Wedding Time - Prelude

     The primary reason for our trip north in September was to attend my daughter Krista's wedding.  As an event planner she had e-mailed us a very detailed hourly schedule for the days leading up to the event.  The schedule for Thursday included a stop at the florists, a walk-through of Bascom Lodge with the wedding planner (the picture of Krista, Spike, Erin, and moi in front of the Lodge is shown above), and lunch at the Blue Benn in Bennington, Vt.

This is a picture of the bride-to-be and yours truly at our booth at the Blue Benn.  From the diner we went apple-picking at Harwood Hill(not far from the site of Nan and my roll-over accident in 2003).  It was quite buggy(the after affect of the tropical storms of the weeks before) so the picking went very quickly as a result.  From there we stopped off at a greenhouse in Hoosick to pick up some mums for the wedding.  It was a busy day but all done on schedule.
      On Friday morning I drove over to Petersburgh and ran 3 miles with Kris for old time sake(fortunately she set a reasonable pace so I didn't get too far behind).  The old run took us pass the graves of my mom and dad.  It was difficult not to wish that they were here to see the wedding.  So much has happened in all our lives since their deaths.  But there are times when I feel their presence and I know that everything that has happened is within the scope of their new being.  Nan flew in from Durham on an early morning flight and we were able to get a nap in before the rehearsal.
     It was a beautiful early Fall day and we rehearsed outside.  Unfortunately the weather forecast for the wedding day itself was not good and when we got to the top of Mt. Greylock we could see clouds streaming in from the southeast.  My friend Kent Higgins was officiating the service, and he took us through the program.

Daughter Erin was the Main of Honor and Spike's father was the Best Man  The blushing bride-to-be practiced her walk down the aisle - I mean slope.