Foggy in Alabama

When we left our heroes, they were sitting in an apartment in Purvis, Mississippi, awaiting the events of Friday, January 2. That afternoon, they drove, accompanied by Nicole's mom, to Mobile, Alabama, where a room on the twenty-sixth floor of the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel awaited them. They met up with Nicole's aunt and uncle (Christine and Richard), went out to dinner with the whole family, plus the family of the bride, and then went bowling.

I won't report on the scores of the bowling, but suffice it to say that it went all right. At the bowling alley, Christine discovered that our youngest hero, Rachel, was sprouting a tooth. No wonder she had been acting funny. Her father stuck her pacifier into a bag of ice, and all was well.

The wedding of Roy (Taylor, Jr.) and Haley was scheduled to occur the morning of the following day, aboard the Carnival cruise ship M/S Holiday. As our heroes were preparing themselves early Saturday, a call came from Roy (Taylor, Jr.) alerting them to a hiccup in the plan. The ship was delayed. The status of the wedding was in limbo. Mobile was under a thick blanket of fog, which covered even the twenty-sixth floor of the hotel.

Our heroes waited around their Mobile hotel for several hours, when finally word came that they should head to the port to board the ship at 2pm. This was four hours later than expected. They hurried up, and then waited, as the ship did not even arrive at the pier until 2:45. They sat on the floor, and the youngest among them tried to crawl around on her blanket, as thousands of passengers disembarked. Finally, just about 5pm, the wedding party was the first to board the ship. After that, the ceremony and reception went quickly, finishing up just after 7pm.

Our heroes had planned to drive Saturday afternoon to the home of Jason and Jenn Bigelow, and their two young children, Jay and Evie. That plan had suffered greatly. Instead, they set off at 7:15pm, along I-10. Shortly thereafter, the rains came, and didn't let up until they got through New Orleans more than two hours later. That time was punctuated by 30 minutes completely stopped on the interstate waiting for an accident to clear. Fortunately, Nicole managed to climb into the back seat and feed Rachel during this hiatus, as our youngest hero had awoken quite hungry.

The visit with the Bigelows was shorter than expected. Our heroes did not finally arrive at the residence in Houma until nearly midnight. They chatted with Jenn and Jason (the children were asleep) for a few hours, then all went to bed. In the morning, Rachel played with Evie and Jay, and slept while Jay watched Wall-E. Our heroes departed a little after 1pm Sunday afternoon to return the rental car to Hertz and fly home from New Orleans.

After a stop in Nashville, and another in Chicago (Midway), our heroes finally arrived home in Pittsburgh late Sunday night. Rachel was a champion traveler, only complaining about her teething during short intervals between flights. Now the family is home and back to normal for a few days, before Mary comes to visit Thursday afternoon. She's currently cruising around the Gulf of Mexico on the M/S Holiday.