Wonderful Wedding Woes

The planning of a wedding can be a blessing and a lot of fun but there are tons of stresses involved with the process for both partners. After we returned to Harrisburg, we had two things in mind; plan a wedding and get a job. The wedding was planned for September 9th to give us a good amount of time to plan and get it right since we were going to develop our event sans wedding planner. The first month of job searching was mildly stressful but we had Netflix and warm showers and living in a house was something inviting after more than half a year in car and camper. Couch potato syndrome had set in and most days, I found myself binge a new TV show or playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 till dark. (I know, a true wildman here!)

Liz fortunately found employment fairly quickly and the position has been a knockout success. She is working for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation providing canoe trips to schools in the area. Each canoe trip is different with new people and varied locations in the Harrisburg area. This keeps her on her toes and not only occupies her mind, and keeps her active but it also inspires her spirit and feeds her love of nature, wildlife and the search for aquatic bug-a-boo's. The pay isn't perfect to start but she hard-balled for a higher starting salary and got it; additionally she was recently promoted in the ranks which produced a nice bump in salary. All within a few weeks of work. She has been trained on Wilderness First Aid and White Water Canoe Rescues. You Go Girl!

Myself on the other hand is still in a state of flux as per the date of this article. I am still seeking employment to get back into the geology/environmental field here in central PA but the rules are different and thus there has been a hard curve from my actual skill sets to what employers are looking for. I have a couple things in the line including a promising opportunity with a large environmental and engineering company on the East Coast and should hopefully find out next week if that's going to be a happening thing. Until then, I surf the job boards, watch some tele and work on the plans for the WEDDING!

Since I am the one with a large majority of unused time on my hands, I have tried to be as big a help on the wedding planning as possible, ya know, since Liz is working 50 hour weeks sometimes. It has been a real interesting jump into a culture of planning, primping and making yours look better than everyone else's. My prior experience with weddings has been VERY limited and without a wedding planner, all the groundwork has to be formed and built up. I cant just point at a catalog and go 'this, this and this' for the planner to go ahead and make the arrangements and see them to completion without worry. We have had a lot of helpful suggestions from friends and family and god bless the internet and its investigation and communication abilities.

LOCATION:
This is the biggie and probably numero-uno for most wedding planning. Where the event will be dictates just about everything of the planning process. Fortunately, the Fulton family has an amazing lake front cabin in Belvidere NJ which will be just enough space for the ceremony and reception all at one location. This ideal and beautiful location will give us the freedoms of planning our wedding how we want it to be. The lake house is a very special location with lots of memories continuing to be made to this day. (Remember the camper renovation where most weekends were spent pulling hairs and going to the hardware store?) This will also help financially since a huge portion of a wedding budget goes towards the ideal venue at the local elite country club or the banquet hall with chandeliers worth more than my car. The stars will be our chandelier and the grass, our dance floor. Its going to be a squeeze to fit everyone in the space but it will totally be worth it.

FOOD:
We wanted something different for our main course. Most of the time you get the option of steak or chicken; maybe even fish and of course there's always the hidden special option for veggie or GF. Thinking outside the box, we decided we wanted a hog roast for our guests and some BBQ birds on the side for those non-porkers. Well, the idea wasnt exactly original and numerous pork roasters popped up in the North NJ area. All this meant was we had options and choices to be made. Fancy roast, sloppy roast, funny roast, all these different vendors had a hook. We finally landed on the Pork Wizard, a roasting veteran who has been behind the grill for decades. His company, Have Pork Will Travel will be the feast to remember. In addition to a whole hog roast, they will provide 4 amazing sides for our guests to indulge.

There's also the planning of the appetizers and deserts which are to be crafted with the assistance of friends and family prior to the big day.

DRESS:

One of the focal points of any wedding is attire, specifically the bride(s) dress. Our first experience of dress shopping was in Saskatoon SK where Liz and her good friend Nancy (also engaged for September) went dress shopping with Nancy's soon-to-be mother-in-law. It was a great introduction to the whole process and provided Liz with positive feedback from the fitting room gals. Unfortunately none of the styles stuck with Liz. The second time was with sisters in San Diego. Only one shop was given a shot but once again, nothing really stuck. Then in March, she went out with Becca and Amy and found the one. Of course I have no knowledge of what it looks like but I can only imagine its beautiful and she will look great in it. It's such a shame that these dresses are one-time-use garments. Liz also found a head piece that's a family heirloom so that will be on top.

