OH to IL and back again

After a whirlwind weekend, I'm back in OH sans Sarah and Big E, who have stayed behind in IL with Uncle "Bubba" and Aunt "Yi" (Benji and Liz). I picked up Debbie (Sarah's mom) at the Indy airport on Friday night at 11:55pm... since she was 1:30 late, we decided to get a room in Indy instead ov driving the addtl 3hr to Decatur IL for a wedding the next day. Let me tell you-- I now know why they "leave the light on for you" at Motel 6 -- it's so all the cockroaches scatter before you open the door. :-)

After a rather uneventful evening (except for the fact that the fan made it sound like a semi was idling in our bathroom), we hit the road and arrived in Decatur to meet Sarah and Ethan who had gone ahead of us. We did a little running around and exploring, had lunch at La Gondola (home of the slightly strange sweet bread) and got a little snack at Del's Popcorn Shop(YUMM-O). Some of the best caramel corn and definitely the best kettle corn I have EVER had. The wedding was later that evening in Clinton -- nice service, lots of Sarah's family involved... her brother and cousin sang and her uncle did the marryin'... Ethan behaved VERY well and kept announcing to everyone that he knew the people up there... at one quiet point during the minister's message, he proudly exclaimed "Pa-paw" (Sarah's uncle) -- needless to say, that was Papaw's favorite part of the entire wedding! One thing that I thought was cool that I had never seen before -- Nick and Jessica (bride and groom) actually came back in again after the recessional and dismissed the guests. Quite a nice touch. Wish I would have thought of that... :-)

Back again to Decatur for the reception -- fairly uneventful, but there were some items of note...

1. It was held in a Masonic Temple. Nice place, but I had never been to one before. It's a little more interesting to me after the whole DaVinci Code thing lately...
2. Food was quite good
3. Beer was quite not
4. Neither was the wine
5. During the reception, one of the centerpieces (a bottle of some sort of cherry infused wine) spontaneously exploded, drenching the entire table of 60+'s with red liquid. We think it got too close to the candles on the table, which heated the air inside the bottle and then "PRESTO" -- instant entertainment!

Afterwards, we headed to Benji and Liz's place in Tuscola IL. We went to church outside in the park the next morning as part of the 150th Anniverary celebration for the town (otherwise known as the 'Sesqicentennial'). Benji's band sounded great despite the heat out there, and we enjoyed a great message. We then headed home for a short rest, returning at 2pm for a set of original music by Benji and the band... now known as Taking Refuge (although some of the promotional items out there heralded them as Taking REFUSE)... ! The played well, and we stuck around to hear the headliner, Building 429. Great band. Check them out online. Very cool.

Went out to dinner that evening with Liz's parents and I began the uneventful trek home around 7:30 -- which was 8:30 EST. Got back at midnight, yutzed around for a while and went to bed. All in all, I probably logged 600 miles and ate my share of Del's popcorn. Not a bad weekend. Can't wait till Sarah gets home. :-(