GOING TO THE CHAPEL, AND WE’RE GONNA GET MARRIED

The summer of 1990 was when I pushed Rick into marry me. Yes, there you go I will admit it. You see Rick had already been married and divorced twice and wasn’t too keen on a third try just yet! Here I was head strong and pushing hard. To this day when I look back I don’t fully understand the rush I was in but the only thing that makes sense is I knew my time with Rick was short.

Having the understanding of the fact that the major events in this life were preplanned as much as they could have been on the other side before my birth in this life. Here I was convincing Rick that we could stop off in Pigeon Forge on our way home from a trip to upstate New York to visit his aunt Minnalee and uncle Sam that summer trip with the boys. Now, picture this Rick, me, and three boys in one car driving to upstate New York and back after a long weekend with a two night stay in Pigeon Forge so that we could have a small private wedding at one of those wedding chapels with just a few friends in attendance. Does this trip sound like it would be a fairly easy task to plan and pull off without any major incidents. Believe it or not it pretty much was!!!

The drive to Painted Post/Addison, New York was approximately 17 hours if you drove straight through without stopping over night. Rick and I took turns driving. Jamie and Brandon took turns asking if we were there yet! We finally got there and had a great visit with Rick’s aunt Minnalee, Uncle Sam, and his cousins. We even got to ride their horses on this trip. It was my first time on a horse.

This was a beautiful place where Rick’s aunt Minnalee and Uncle Sam lived. It wasn’t very far from where Rick’s old family home once stood. Amazing white birch trees everywhere. This area in upstate New York was very similar scenically to the North Georgia area or the Maggie Valley region of North Carolina where Rick’s mom was from.

We had a great visit with Rick’s family but now it was time to get my wedding magic on! So we drove back to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee where we met up with Rick’s best friend, his ex brother-n-law, Charlie and his girlfriend. You know now that I think of it, Alan didn’t go to New York with us. He came up with Charlie and Cindy for the wedding.