Saturday, July 18, 2009

Loretta Lynn's Kitchen

We decided to stop off for breakfast at Loretta Lynn's Kitchen, on our
way from Nashville to Memphis!

Article in the Pasadena Independent!

Before we left on our road trip, I met up with Terry Miller from the Pasadena Independent, who talked to me about the elopement and what I've been up to since getting the Ford Fiesta!

Check it out here!
http://pasadenaindependent.com/2009/07/what-would-you-do-with-a-free-car-that-never-runs-out-of-gas/

Hilary & Fiesta

Friday, July 17, 2009

Look what we got!

Today we were reunited with our beloved Fiesta! All shiny and new, we
picked it up in Knoxville...

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Our Wedding...

On Tuesday, July 14th, Hilary and I woke up early at the Mayor’s Mansion Inn in Chattanooga. It’s a quaint old place—beautiful…moody lighting…strange paintings…friendly staff.

We were a bit giddy…excited and happy and ready for the day. After breakfast, we got ready…ironed and gathered things and dressed.

Hilary looked amazing in her green and yellow Etsy-designed dress.

Since I had accidentally left my suit in a Super 8 Motel in Flagstaff, I was just going to wear a white shirt and jeans. I was disappointed, but really, it was a good thing. It reminded us that those things weren’t important. What we are doing together…how we feel about each other…THAT was the point of this whole thing.

We were rushed, but smiling as we made our way down the staircase—only to find that my suit had arrived from Flagstaff via FedEx Overnight! (Thanks Super 8!)

Hilary Wedding day Rick

From the inn, we drove a short distance up to Lookout Mountain, near the great Smoky Mountain National Park. It’s a beautiful, deep green, foresty place. That kind of dripping, dense, Southern Green that you have to see to really appreciate.

The weather that morning was a welcome respite from the normal steam July heat.

Our specific destination was Rock City Gardens, a sort of tourist attraction that features these unreal rock formations with colorful gardens growing in and around every corner and crevice. Go to www.seerockcity.com to take a look.

Hilary and I had decided to have our ceremony on the edge of a cliff—a little spot called Lover’s Leap. It seemed totally appropriate.

Lover's Leap

When we arrived, we were greeted by our officiant Callie Cronon and some representatives from the local media! The folks at Rock City gave us the royal treatment (thanks to Becky, Jeff and Travis!)

The ceremony at Lover’s Leap was sort of simple…and perfect.

Lovers and Friends.

Everything and Forever.

There was crying and smiling and a quiet, gentle breeze.

Our rings are white gold bands. I fiddle with mine a lot and I love the feel of it.

Wedding Band

After the ceremony, we walked the entire “Enchanted Trail”—a pathway in and around all of Rock City. Massive granite walls. Crystal-lined caves. Panoramic views. (Below is "Rainbow Hall".)

Rainbow Hall

Our favorite was the curious “Fairyland Caverns”—an underground passageway you enter after passing through the “Hall of Mountain Kings”. Throughout the caverns, there are little niches, filled with sculptures depicting famous fairy tales, all lit with black light. The effect is eerie and hilarious.

Fairyland Caverns

In the end, we drove off in Hilary’s fiesta, now festooned with paper ruffles and bells and a flag that said “Just Married”.

Just married!

On the drive back down the hill, all of the decorations flew off.

Once again, we didn’t care in the least.

Later that day, we went hang-gliding - more on that soon.

Champagne & Rick

Rick & Hilary get their Facebook portraits painted by Matt Held!

Rick and I got some fun email today....

If you're on Facebook, you may have come across Matt Held's project - "I'll have my Facebook portrait painted by Matt Held"!

Several people I know have put their pictures into his pool for consideration. Rick and I put ours in too! Today, Matt shared his paintings of us! So cool!! :D Also, they will be shown in NY at Denise Bibro Platform Space in September!

Original photo of Hilary:
Merry Christmas!

Matt Held's painting of Hilary:
Hilary by Matt Held

Original photo of Rick:
Merry Christmas!

Matt Held's painting of Rick:
Rick by Matt Held

Check out Matt Held and learn more about his project!
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mattheldstudios
Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45900815683
Blog: portraitpainted.blogspot.com/

Bloody Mary at Laughing Seed

We are in Asheville, NC! We owe y'all updates! We will have some time
this evening to catch you up! :)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Outhouse trim in Dollywood restroom! #fiestamovement

Thunderhead at Dollywood!

Wedding Day!

We will write more about our day soon, but here are a few photos to tide you over!

We have packed up the Fiesta! We will start the morning off with breakfast again at Mayor's Mansion Inn, where we stayed in Chattanooga. When we returned last night, we found rose petals scattered on the floor and bed - so pretty! And the people who work here are so sweet!

After breakfast, we'll head to over to the courthouse to pick up our marriage certificate. We had a special fabric envelope made to hold it! (More on this, my dress, the bouquet, and other items we got for the wedding from Etsy.com!)

Pigeon Forge is our next destination. We're staying with my cousin Tim and his wife, Kendra. They knew we were heading to Dollywood today, so got us our tickets as a gift! So nice of them!

And here a few photos from our big day... (More coming - you know that!)

Rick & Hilary

Rick & Hilary

Rick & Hilary & Fiesta

Just married!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Two modes of transportation...

Man! We got the Fiesta AND hang-gliding today?! Pretty sweet. :)

Hilary's Fiesta shoes!

