Palm City

           We arrived at our destination (Palm City) a day earlier than we had scheduled. This was fine with our hosts, Jean’s son and family. We basically kicked back for the day. Gene spent a lot of time on the computer, catching up with emails and newsletters. 

But the next day, it was time to take care of the last details of the upcoming wedding. The bride’s mother (Anna) had spent many years as a florist and wedding planner, and pulled out all the stops for this one. She and several of the family that came for the wedding spent most of the day decorating the church. They spent much of the next day decorating the hall for the reception.

The wedding itself, on Saturday, had all the bells and whistles and then some. The only problem was that by then Anna had totally worn herself out. She made it through the ceremony by sheer grit, but then her husband took her to the emergency room and she was kept in the hospital until Monday afternoon. All the hard work paid off though, the wedding was a smashing success. Everyone had a good time, but she had to enjoy it second-hand as friends kept sending videos of the goings-on to her phone.

This is the only picture anywhere near worth posting that I have. As a member of the wedding party (honorary grandfather) I really couldn’t carry a camera, and what little I got with the phone was pretty blurry.

Next morning, some of us had brunch with the bride and groom before they left for the honeymoon. We met at the same restaurant we had stopped at when we left Palm City last year. We even got the same waitress. Later on we visited Anna in the hospital, where she was looking much better.

That night there were several thunder storms here in Florida. We were at the bottom end of a long band of storms that extended all the way to Canada. They were very strong farther north. There was a string of tornadoes, that extended from Greensboro, NC to Stuart’s Draft, VA (just north of Charlottesville). One of them went 20 miles through Lynchburg. We got pictures and updates from the folks back at the farm. The tornado went up a commercial street about two miles from the farm. Jean’s brother could hear the characteristic train sound as it went past. Much of Lynchburg was badly torn up, though we haven’t heard of any casualties. The farm, luckily, suffered little damage and never lost power.

Somehow, Jean’s brother blamed us. He pointed out that every time we leave bad weather happens. It hardly snowed all winter, then they had four snowstorms the week after we left. Now, a tornado. I don’t know if we should head home with some good Florida weather, or stay away where it’s safe.

Following the wedding, there was a lot of cleaning-up and packing-up to do but no rush. Some of the guests from Indiana stayed a few days longer to help, but there was also time to enjoy the area. Wednesday morning the women of the party drove to the beach in the dark to watch the sunrise and walk on the beach. So Jean got some more shells for her collection. Later that afternoon, they went on a shopping trip, so everyone should leave here happy.

Back from the shopping, the two remaining visitors packed up and left to catch planes back home. We will be leaving tomorrow, though we will see a little more of Florida before we head back. Considering the temperatures they have been having at the farm, we will be taking our time on the road home.