Two Pilots & an LSW: Independence Wedding

Friday was just as hot as it has been and apparently will be for awhile. Face melting, clothing sticking, hair drenching, dehydrating hot. Indiana stinks. It was hotter in Indiana than it was down south. How is that fair? Anyway.

Friday we didn't end up leaving until later in the day, as we didn't need to arrive at their house until 4. So we left at like 2 pm our time, which got me down there by 3 pm their time, which got us to their house by 4, no problem. Kaylee and I listened to music, sang and half danced in the seats most of the way down, providing entertainment for Steve & Ann. The altitude hold wouldn't work on the autopilot, so I had to hand fly the altitude all the way down (boo hoo), but it was a nice VFR day and all was well. Hot, but well. We dropped off Kaylee and Ann, and then Steve and I went and checked into our hotel while they did a run-through of the wedding rehearsal. We were on the 10th floor of the Drury, and it was a pretty good view. I like being up high. The hotel had 6' markers for everything, elevators you took one family/person at a time, plastic in front of the desk worker, and a free individually served dinner, free drinks, and of course the normal free individually served behind plastic walls breakfast. It was pretty nice, actually! We went back to Cathy's at 6:30 in time for rehearsal dinner from the groom's family, whom we were meeting for the first time. Super nice family, not that that should surprise anyone. :)

I have to talk about Rania and Tre for a minute. These two graduated from college in 2020, which meant they got their diploma mailed to them and an email "Hey, congrats!" No fanfare, no graduation after four years. They handled it gracefully. These two also had their large dream wedding with all their friends and family on a beach in S. Carolina canceled because of Covid. As of last month they couldn't get a venue. Their church wouldn't allow it, nor would anywhere else they asked. They couldn't get a pastor to officiate. They couldn't get music. Or a caterer. So finally it all came together, a small outdoor venue with a neat wooden barn, and a minister the family knew when they used to live in Michigan, who agreed to come preside over the wedding. Their friends couldn't really come, it was his and her immediate family only. Their flower girl's parents came down with Covid three days before the wedding, so no flower girl, and her parents obviously couldn't come either. Tanner did the music (very nicely, by the way) and the sound for the mics. Cathy did the decorating, with Alonna and a bit of Kaylee's help too. The boys (Lon and Tanner and Tre's brother) did all the physical set up. And again, these two handled it with grace. Calm, peaceful, content, even when things weren't going the way they'd hoped. They just wanted to be husband and wife and the details of the day weren't the most important part of that journey and they realized that. That's not that common in the early 20s age group these days. So I am proud of them for that.

I hadn't met Tre yet, so I enjoyed the pastor's words at the wedding. He said when he was asked to officiate the wedding, he asked Lon what he thought of these two. Lon said they were all in on the marriage and thrilled, and that Tre had the respect to call and ask him if he had his permission to date his daughter. His adult daughter off at college 7 hours away. Don't see THAT much any more either. They had a moment of prayer during the ceremony, where they asked his and her parents to come up with them and the pastor and pray over their marriage and their lives. It was sweet. You could see the way the two interacted that they were comfortable and not nervous at all about this big step in their lives, they were ready. It was neat and fun to be a part of. They will later, after Covid, be able to have some bigger receptions with their friends and extended families, which I know they will enjoy.

For the wedding, Cathy worked hard to make everything as covid safe as possible. Small attendance, individual packed reception dinners and snacks for everyone, separate pens and markers for people to use to write in things. Kaylee stood at the top of the hill with the sign-in board and book and wiped down the pens after people used them, and made sure they signed the guestbook. She also helped with the set up and tear down, and spent the night with the rest of the wedding party ladies Friday night. They watched a bridesmaid movie, ate snacks, talked, etc. For a little while on Saturday, Morgan's son Israel and I hung out. He wasn't happy without his mama around, at 8 months old, and Aunt Alonna was having a little trouble with him, so I took him for awhile and we stayed entertained pretty well. He's a mover, he's going to keep him mom *hopping* once he's walking. lol

I'm tired so I'm going to short cut this a bit. We enjoyed the wedding, and getting to see everyone. They were successfully married, and we got home safely even after having to dodge three lines of thunderstorms because we departed a little later than hoped. The first line was right at the airport of departure, so I was down around 2300' to avoid Nashville's Airspace, while staying to the left of some big huge towers that went up to almost 2100', and looked as tall as we were, and staying right enough to avoid the big ole nasty storms. Couldn't go any higher, couldn't go much further left or right. Just had our path. The last line was over Indy, and it wasn't quite a line as much as a big bunch of blobs right in our way. So again I had to go way around Indy Airspace, thanks to both the weather and an active TFR over the track where they were doing a fly-over of the race as we were close by. Which is kind of cool.

Landed, went through Hydration Station for a shake, came home, unpacked, spent a few hours beating my head against a photo downloading thing, and finally got that done. I don't have a site to post an album of my 140 photos from the wedding any more, Facebook, eh, nah, or here, that would be a lot on here. But I'll stick about half of them on and see how it goes. :) I just had my cellphone with me this time, so they aren't as good as pro photos will be, but they mostly didn't do too bad. I'm also going to leave these in a smaller size since there are so many of them. You can always click on them to get the bigger versions.

First, off topic. Kaylee calls me into her room and tells me to "stand here" and she turns off the lights in her room. I instantly see this. This freaks a person out, floating in a black room. Come to find out, something she made in middle school that has googly eyes glued to it, well, apparently those googly eyes glow in the dark, and she never knew it until now. Freaky, man, staring down at you from high on the wall!