PHOTOGRAPHER:

For finding a photographer, I basically just Google'd for photographer within X radius of the venue location. The listings I found and inquired about were high professional jobs with print shops and galleries and the costs STARTING AT $3,000, was just a bit too high. With more searching and poking around Craigslist, I found some more affordable folks who looked like they could get the job done. After Liz and I narrowed down our favorites, we both decided a Mr Marshall Scott would be the right guy. Before we signed anything, we made sure to give him a call and discuss the events, what we were looking for and our wants and needs from his service. We seemed to match up on all the questions and found the package we wanted him to provide. Our package is to include 8 hours of coverage with two photographers on site. A USB with all files collected in JPEG and RAW and an online gallery. Additionally our package comes with an engagement session to take some preliminary professional shots for the memories. All for half the cost of what the mega-pros were asking for.

marshall scott photography - gallery

DJ:

The DJ can be the heart of the reception. The music they play and the order and transition between the songs can make or break a mood. Once again, god bless the internet and with google on my side, we were able to rack up numerous potentials in the North NJ area. We landed on one Mr. Eduardo Arroyo and gave him the 5th degree on a phone call to express our plans and what WE WANT. But in all honesty, Eduardo seems like a fun young DJ who is going to be just right for the event. We are working up our suggested songs list in addition to the ever important DO NOT PLAY LIST and plan to submit that soon enough. Some of the songs though, you just need to find what will sound right for the garter removal ceremony! JK I think that's one tradition we plan to pass up. We anticipate doing the classic wedding numbers at the beginning of the evening and then for our last hour or so will be more youthful jams to get down to.

Peak Hour DJ Company set list examples

TENT & TABLES:

Another big matter of business was finding a local vendor who could supply our event with everything we needed. After running prices from numerous company's and seeing what some could offer and others lacked, we came to land on Grand Station Rental of Hackettstown right up the road. From their vast catalog, we were able to choose just the right tent size and the tables we needed. They are also proving a bar, dance floor, seating, and of course the porta-potties. Their prices were just right and the helpful staff helped us pick the items we needed.

Grand Rental Station

PLACE SETTINGS:

Since our location is fairly laid back and our Pig Roast is borderline picnic, we decided to pick our flatware somewhere in the middle. With classic stone dishware and flatware rentals estimated to upwards of $200, I grabbed the appropriate amount of reusable plastic dishes and silver(plastic)ware from Costco for about $90. SAVINGS! This should be just fine with our setting and style and one less thing to worry about returning to the vendor on time and clean.

BLOCKING HOTELS:

Once again, being the inexperienced noob that I am, I had no clue what hotel blocking was. For those of you who are confused about it too, its basically a way of asking local hotels to reserve X amount of rooms for your guests to stay at. In a return for the high volume of potential patronage, the hotel will give you a discount depending on your needs and requirements. Well, if I was a wedding planner and had all these contacts and information in my portfolio, it would be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, I dont have this expertise but I had Skipper on my side. Skipper is a webbased application to help you compare local hotels close of your location and will give a side-by-side comparison of up to 4 locations. The operation will then send out the request to each hotel as a middle-man and respond back as the offers come in. It made life a bit easier and I am currently working on getting a block of 15 rooms for our out of town guests to follow through and book should they choose to stay around a while.

Skipper Hotel Block Booking

I think that's the bulk of it for now. We have yet to send out the formal invitations which are being hand crafted and should be ready for ship out soon enough. We also have yet to pin down the attire for the groom, groomsmen and the bridesmaids; basically everyone else.  We will also scramble to do a Bach Party in the summer. This little shin dig will be in lieu of your classic bachelor/bachelorette event at a strip club or w.e. We just want anyone who can come out to have a good time and celebrate with us.

Headed (G)home -- Part 2

As we crossed the southern portion of Texas, we kept an eye on our weather forecast as per usual. We were not worried about rain or snow so much as the high wind advisory. Furthermore, we did the best planning we could in terms of finding a camping spot and our go to for Corpus Cristi was call Mustang Beach, a sand road you could drive down to reach the coast and spend the night. Well, when we arrived at the turn off, we noticed that the sand was not as hard packed as we would have liked so to avoid getting stuck in with the camper, we decided to just try plan B. The road to Padre Island is straight and flat much like Long Beach Island. We entered the park past closing and managed to find a tent spot on the beach with other campers for $15 a night. Pretty steep but with lack of options, we just bit the cost of this one. The wind that night was brutal and multiple tie-down adjustments were made until the final setup had the sturdy picnic table roped to the tent cords to keep the roof from blowing down on us.

