West Trip day 20: Karen & Carl's Wedding

Saturday, July 3

This day started out very casually. We slept in a little, watched some TV, and made it to the continental break fast around 10:00. After breakfast, the kids swam with their uncle DonL, and their cousins Rachel, and Ryan Cundy. Jen and I talked with Barry Cundy about their trip to Custer area that they were taking after the wedding. We shared some of our fun experiences and recommended a few things to them.

We decided to go out and a find local restaurant to eat lunch. We settled on a mexican joint on the main strip. The food was excellent and the decor was, well, very colorful.

Greeting you at the entrance of the restaurant was a wooden Mexican woman that for some reason had gigantic DDD sized breasts . Of course, Mikah noticed right away and wanted a picture by them.

Craig is using her jugs as an armrest, apparently.

From there we drove to a little park in town just to see what it had to offer. It had a lake, a beach, a frisbee golf course and a small playground where the kids played while the adults socialized. At some points the adults played, too. We were just killing a little time until we had to get ready for the wedding.

At around 2:30 we got back the hotel so we could get ready for the wedding. I opened the garment bag with our dress clothes that Norma had brought for us and pulled out our dress shirts. I started ironing Rogan's shirt while Jen showered and watched the World Cup on TV. I set Rogan's new ironed shirt on the bed when I was done. Soon after, Rogan came in to watch the soccer game and sat on the shirt making it wrinkled again. So, I ironed it again and then set to work on ironing my shirt. The wedding was at 4:00 and it was a little after 3:00.

Everyone was showered and dressed but me, but I knew it would only take 5 minutes for me to get into my suit and tie. Except there was one problem - my suit pants were not in the garment bag. I looked for them frantically for about 5 minutes and then started to think of a plan B. I had no other pants other than cargo shorts or dirty jeans from camping. I was either going to have to go very causal, very dirty, or get some pants, and quickly.

I literally ran down the hall to the main desk and asked if they had somewhere close by that I could get dress pants. They recommended good old Walmart which was only about 8 minutes away. It was about 3:10 by this time and I needed to leave the hotel by 3:30 to get to the wedding on time - but this was my only option. I buzzed down the road with the camper behind me and arrived at Wallyworld in no time.

As I turned right into the parking lot I heard a loud "KA-THUNK!" followed soon after by a "Glug! Glug! Glug!" I knew right away what it was. We had stacked the coolers in the back 2 high and they had been kept upright by our bags of clothes which were now in our hotel room. I stopped right where I was, jumped out, and turned the cooler upright. By this time, however, most of the damage was done. The ice water from the cooler had dumped into the back of the van. But frankly, at this point, I was in too much of a hurry to care.

So, I ran into the store where a Walmart greeter welcomed me with a smile. "Welcome to Walmart." I yelled, "Menswear!" and she pointed in the general direction of the store and zoomed by her.

"Welcome to Wallmart!"

I rushed over to menswear and scanned for some khakis in my pant size and found them. I grabbed some undershirts as well because I had accidentally brought my white MCS trucking volleyball shirt instead of an undershirt. Luckily I found an empty checkout line. I was in and out of the store with dresspants, and 2 undershirts for just $21 in total less than 3 minutes. As I passed by the greeter, she gave me an approving "thumbs up" sign as I scooted out the exits.

I hurried back to the hotel where some people were waiting in the parking lot for me with the engine running. I ran into my room, partially dressed, and then ran out to finish dressing in the car. We made it to the wedding with a little time to spare so we snapped some pictures before being seated.

Rogan looking dapper and me in my new "Walmart pants."

The kids both looked really nice.

The entire wedding and reception was outdoors. It was an unusually hot and muggy day for Minnesota, but it was nonetheless beautiful. Both the Karen and Carl looked great and were very happy. They had memorized their vows which I thought was cool and brave of them.

That evening everyone enjoyed a terrific catered meal and danced the night away on the dance floor. Jim, the father of the bride, was particularly festive. We left the party around 10:30 and went back to the hotel. This was our last full day of vacation. Tomorrow we'd make the long drive home.