6,000 mile round trip for a wedding in Maine.

Whenever we go anywhere, there is always this time lag.  It seems that all time expectations are in "rubber hour increments"  A rubber hour is something that essentially is "Expanded to exceed the 60 minutes allotted for an hour, and is used to cram in every activity that could ever be considered for use."  The upshot is, we are always running late because the conventional hour has been superseded by the Bill Markham Rubber Hour.  this time it was not too bad because we were only 10 minutes late in leaving - and there had been a notation on the calendar for the date and time of departure for many weeks. So we witnessed a miracle with Bill only being 10 minutes off the mark!

Our plane left on time for Albuquerque and the flight was uneventful for the most part.  In the airport managed to sit next to a lady who was crocheting Beads into a necklace.  held a long and interesting conversation with her and it really helped to pass the time.  She got off in Albuquerque but she told me of a bead camp that is coming up soon................Nirvana.

Our flight from New Mexico to Baltimore Maryland was an adventure to be sure. They announced that a sudden storm had rolled up the east coast and had snarled air traffic over and into Baltimore/Washington airport.  We found our plane doing circles over Ohio and so I took out my cell phone and set it to the compass and it was fascinating to see just how often they changed directions.  We did not worry about being in the holding pattern because we had some time between the expected time of arrival and the takeoff to Portland, Maine, airport. The holding pattern began to drag on and on but I did get some really good pictures of the thunderheads in the clouds that we flew by and through.  We finally arrived in Portland, only to find that our plane had been delayed.  Bill called the hotel to have them keep holding our room (which they did) and he could not get hold of the car rental place so we began to worry about that.  Although the motel was not far from the airport, it was way too far to walk in the dark.

When we got to Portland we found a crew of clerks waiting to help us get a car and leave.  They told us that the policy was for them to stay on duty for at least 30 minutes after the last plane lands.  They had a monitor on the wall that showed them when the planes were expected to arrive.  As they were giving us the keys to the car, the clerk said "Oh, and beware of Moose on the roads.  There have been a number of accidents here lately".  The only moose we saw this trip to Maine was a picture of two of them in a river eating and that was a wallpaper picture on the computer at the Bangor motel.

We drove to our Portland motel and literally fell into bed.  it was 1.30am.  Oh yes, that was only 10.30pm Arizona time but we HAD been flying all day.

We had to get up early and eat breakfast.  Now, eating is a challenge to me because I was 3 1/2 hours in the dentist chair in North Phoenix on Wednesday 9th having two crowns removed and having my mouth prepared to be fitted with two new crowns and a bridge so that I can have the ability to chew food again.  I had to drive down by myself, be treated by the dentist, and drive home.  Aaarrgghh!  What was I thinking?  Well, it was done and that is that and on the way home I went to the food court at Anthem Outlets and ate black beans and rice.  Unfortunately the rice was 'Old" rice and did not taste very good.  But I had not eaten since 7am and it was now 3pm., so I ate it.

We had a struggle to get up early enough to eat breakfast at the motel and get on our way to Augusta to see our friends.  We took the scenic route by the ocean through the Wiscasset area - really a pretty drive.  We found our way over this I-295 route to Mary Hitchings home in Chelsea.  She has a couple of new kittens to foster and they also have a new Australian Cattle Dog.

We left there and we went to Hannaford's grocery store in the hope that they still sold Wheatina, which is Bill's favorite hot breakfast cereal but I guess they really do not make it any more so he came away without it.  We even went up main street in Augusta to Shaw's grocery store but they did not have it either.  We then went down to Friendly's restaurant and met with the members of Augusta Ward.  It was raucous, affirming and wonderfully comforting to be with them.  They would like us to return to Augusta and be a part of their ward.  That is ok for all the seasons except Winter.  Winter is long and bitterly cold and it gets dark about 3.45pm and does not get light until around 8.15am.  Not good if you suffer from seasonal affective disorder.  Found out that my friend Rose Daigle is getting married.  Also caught up on the news of all the other members.  Sue and Martin Kader, Butch and Karinna Dawbin and children and Butch's mother all joined us for lunch.  Bill particularly wanted Clam Strips and I wanted that too, but Sue produced some coupons and if we ordered a certain amount we got a good discount.  So I did not get the clam strips but rather got a Lobstah Roll (Lobster).