The next morning, we went to the visitor center and got some information about the beach. Before hitting the road again, we strolled the sand and was surprised by the amount of trash and debris was on the coast. Not very pretty.

We drove on towards Houston and while passing through to our campsite, we stopped at two very unique places. The first was the Houston Art Car Museum which hosted 4 vehicles that had previously participated in the Art Car Parade; a local treasure where people build and adorn your average automobile into a work of art to be driven down the parade route. The video they showed had clips of cars blowing fireballs, floats decorated like a flamboyant pirate ship and a silver monstrosity called Spoonzilla, a lay down type vehicle with moving tail, arms and snapping jaw.

We also took a drive by the Beer Can house which was started in 1968 and is a small residential cover in 50,000+ beer cans. Additionally, the property had other unique DIY's incorporating marble inlays of a cemented lawn, brass figures and metal pieces in concrete and redwood which made up the patio, fence posts and more. The house now sits amongst residential redevelopments which tower over it in both size and architectural superiority.

On our second day in the region, we visited Whataburger for lunch to try out some fine dining. Nothing really to write home about. We also took a free tour of the Menil Collection, a privately owned collection of art and artifacts of differing regions and heavily guarded by many employees in suits at the ready to shush you or have you step away from the picture. Every move was being watched by these hawks and it was stuffy, uptight and uncomfortable for us simple folk.

After that uptight interaction, we needed some fun so we headed to the Aquarium for happy hour drinks. Their restaurant and bar surround a massive 100,000+ gallon tank with teams of fish swimming by as you eat and drink. Post fishy business, we headed a couple blocks away to see some bats. A specific underpass was known for its bat emergence each night at sunset. We waited, and waited.. . . ... and waited and they never came around. It was getting dark out and we called it a night but not before stopping at a must-see rest stop called Buc-ee's. This massive fill n fly hosted upwards of 80+ gas pumps in a line and the cleanest toilets in the south. Also their store had just about everything for everyone including homemade jerky, fudge and hot meals to go. It really was a spectacle.

After we left the Houston region the next morning, we set a hot pace for Asheville NC, our final stopping point before reaching Harrisburg. Along the way to Asheville, we stopped at a Flea Market in Lafayette Louisiana, and grabbed geocaches en route including making a 2 hour detour to hit the Florida line and grab one at the visitor center. Asheville had been recommended by many people throughout our journey and it was only fitting to make it our final stop of the trip. With a few days at the Red Roof Inn, we booked a few house viewings in the area, some we liked and others not as much. We also had a chance to experience some of the towns finest including an amazing fast-paced bluegrass show at the Isis Theater featuring Grandpa's Cough Medicine. [CD and sticker purchased for the memories.] We also participated in a free (donations welcomed) sound meditation in which we sat or laid out in a dark room while our instructor played soothing chimes and noises to relax the body and mind. Some of my neighbors went for the nap method while others released some vegan toots to the sound of the drums. Overall, a unique and interesting event. Lastly, we tried out a new gaming spot in town where you paid $10 per person for unlimited gaming which was awesome since we were able to pass level two in Ninja Turtles without running out of quarters. They also had Skeeball for two. Some of their machines were a little busted and the scored triggered incorrectly or just flat out didn't work but we kept a list and let the bar tender know what needed fixing.

Our final hurrah was at a venue a few hours north of Asheville in Boone NC. One of Liz's all time favorite artists, Mipso, was playing at a college venue. We snagged great parking and tickets at the door for a pretty cool show. [CD and sticker purchased for the memories.] The next morning was D-Day, or should I say H-day. It was a haul for sure but our destination was secure. We charted through North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and finally Pennsylvania to begin unpacking items and figuring out whats next for us.

Click Here for More Details

In the 817 GPS hours accumulated, we spent 246 days (~30,000mi) on the road living out of the top-to-bottom remodeled 32 year old pop up camper, a well loved/used tent for two and pupparoo, the Subaru turned sarcophagus. and the occasional hotel or couch crash at acquaintance. 

We visited with 8 friends and family and made more worth visiting a second time. 

We ferried 8 hitch hiking friends who either needed a lift across a state(s) or town or just as far as we could take them.

Learned the meaning of a humbling job at a campground in the Sierra Nevada's CA.

