual "legal" ceremony will be up here in June, but the groom's father will not be healthy enough to make the trip. So, they took the wedding to him, and had a beautiful blessing ceremony in the Ozarks. The chapel was amazing, a lovely glass chapel in the green hills. The pastor did a beautiful job of discussing the importance of betrothal, and gave this ceremony plenty of meaning, without taking away from the significance of the June ceremony. It was a bit rainy (and of course this was the one time I had left my umbrella out of the car), but everything was a stunning green, and the bride was lovely.