We left Augusta and drove to Bangor, and we did not see one Moose.  We did see notices where the Moose are allowed to cross the highway -
Moose Crossing for next 10 miles - was the announcement.  On the road we passed the Mall; the turn off that we always took to go to Riverside Drive; and we also saw the new hospital.  They had begun work on it 2 years ago when we were in Augusta.  We arrived in Bangor and went to our motel.  It is a large motel but the rooms are very much smaller than the one in Portland.   We took a nap and then we went off to find the reception.  We got there just as the Bride was about to enter the venue.  We went in first, ahead of her, and the people gathered there were expecting the Bride to go through the door, but instead they got "The Markhams".  Ta Da!

The Wedding was a very elegant affair.  The wedding ceremony was held in the open rotunda type area with the minister officiating.  The Bride was escorted down the red carpet by her 5yr old son and he was so cute leading his mother along.  The minister asked "Who gives this Mommy to this Daddy in marriage" and he puffed out his little chest and said "I Do!"  It was so cute.  The bride and groom had written out their own ceremony and it was really nice.  After the ceremony we were all ushered into a reception area where we had canapés etc.  I wanted a soda to drink but the bar prices were outrageous.  Just settled for water. The Canapés were bacon wrapped sea scallops, spicy chicken on crostini,  and some sort of pasta wrapped broccoli and artichoke.

As soon as the bride and groom entered the room, we all clapped and then we were ushered into the Reception proper.  We had name tags to pick up and a table assignment was noted on the bottom of the card.  The decorations were superb.  The theme was Christmas in July and the tables alternated with red and silver decorations.  The silver tables had red napkins and ties on the chairs and the red tables had silver napkins and red ties on the chairs.  They had champagne flutes on the table with Raspberries in the glass and the servers came in soon with salads, followed by the main course and Cake was the dessert.  They had a toast to the couple, some last minute advice and they had a band that played wonderful music.  The sound man was standing in the audience with his little I-pad and he was monitoring the sound.  They had a photo booth where people could have their pictures taken and one set was for the guest and one for the bride and groom and we were invited to write a note beside the pictures.  a man named Micah was at our table.  He is a professor of ancient Indian culture in Maine and we had a wonderful conversation.  He has known Anne (mother of the groom ) and her husband who passed away in 2010.  The other couple at the table are old friends of Anne and her husband and they are soon to move to New Mexico.  The husband is a behavioral therapist and he uses horses in his practice to help families solve their problems.  Sounds interesting and I have no idea how his work accomplishes his goals.

In 2012 Anne, Alex (her son) and Sarah (the bride) went out to eat.  I was  impressed by Sarah and told Alex that he should think about marrying her.  I overheard him telling someone that I called it way back in 2012 and he is happy that I did.  I was not trying to play cupid - they just looked like they fit together really well and I said as much.

Both Anne and Alex wondered if we would make the effort to go out to Maine for the wedding and they said that it was really HUGE that we were there.  It was a way for us to honor them and let them know that they meant a lot to us.

We danced a little and then went back to our motel.  We are both very tired from the travel.  The bed in this motel is much smaller than the one in the first motel but we fell right to sleep anyway.  After breakfast, we went down to Portland ready for the trip home.  We took I-95 back to Portland and found a gas station  not far from the airport to fill up the car before returning it to the rental place.

Got into the airport at Portland in time to catch our plane.  The toilets at the Portland airport are really interesting - they have a sensor on the wall and when you wave your hand in front of it, a plastic tube issues from a box and encases the toilet seat - eliminates the toilet paper that finds its way to the floor and litters the public bathrooms.

Our flight left on time to go to Chicago and they announced that it would be bumpy due to the weather system headed our way.  It was anything but bumpy but when we got to Chicago, we found that our layover there was an extended one due to the fact that our plane to Phx originated in Houston was held up due to bad weather there and so we had a longer wait than expected.  The passengers were tired, grumpy and hungry and it was a miracle that tempers did not flare more than they did.

Bill and I ate at a Chicago style bistro place.  He had a sub sandwich and I ate chili.  Cannot eat much due to the dental work - have a temporary crown in place and cannot use teeth to chew anything.  I went wandering around the merchants in the airport and found a marvelous place that rivaled Charming Charlies in Lincoln.  It was a small place but had so much stuff for sale that it was a miniature Charming Charlies on steroids.

Our flight finally came - not as late as they expected and we piled on and started our final leg of air travel. Finally landed in Phoenix and drove to Prescott.  Went to bed around midnight.

Sunday, July 13 was my day to teach in Relief Society.  It went well.  I am glad to be back home but am pretty exhausted from all the activity.

 We left Prescott 8.10am on July 10, attended the wedding in Bangor on July 11 and spent all day July 12 flying from Maine to Phoenix and then drove to Prescott....a total of 6,000 miles round trip.  We are glad we went.