Swam in numerous mountain lakes and two hot springs

Ate a rattlesnake Liz skinned and prepared 

Spent the night with a cicada emergence

Got lost a lot (mostly GPS error) and had a few failed campsites but many more good ones to name

Traveled to Canada on one of the biggest Election days in recent history

Saw 26 State (and one Canadian Province) and visited 25 National Parks / Monuments

Spent way more time in California and Utah than expected with a revisit to each

Had four impassible roads

Twelve near misses 

1 flat car tire and two preventativly replaced trailer tires

And one hell of a journey. 

Thank you to anyone who has read at least one of my posts. It means I didn't do all this work for nothing, And heck, even if no one reads this darn thing, I can always come back to it and relive this amazing trip I had with the best two companions anyone could ask for.

Headed (G)home -- Part 1

We arrived back in Harrisburg in early February. Since then, my focus has mainly been on job hunting, wedding planning and being a giant couch potato. I have neglected my blogging duties for who knows what reason but I have the motivation and time today to spill a few final stories from our last days on the road with the gnome; although at this point, the camper was not to be popped and just a giant weight to lug around.

As we left the hills of the New Mexico, we came to a vast flatness that was western Texas. We had been through Texas earlier in the trip but just passed the panhandle via Route 40 and no more. Our destination for the day was Big Bend NP and with very little knowledge of what to expect, our minds were blown as we entered the park in the late afternoon. When we first entered the park, in our naivety, we were planning on finding one of the backcountry campsites and posting up for the night. We got to a location with no rig present and in the waning light, we set up our gear for a sunset dinner. Just as the food was about to go on, a transit van turns down the long dirt track and I see it slowly come into the spot we were squatting at. The young couple politely explained that the site was theirs for the night and we were to vacate. Fair is fair so we packed up our gear and quietly drove into the darkness that now surrounded the landscape.

The Subaru headlights shone a limiting visibility in front of our vehicle and cloud cover prevented any source of moon or star light. Eventually, we came upon the main visitor center which featured a big sign of updated campground status's. The decision was made to trek down to the Rio Grande Village even though it was about 20 miles up the road, our options were very limited at this point. The campground was packed but we managed to find a decent spot in a tree'ed cove to settle for the night. With dinner prepped and the tent set, we could finally set back and relax after a minor stressful day.

The next morning, we traveled to the Rio Grande Village visitor center to get some info. With a warning of high winds on the horizon, we made the decision to stay put at the Rio Campground for our remaining time at Big Bend but plopped our rig and gear at a different sit with superior coverage from wind and weather. Feeling adventurous and the day still being young, we put on our swimming gear and headed out to the hot springs which were a short drive and walking distance from the grave; lot. The wind at this point had picked up voraciously and even one of the phragmites that lined the Rio Grande riverbank struck me and left an abrasion on my arm. The hot spring was reached easily enough and was a popular spot for many travelers in the park. We set into the ~90 degree waters with about 4 other folks but over the course of our dip, about a dozen came and went, ranging in age from 20's-75+. The pool sat adjacent to the Rio Grande which rushed by with such force from the rains upstream. Some soakers reported the pool had been flooded earlier in the week and that the fine silted bottom was due to the overflowing river banks. As much as I wanted to spend the rest of my life in the warm waters and NOT brave the whipping winds above, we were reluctant to don our clothes and move on.

Our next stop was the Chisos Basin in the center of the park. To access this area, you need to drive up a fairly steep incline which winds through the jagged peaks. With the weather being on the bleak side, we decided to only hike a 'short' trail. The suggestion was made for Lost Mine which was highly rated and would work for our desires. Parking was limited but with few other hikers at this spot, we basically had the trail to ourselves which meant we could sing, joke, cavort, and take our sweet time on the dozen or so switchbacks needed to summit the trail. Although the weather was overcast in the region, once we reached the summit, we could see past its gloomy shadow and down into the valleys surrounding the Chisos.  It was quite breathtaking and worth the efforts spent achieving the trail.

The next day, we were given a recommendation from a couple who we met in the visitor center parking lot. These vandwellers were on the road just like us and gave the hot tip to check out Upper Burrow Mesa, a lesser known and not even map-worthy hike that followed a river bank through some canyons and ending at a dry waterfall. It was a great short hike to start the day off. We then drove all the way down to the western portion of the park to see the Santa Elena Canyon. It was incredible to see the difference in elevation between the hot springs where Mexico was a stones throw across the water and the Santa Elena crossing where you were met by a rock wall hundreds of feet high. No need for a Trumpwall there. This busy attraction had us hiking with groups of other nature lovers, one of which was named Tom A. Now you might think, how in the heck does he know this fella so well? As the story goes, we were working our way through the canyon and as we turned the corner, we noticed a middle aged man facing a rock wall with his hand lifted and then spots us, scurries down the path to his friends, and acts the fool. When we get to the place of his suspicious behavior, the only thing of noticing on the rock face was a freshly carved 'Tom A' inscription. NO ONE ELSE has defaced the rock there and this bloke felt the need to make his mark. Well by golly, Liz and I did our civil duty and waited in the parking lot to see these jokers get into their car. We took the plate and vehicle description along with our photos of the defacing and the perps and brought the 'evidence' to the local visitor center. We were able to track down a park officer who took the matter very seriously with our written testimony of the event and collected our evidence with attempt to fine said Tom A. After that point, we had no further contact from the officers so it is unknown if Tom got what was coming to him but I sure hope karma catches up with that fool.

