What a weekend, friends.
As I write this now on Monday evening, I am SO thankful we had a snow day today here in Maine so I could catch up on my homework, do all my laundry, rinse 3 different airports from body, and write this post. I’m not even exaggerating guys-my body is HURTING as the exhaustion of travel is catching up to me now. Please continue to pray that I can get all caught up.
But enough of that! Let me tell you about the weekend! I’m sure you’re dying to know. Also, I wrote a poem that will be featured below about traveling through the south for a whole weekend-hope you like it! If you don’t have time to read this whole post, the poem will do a pretty good job of summing it up-it goes through every place I stopped on this wild trip! 😄
After a long day on Thursday, I made it to Liesel’s house in Portland. I stayed the night there and at 4:00 am we headed out for the Portland Airport. I made my connection in Philly (not barely, but it was closer than I normally like) because you cannot get a direct flight anywhere out of PWM. From Philly it was off to Atlanta, where Tatum saved the day (Tatum always saves the day, though) by picking me up and after we picked up Willy and made sure Katie, who was originally supposed to drive, was still alive (she was sick in bed), we fought our way through Atlanta traffic and were Baton Rouge bound. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel somewhere in Alabama, and 9 hours total at around midnight, we pulled into our airbnb and had a nice night of sleeping into Saturday morning.
After a fantastic brunch and a quick run to SuperTarget Saturday morning/afternoon, all the ranch folks were accounted for at our airbnb. This is where things got fun. All 7 of us started to get ready for the wedding, and it was just like old days at the ranch the day of the Cheyenne rodeo with too many people and not enough mirror space!
The joy these women exhuberate is amazing.
The wedding itself was absolutely gorgeous, phenomenal, and mind-blowing. It was the first wedding I have ever been to, and Chris and Liz pulled out all the stops for this party, that’s for sure! It was very strange to see all us ranch people dressed up. I was so used to seeing all these people in jeans, button downs, and cowboy hats that suits and makeup was weird now! I think one of the guests at the ranch who was at the wedding came up to us staff and said he didn’t recognize us without all the mud. Go figure, I guess!
We ate, we danced, I cried when Liz came down the aisle, and it was quite a party to say the least. After fighting the Mardi Gras traffic home (because on top of everything else, this weekend was Mardi Gras of course) we changed out of our fancy getups and I crashed in bed.
Sunday morning was hard, because it was time to say goodbye. It’s never goodbye forever, but with ranch people, it always seems so. My heart is like a balloon when I’m with them. It’s so full and light, but when we have to part, it feels like it pops and shatters because I miss my friends so much. I sat at the Baton Rouge airport for 7 hours because my flight wasn’t supposed to leave until 5:00 PM.
Sunday morning makeup and breakfast at the house.
It is at this point that I would now like to award the MVP’s for this trip. 1) Tatum Utley for picking me up in Atlanta when Katie was too sick, and if she didn’t, well I might not have gotten to this wedding. 2) Gabriel at the MSNBC kiosk store in the BR airport. I picked up a book and begged him to let me sit right outside the store and he could keep an eye on me and let read it without having to pay for it. I was so surprised that he said yes, and it did kill all the time I had. THANK YOU GABRIEL, I TRULY WOULD HAVE GONE MAD! The book was so fantastic and impactful it will be getting its own blog post soon, so be on the lookout.
My flight to Atlanta was delayed because of the tornadoes and rainstorms that were coming in, and I was so scared I was going to be stuck in the Atlanta airport for the night. I got on the flight, and before we landed the flight attendants were able to tell me that the Atlanta to Portland flight was also delayed. PRAISE. GOD. I timed myself getting from D terminal to A terminal (which was about a mile, no joke), and if that second connection hand’t been delayed, I would not have made it and that was the LAST flight into Portland for the night. I did not expect to get my week’s worth of cardio running in gypsy pants through the Atlanta airport, and if I had known what a sprint it would be, well let’s just say I would have worn a sports bra. Luckily I made it with time to spare, and got on the plane for the second to last stretch of travel.
Once we landed at midnight and I turned airplane mode off on my phone, I got messages from my friend Rikki saying she could pick me up and drop me off in Gorham since she was on her way there anyway. WHAT!? Keep in mind, it is now 1 AM, and I now do not have to pay for a cab back home!!! We drove home in the snowstorm, alone on the roads, and it was so much better than paying for a random man to drive me home after the day I just had. God is just so good sometimes.
I collapsed in my bed at 2:00 am with my alarm set for 8:30 am for class. But as you now know, today was a snow day, and I had all of today to catch up on sleep, do my laundry, take a shower, clean my room, and write this post and begin to process all that happened this weekend. Glen Cummings gets the honorable mention for this trip for cancelling school all day today.
So now I am starting to save up for the next one-Katie’s wedding in Texas in May! People think I’m absolutely out of my mind to spend so much money and travel so far for just a wedding, but it is such an honor that Liz wanted me to share in the happiest day of her life with her, how could I refuse? Y’all know how much friendships mean to me. This is just something friends do (good ones, at least).
No matter how many states I have to cross or tornadoes I have to dodge, I’ll be there.
Pan American to the Bayou (2019)
I. Portland, ME
The snow is lingering, and a long day ends
in Portland in the bed of a friend with
mulled apple cider lulling us to sleep.
II. Philadelphia, PA
It’s disgusting out here in Philly,
but after all, this is only a stop.
A pause, after the tip-toed sprint to the gate to keep going…
III. Atlanta, GA
Georgia was hot compared to home.
Muggy air and chick-fil-a to kick off the 9 hour drive to Baton Rouge,
this is the start of my first time through the deep south-
Alabama, Mississippi, while we listen to a Bill Murray documentary and the
local radio stations driving through the rolling hills.
IV. Mobile, Alabama
In Mobile, I got my tastes of southern hospitality and collard greens,
and I liked the hospitality better.
People eat so much food in the south-portion control is not a thing!
Biscuits, all day every day, food fried and smothered with all the
yummy greasy things that are absolutely terrible for you!
And now I now why they say everything in the south is bigger.
V. Baton Rouge, LA
My eyes were to heavy to see Mississippi,
but we pulled in on fumes to Baton Rouge at midnight.
The wedding was in full swing,
a happy couple glowing white, with a party that pulled no punches
And all the friends from ranch life gathered and stay together.
It’s funny because I see not our fancy dresses and suits but jeans and button downs and cowboy hats and mud.
These people that I’ve lived through the trenches with, all bonded by that, now drinking champagne and wearing heels.
On Sunday morning,
there is nothing left in the house besides paper towels of lipstick kisses and lonely echoes as we all head out the door.
And I wonder
(I hate when I wonder)
when the next time we will have this will ever come again.
I cried in Louisiana
and it was no surprise ’cause it’s so darn humid here, and it’s only right that I should saturate too.
What an escape, if only for a weekend, and so soon it will be back to the normal routine with my yankee friends.
This double life of cowboy and Bean boots will tug at your heartstrings,
wising so bad for both the rocky oceans of New England (which is home) and the high mountains of the West (where life, even I will admit, is just simpler sometimes)
As I slowly make my way home from a truly Pan-American trip, I wonder if anyone else lives this double-life like I do
But I catch myself,
because I know that I’m the only one who can live this (my) life.
Wild adventures will teach you that, no matter what state in this great nation you call home.
~J
PS: Guess what! I found a surprise at the Cracker Barrel in Alabama-Moxie! I laughed my head off so hard-who would have thought that awful (in my opinion) Maine drink would be in a store all the way in Alabama. Why do people like this stuff???
Water from the Rock 