A Wedding Trip and Cancelled Plans

A Wedding Trip and Cancelled Plans

Cut: My wife, the bride (our niece) and me after the official vows were completed and the other photos were taken (I decided we needed a photo with the bride, too!).

By Allan Olson
It was another busy week, not quite on the same level as the week before, but busy enough. I managed to make a shorter week of it by taking Friday off for a road trip to go to a wedding. My wife and I and my mother-in-law hit the road heading west late Friday morning for the big city of Fargo, ND. It was a chilly day to be on the road, but thankfully the heater was working well in my vehicle, so the only time the bitter cold hit us was when we left the warmth of our transportation. 
We met the bride (my niece) with her now husband and family and a few other family members at the Cass County (ND) Courthouse for the very intimate (small but nice) wedding day affair at 3 p.m. The whole thing, including wait time and photos, took less than an hour. From there we headed for a place to eat as a group, where we enjoy visiting and food, which took longer than the wedding and photos. After that we parted ways, making it home to the kids at about 9 p.m.
The rest of the weekend was just the kids, the dog and I sticking close to home. My geocaching plans were cancelled due to the bitter cold, and my wife was gone on her annual fishing trip with her mom and sister. 
On Saturday morning Abigail and I went to Ruby’s Pantry in another town, and later we attended the Leech Lake Tribal College basketball game.  
The evening was a rather simple affair, with of all of us doing our own thing. I spent some time reading, and I did manage to put a big pork roast into the roaster for a future meal.
On Sunday morning I took a look at the thermometer and decided to hit the remote start on our two currently mobile vehicles, but my success was only 50%. My trusty green Yukon, which has never failed to start, failed to start. I went out to give it a try and discovered that it just wasn’t meant to be. I hooked up the battery charger and went back into the warm house. I tried to get it started again several times throughout the day, but it was after 8 p.m. when I finally got it running. The odometer on that vehicle is approaching 350,000 miles, so I can forgive it for not wanting to run when it’s -20; hopefully this wasn’t a sign of more problems to come. I will simply chalk it up to my own mistake of not starting it the day before for more than one 15 minute auto-start cycle. 
I did all of these tasks while the kids were still sound asleep, and started prepping to make my caramel rolls for the first time since October. My plans to stay home were dashed when a friend texted me to see if I was still willing to help them move to their new home. Since I had offered to help, I wasn’t going to say no, and even if I hadn’t offered, what kind of friend would I be? So I started up the vehicle and Nikolai, Abigail and I went to help our friends while Marcus and Alivia stayed back in the nice warm house.
We (along with a couple of their family members) spent about three hours in town helping them move the heavy stuff to their new dwelling. Then we headed for home, where I had rolls to make. Since I had nearly everything prepped prior to leaving, there wasn’t much left to get ready. Really the only thing I did was get the caramel ready and drizzled it on the rolls in the pans. Marcus and Alivia rolled out the bread dough, cut them and added the cinnamon sugar. Nikolai and Abigail were in charge of cleaning the pans. In all, it was a good family effort. 
Once the cleanup was done, I pulled the plug on my roaster from the night before and cooled off my pork roast. Later I pulled it apart, put it all into my smaller slow cooker and let it simmer in barbecue sauce all night long, with plans for a meal on Monday.
I spent three hours going in and out of the house on Sunday night trying to capture photos of the Wolf Blood Super Moon lunar eclipse. I got a few shots, but unfortunately, my gear was cold, my focus wasn’t tuned in, and the red shots I got were all out of focus. I was very disappointed, but there was not much I could do about it after the fact.
As for the coming weekend, it looks like once again I will be staying close to home – the forecast looks like it will once again be bitter cold. Hopefully, the weather will turn soon and some of my fun outdoor plans will finally fall into place.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also, snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.

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