 Upper Burrow Mesa Trail

 Santa Elena Canyon

BOO YOU 'TOM A'

Our final morning in Big Bend was spend packing up camp and moving on down the road. A quick stop at a new Fossil Bone Exhibit on the northern route out of the park got us in a giddy mode for more road trip.

And of course, Ziggy had to leave his mark in the desert.

Our journey that day was spent in transit headed full speed home. The layover for the night was in Del Rio Texas at a medium sized campground with a bunch of full timers who were enjoying the beautiful weather and sunsets that Texas had to offer. This $4 campsite stole our hearts and we ended up spending an additional day just resting before hitting the road to Padre Island National Seashore outside Corpus Cristi.

New Places in New Mexico

Our original plan after leaving Phoenix was to head to Tucson to see an Andy McKee concert. In case you don't know, he is an awesome acoustic guitarist with magical hands and plays beautiful instrumental music. We were very excited to see him in concert since this was going to be his last tour in a while. Unfortunately, when we called the venue to see if tickets could be purchased at the door, the lady on the phone informed us that the tour for the Phoenix and NM portion had been postponed. Bummer. Upon further investigation on his facebook page, it turns out he had a bad flu bug going on and was unable to perform. It was sad but we understand that artists are humans too and need to take time when necessary to recuperate. This put a stop to staying in Tucson and thus we continued to proceed towards Roswell NM but as we hit nightfall, it was time to find our place to settle down. 

Our original plan was to stop near Lordsburg AZ down our customary dirt road adventures but when we came to the coordinates to ground truth, we were wary of the soft soils from the ongoing rains and single wide path which quickly disappeared into the darkness. We hopped out the car and walked about half a mile and with no potential turnarounds to find, we decided to head back and find the next best thing. The road was desolate aside from one car every half hour or so. We decided to just take a chance and roadside camp in a gravel pullout that was relatively flat. The setup against the passenger side of the Subaru turned out great and we had no issues with our impromptu spot on the side of the road. Earplugs were needed however since we were close to a roadway.

As we drove on the next morning, our roads brought us towards a billboard which gave directions to a rock hounding location a couple miles off our trail. With no plans aside from drive, we took the opportunity to check it out and for $5, the Subaru got to drive to the hills of Rockhound State Park in NM and pick along the hillside to search for fire agate, thunder eggs and local opals. We did not leave empty handed that's for sure.

As the day drove on, we came closer and closer to our stopping point for the day; White Sands National Monument. We arrived at the NM a half hour before sunset and an hour before gate closure. There was just enough time to get the lay of the land and summit a dune before we had to head out. The next day was to grab a saucer and ride them bad boys. It was totally worth the $3 rental.

Onward to Roswell we traveled where we would be spending two nights with a good friend. She was able to supply a warm abode, hot showers, good food and lots of fun while we set camp in her living room. While in town, we checked out the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge which is just northeast of town and is a safety lake for birds who are on the move. The scenic drive gave us good views of some hawks, numerous flocks of coots and a huge mass of snow geese flying in to join their buddies. We also saw some pronghorn deer on the way out there.

And of course it wouldn't be a trip to Roswell without visiting the International UFO Museum and Research Center which displayed hundreds of documents and papers from the Roswell incident in addition to numerous other collections of photos and depictions of our extraterrestrial visitors from the past. Do you Believe?

Our last stop before crossing into Texas was to Carlsbad Caverns which is a massive underground gallery of amazing stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, columns and other crazy creations of the calcite kind to form within the last million years. 

We ended our day driving the short distance south to Guadeloupe Mountains National Park where a strong wind advisory had us sleeping in the Subaru at the visitor parking lot. Not a huge deal but that wind did shake us quiet a bit and we had to make sure anything left outside was heavily held down.