ATTEMPTED HONEYMOON, FOUNDING BROTHERS

It's hard to believe that forty-four years ago we were married by Rev. S. W. Brewer at 806 West Princess Street in York, PA. I recall having to walk to the church, since my prized MG sports car broke down on the way to the wedding.  Fortunately, my sister let me borrow her car so we could drive to Niagara Falls for our honeymoon. 

Back in the 60's it was still a tradition to open all wedding gifts, which caused our reception to last well into the evening.  After the reception we had to drive 2 hours to get our luggage, since one of the ushers forgot to give us our suitcases.  By now it was well into the night.  I didn't make reservations for a hotel - since I figured "how hard could it be to get a room?"

Big mistake. 

The antique car show in Hershey had every hotel in Central PA booked for the entire weekend. The first three hotels that I tried were booked and now my bride is in tears.  After 3 hours I found a room in downtown Allentown, PA.  We checked in at 2am.

I'll spare the details but after a long day and a stressful drive, I left the keys in the door to our room . Early in the morning the maid saw the keys and surprised us by coming into the room.  She threw the keys on the bed, mumbled "Men" and quickly left. 

Later that morning we decided to fill the tank with gas and head for Niagara Falls.  I noticed that the back tire was low, so I backed the car toward the air compressor. Since I was used to driving a small MG I misjudged the distance and hit the air pump, which caused a loud popping sound.  Turns out I knocked the air nozzle completely off of the compressor.  The attendant was busy and didn't hear the sound, so I took the limp air hose and acted like I was adding air to the tire.  We decided to get gas at another station.

At this point, my bride is second guessing the last 24 hours, so we decided to bag the honeymoon and head back to Dover, PA.  Years later, we did take a non-eventful trip to Niagara Falls.

Three incredible kids and eleven grandkids later.....looking back over the last 44 years it is clear that, even after a rocky start, we are beyond blessed. 

For a related post on this blog click HERE.

FOUNDING BROTHERS - Last week a good friend gave me this fascinating book about the Revolutionary Generation.  Our founding fathers lived such a different life than we do today.  Check out this excerpt from a chapter called "The Duel" 

"On the morning of July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were rowed across the Hudson River in a separate boats to a secluded spot near Weehawken, New Jersey.  There they exchanged pistol shots at ten paces.  Hamilton was struck on his right side and died the following day. Though unhurt, Burr found that his reputation suffered an equally fatal wound.  In this, the most famous duel in American history, both participants were casualties." 

Most people know about this duel, but think about what might happen today if Biden and Lew would have a disagreement and settle it this way.  Better yet, let's do our country a favor and encourage Obama and Boehner to take a boat ride across the Hudson River.   Maybe we would see some forward movement if one of these career politicians got out of the way.