Can't wear my green wedding dress in the air, but I made sure I wore
my green sneakers, which also match my Fiesta! :) I'm glad my favorite
color is green! ;)

Hang-gliding!

A lot of people out today... We will have to wait a bit longer for our
hang-gliding lesson! It's neat to watch... We will be towed by plane
into the air and then let go! Pretty sweet. Oh, happy day! We are
having photos taken while we're up there - look for those later...

With these rings...we totally wed! #fiestamovement

We gone and done it! Married! #fiestamovement

Can you believe it?!

Okay, we were about to get in the car when the woman at the bed &
breakfast told us FedEx had arrived! Rick's suit! So, YAY! We are on
our way... :)

Sneak peek....

sneak peek

Hilary!

Rick!

Look! It's a Fiesta!

Ford & the Fiesta Movement arranged for a Fiesta to arrive at our
doorstep this morning! We get to use it for our wedding day! Hooray!

Today's the day!

It's 6:50am and we're getting ready for our big day!

One more "funny story" for the (from the?) road... We were driving along in New Mexico (in the rental car after our flat tire and unexpected overnight stay in Flagstaff) and I glance to the back of the car. "Rick, where's your suit?" I asked. Oops. Flagstaff. Neither of us had remembered that it was hanging up in the motel room and we left it there accidentally.

I started laughing - probably biggest laugh of the trip. It's not funny exactly, but it was just one of those "of course" moments. We called the motel, faxed credit card info, tried to set up FedEx to Chattanooga. The suit is being sent, but has not (will not) arrive in time for the ceremony. We considered changing the time of our vows so that we could both be in our planned wedding attire, but in the end decided to keep our schedule just how it was originally and do it with what we've got.

The incident with the suit made us remember that it really isn't about any of that anyway. The clothes, the car, the time, the location. We're getting married. It's what that means to us that counts.

The drive was a long one. Because of the unexpected delays in Los Angeles and Flagstaff, we were running short on time. We decided to do the Flagstaff to Chattanooga drive straight through. It took us about 26 hours, including very brief stops for gas and caffeine) to do it. We took turns driving and taking naps - far too few naps - but would have stopped if we felt we were simply to exhausted to move on.

We arrived in Chattanooga around 2pm on Monday and drove straight to the Hamilton County Courthouse where a very nice gentleman helped us with our marriage license. We then went to the Mayor's Mansion Inn, a beautiful bed & breakfast, where we were staying for the night. Gorgeous room - perfect for photographs!

Our energy was low. We needed food and sleep. We took the advice of the man at the courthouse and headed to Big River Grille & Brewing Works for dinner. We're not sure if our hunger and exhaustion played a part, but that food was delicious.

I had in my head I would do some photos, some blogging, some video. It was 7pm and we were just tired. So to sleep we went! We probably could have slept even more, but it's our wedding day! We're up and showered and getting ourselves together. With more time we would have had a suit and I might have had a mani/pedi. But we're here. Is there anything else that matters?

Happy day to all!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Soon to be wed!

Big River Grille & Brewing Works

We ate dinner. It was quite satisfying!

Green light!

We have arrived in Chattanooga! And we have our marriage license! Yay!
Tired...

Steamboat Bill Memorial Bridge - Decatur, Alabama

All Elvis!

Listening to the All Elvis channel on Sirius in the rental!

Country Music Place - Walnut, Mississippi

Sign on porch says "no alcohol or drugs allowed"!

Sleepyhead!

Clarksville, Arkansas!

Still moving! 1100 miles driven since Flagstaff today. Two time zones
crossed!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Middle of the night road work in Oklahoma

We made it to Oklahoma!

960 miles to Chattanooga!

Groom, TX

There's a giant cross there.

Amarillo Sunset

We are going to go go go as long as we can! Taking turns driving...

New Mexico...

On the road again...

So the Fiesta has been temporarily left in Flagstaff. So sad! The
tough part about having the Fiesta is that since it's not available in
the U.S. yet, various proper parts are not readily available. Things
have to be sent from Germany and such.

So! It's gonna be a couple days before it can be road-ready again with
the new tires.

Of course, we need to be in Chattanooga for our WEDDING in a couple
days! So onward!

We have a Ford Edge from Budget at the Flagstaff Airport. The folks
there totally helped us out and were super-friendly! Thank you, Allen!!

We are still over 250 miles from Albuquerque, where we had expected to
arrive yesterday! Looks like some serious driving ahead of us! But
once we're in Chattanooga, the pace will be slower and we have a
fantastic week ahead of us...

Let's hope we don't have too many "funny stories" about trying to GET
there in the next 48 hours! :)

Yay! We made it to...Flagstaff?!

So, we got a much later start than expected, but we still hoped to power through to New Mexico.

Unfortunately, we got a flat tire about 45 miles west of Flagstaff, AZ. We had a tough time turning the bolts with the tools we had. We called roadside assistance and were told it owuld take 2-3 hours to get someone to where we were. Um. Bummer?

Meanwhile, a pickup truck stopped (we were off the highway in the middle of nowhere - no lights in sight) and a super-nice guy asked if we needed help. He grabbed some things out of his truck and had our spare tire on in less than 5 minutes. Hooray!

Our hero

We made it to Flagstaff on the spare. Tomorrow is Sunday. Will we make it to Chattanooga on time for our wedding?! We still have about 25 hours of driving time left, not including breaks!

I'm sure it will all work out. Right?! :)

Here we are tonight...
Rick & Hilary