So Gordon's childhood friend Tom was getting married and Gordon got the honor of being his best man. This meant we were taking a roadtrip to Winnipeg, a place neither of us had ever been, let alone driven to. I mean what's in Winnipeg really...? Well except for crappy weather, crappy parking and crappy one way streets. Never the less we loaded up the car with books, junk food, maps and necessities for camping out in the car (neither of us can stay awake long enough to drive more than 4 hours without a break). We had a false start, since Gordon forgot his wallet, as per usual so we had to drive back home and get it. THEN we were finally on our way. Really there wasn't much to report about the drive. It was pretty darn boring, so we took 2 hours shifts driving. One thing I didn't get was why it was mostly a one lane highway. You would think the Trans-Canada would at least be a two lane highway...I mean it's not like it's a main road or anything. We saw our fair share of grass and roadkill...mostly skunks and a few porcupines. We stopped in Saskatoon for a bite to eat, although we had considered posing as truckers in Lloydminster to get the trucker's discount at Pizza Hut. We decided to go for the all you can eat buffet instead. Then on with the driving. We drove a total of 12 hours that day and finally decided to pull into the next nook after we passed the Manitoba border. We pulled into some little town of the highway and just like campers, brushed our teeth outside in the grass and went to sleep in the car. Gordon sleeping in the front and me in the back. Gordon had to be there at 8 in the morning to get his bachelor party golf game, and we were still 4 hours away so I was only allowed to sleep until 3:30 before I had to hit the road. I could only drive for an hour because I got really tired. So I made my poor husband drive for the next 3 hours until we made it to Winnipeg. We decided before the trip to cheap out and book a hostel, so I was hoping it wasn't some dirty old shack, but just in case I brought a whole set of bedding. I was not gonna sleep in a dirty bed no matter how much money I was saving. Once there, the first thing I did was pulled back the quilt and inspected the bedding, followed by smelling it. Thank my lucky stars everything was clean, we even got our own bathroom. Poor Gordon had to get ready for his golf game, and had no time to sleep. I got to go to sleep right away, lucky me! I slept for about 3 hours then decided that I might as well get out and walk around the city since most of our time would be sucked up by wedding stuff and wouldn't leave much for sightseeing. It reminded me so much of England, with the overcast skies, the small streets, the green, and the old buildings. I enjoyed a walk to the Legislature building, but of course Gordon had the camera, so I just had to take mental pictures. Then I walked along the river to where the Saskatchewan river splits into the Red river and the Assiniboian (sp?) river. It really wasn't much to look at and the clouds were looking ominous so I decided to turn back. Sure enough about 15 min away the rain started and soaked me pretty good. Gordon was just beat when he got back so we stayed in until we went out for supper at an Italian place, before the rehearsal dinner and wedding cocktails (this giving you a hint of how swanky the wedding was?). The rehearsal dinner sprang the thought occupied my brain all the time. "I'm so glad I'm already married". Just the planning involved was insane. I must admit, I felt pretty important going to a cocktail party...that's stuff you only read about being before fancy parties. It was an early night for both of us. Saturday was the big day. I thought the string quartet during the ceremony was quite a nice touch. It reminded me of our special day, like weddings always do and probably always will do. Thank goodness the ceremony was already planned for us. It was really nice that they chose to have a religious ceremony though. In my opinion, too God has been taking out of far too many things, especially things that He instituted in the first place. After the wedding I went to go help with the centerpieces and set up for the reception while Gordon was off doing his duty as the best man. Well let me tell you, it was like a rose garden exploded everywhere. Everything was so elaborate and particular, we even had a layout of the 8 different tables with a combination of shapes representing the centerpiece arrangements. And then there was a legend for what each of those shapes meant. After three hours of centerpiece assembly, my job was finished and Gordon and I took a quick break before the reception started. The hall looked beautiful, I just wished the centerpieces wouldn't have been so big so as to block my view, and then I was sitting right beside the window when it was 10 above outside. My nose started running, it was so cold. The bride, being a devout vegan, had planned a vegan meal. I'm a self proclaimed carnivore so this wasn't looking too hot for me. I didn't know how Gordon would fare either since he needs his share of meat to stay full for more than 2 hours. Well the meal was passable minus the "beef" wellington which was a little too unbeef-like for my taste. However, the vegan cake was great. Despite the little glitches here and there, the dancing made it all go away. That's probably what I look forward to most about receptions. I had a blast at the dance at ours, and since I graduated from the youth dances and then the YSA dances, I haven't been dancing in a while and I sorely miss it. So I broke out my moves and tore up the dance floor, backed up by years of Mormon dancing experience. Gordon was exhausted so we made an early exit, but not before having a dance competition with the groom's parents (where we totally kicked butt btw, the shopping cart always wins). Sunday was an adventure. We went to brunch at the hotel (last of the wedding events) before heading off to church for Sacrament mtg. Our plan was to drop off the tuxes (which were Gordon's job to dispose off) and head on home. Well plans are made to be screwed up I suppose. We had a heck of the time finding the church, had no idea where to drop the tuxes, and then one of the groomsmen called to tell us he'd left all his ID and wallet in the pocket of one of the tuxes. Although this seemed to be a big annoyance, it proved to be a tender mercy. We went back to the hotel to drop off the wallet and said our goodbyes again. We started up the car...well we didn't actually because the car didn't start. Not even the lights came on. I've always bragged about how reliable my Weasley is, and how it's never given me trouble, so I was feeling pretty betrayed. So we phoned up to the hotel and one of the groomsmen came down to take a look at it while I sat in the car praying for a miracle...oh yeah and it was pouring rain. A dead battery seemed to be the culprit, so I headed back into the hotel while Gordon headed to crappy tire for a battery. This was really getting to be an expensive trip. After the new battery was installed, the car started so I ran down hoping to get out of there before anything else happened. Soon as we pulled out of the parking lot, I noticed the engine was really quiet, which is usually good...except for in my car. We turned out of the parking and coasted onto the street with a dead car...again. But there was no turning back, so we turned on the car again and realized that if we kept the engine revving the car wouldn't die. So this made for a fun drive as we had to shift into neutral at every red light and revved the engine to high heaven. We said a prayer and moved onto the highway. We ended up stopping in Saskatoon and parking in a shopping complex beside the Tim Horton's, with an auto parts store down the street. That way, if the car didn't start we'd have food and could take the car in. The guy working the night shift probably thought we were crazy, since I walked in at 12:30 am with my pjs and toothbrush and then 5 hours later walked in for breakfast. Thank our lucky stars the car started and we made it home. The last voyage of the beloved Weasley.
