Project updates
- Christmas – Last week pretty much all my projects were preempted by preparing for my Christmas travel, with the main goal of reducing my stress, and my planning ended up being worth all the hours it took. This weekend made up part one of my vacation, centered around my friend Jason’s wedding in North Carolina.
- Friday – I was originally planning to save money by taking public transportation from home to the airport, but as the desperation mounted, I decided I didn’t mind paying for peace of mind, so I took a limo from one of the few airport shuttle services that got good ratings on Yelp. My trip had a layover in Charlotte, which was only a two-hour drive from my destination, but I didn’t want to pay twice for that leg of the journey if I didn’t have to, and I wasn’t looking forward to driving so much in an unfamiliar, mountainous area in the dark, so I decided to stick to my flight unless it was delayed, which it wasn’t … until we had to wait for the plane to be de-iced, so I spent the whole flight worrying that we’d arrive too late to rent a car and the rest of the weekend would be very annoying and inconvenient, though I’d prepared for that possibility by packing food, and also Jason wanted to give me a ride from the airport so we’d have more time to talk before he was swamped by other guests, but what, did he think this trip was about him?? Fortunately the car rental places stayed open for us, and I’d packed light so I wouldn’t have to wait for checked luggage, so I picked up the car I’d reserved, a Chevy Impala, spent a while figuring out how to drive it, and made my way to the inn, where Jason welcomed me and gave me a tour before heading to bed. The place I stayed, which also hosted the wedding, was a nice bed and breakfast run by Restoring the Foundations ministry called Echo Mountain Inn, and I recommend it if you’re ever in the Asheville, NC area, especially if you need surprisingly fast Internet.
One of the Christmas village displays at the inn.
A photo posted by Andy Culbertson (@thinkulum) on
- Saturday – Saturday I had breakfast in the dining room, and while I waited for that room to get converted into a wedding sanctuary, I found that I felt so much better after getting past the previous day’s travel that I decided to make extra sightseeing plans for the next day. The wedding and the reception were both short and sweet, which I’ll talk more about below, and I helped decorate the car, which was a little hard to do in the rain, since it made the writing run, and I had to keep toweling off the windows so the foam sticker stars would stick. After the bride and groom drove off, I helped clean up, took a nap, had dinner with the best man at an Italian place downtown, stopped by Jump Off Rock for about a minute to enjoy the view in the dark while being buffeted by wind and rain, and went to bed “early” (early for me anyway).
- Sunday – I left the inn about an hour later than I meant to, though it was about the time I’d normally set out, and I drove a couple of hours through sprinkling rain and some very interesting small towns to a place I visited as a child on at least one family vacation, Grandfather Mountain, but the most interesting part of the park, the Mile-High Bridge, was closed that day, so I walked through the nature museum and ate lunch in the parking lot while listening to music and the start of PathFinder by Angie Sage. My next stop was Ridgecrest an hour back down the road, but really I was headed for a lodge nearby that I grew up visiting because my grandparents used to run it in the summer. After that it was back to the airport to return my car and wait around for my delayed flight (mechanical issue) to the next city over, which I again could have reached by car in a couple of hours, and to worry about catching my connecting flight to Dallas, but by speedwalking to my gate across the Charlotte airport, I made it just as they were announcing the final boarding call, and with no more travel plans to weigh down my mind, I had a pleasant and productive final flight, during which I got a lot done on one of my Christmas projects. At the airport my dad picked me up, and then I was home, the end of an overall great weekend.
My lunch companion in the Mildred’s Grill parking lot at Grandfather Mountain.
A photo posted by Andy Culbertson (@thinkulum) on
- Friday – I was originally planning to save money by taking public transportation from home to the airport, but as the desperation mounted, I decided I didn’t mind paying for peace of mind, so I took a limo from one of the few airport shuttle services that got good ratings on Yelp. My trip had a layover in Charlotte, which was only a two-hour drive from my destination, but I didn’t want to pay twice for that leg of the journey if I didn’t have to, and I wasn’t looking forward to driving so much in an unfamiliar, mountainous area in the dark, so I decided to stick to my flight unless it was delayed, which it wasn’t … until we had to wait for the plane to be de-iced, so I spent the whole flight worrying that we’d arrive too late to rent a car and the rest of the weekend would be very annoying and inconvenient, though I’d prepared for that possibility by packing food, and also Jason wanted to give me a ride from the airport so we’d have more time to talk before he was swamped by other guests, but what, did he think this trip was about him?? Fortunately the car rental places stayed open for us, and I’d packed light so I wouldn’t have to wait for checked luggage, so I picked up the car I’d reserved, a Chevy Impala, spent a while figuring out how to drive it, and made my way to the inn, where Jason welcomed me and gave me a tour before heading to bed. The place I stayed, which also hosted the wedding, was a nice bed and breakfast run by Restoring the Foundations ministry called Echo Mountain Inn, and I recommend it if you’re ever in the Asheville, NC area, especially if you need surprisingly fast Internet.
Life updates
- Wedding – The wedding was small with only about a hundred people attending, I suspect comprising family, people from their ministry, and a handful of other friends; the wedding party consisted of the bride, the groom, the maid of honor, and the best man; and the ceremony lasted maybe an hour at most, with some heartfelt vows that I think Jason and Abigail had written themselves, a brief message, some prayers, and a short communion service that Jason conducted for the two of them. Then the wedding hall was converted into a reception hall, and we ate some delicious hors d’oeuvres (“ors devors,” as I call them), including an interesting kale and pineapple salad, and the best man delivered a fitting toast. It was nice to see Jason’s family again, and it was an elegant wedding, in the sense that it didn’t waste time, words, or space but accomplished a lot.
Have a great Christmas!
Thanks, I hope yours was great too!