A Golden Finish to Florida Road Trip

We finished up this road trip by attending Patsy’s cousin’s, Betty’s, 50th wedding anniversary celebration in Memphis, TN.

When we left on this trip back on March 15th, we knew about the celebration on Easter Sunday, but we also knew that they weren’t sending out general invitations and were planning a celebration with only the couple’s brothers and sisters, and their children. 

In fact, before we left Victoria, we had to put a note about the couple and a card, hand-made by our daughter-in-law, Laura, in the mail.  These items were to be included in a scrapbook that Betty’s two daughters were assembling for Betty and her husband, Vernon.

However, sometime during the second week of our trip, Betty phoned Patsy, and and asked if we could attend the 50th Anniversary celebration.  We decided that Patsy and I would try to work an Easter weekend visit to Memphis into our trip plan!  I did not argue…….. we have not made our 50th yet!!

Since I tell people that I belong to the CEO church (Christmas and Easter Only), I thought that I would get out of church this Easter because I only had packed jeans and shorts!!!  Not so, I wore jeans (and a button-down shirt from the Memphis Walmart store) to church for Easter Sunday. Of course, I am just kidding about the CEO church……Patsy reads this blog every so often!!

Looking for a campground, we opted for our regular Memphis location, Tom Sawyers RV Park in West Memphis AR.  It is west of Memphis, and across the river in Arkansas, and about 28 miles from Betty and Vernon’s house in Atoka, TN.

After I made the reservations, Patsy then showed me a text that she had from Betty recommending an RV Park located at the Memphis Agricenter, which was close to the church, and her daughter’s house where the party was to be held!! 

I canceled one reservation and made another!  When we arrived, I was pleased…….. It was a simple park, but had good full hookups, and it was nice and clean.  It was also conveniently located, and had it’s own herd of buffaloes.

On Saturday afternoon, we had a lunch at Betty and Vernon’s home.  To keep the grandkids contented, Betty had bought a couple of new toys for them to play with outside………...Some airplanes and a pair of boomerangs.   Well, as you can guess, the grandkids’ fathers soon began playing with them, and got them stuck in the trees!!! 

Poor Vernon….. he didn’t fair much better than my father-in-law when it comes to SIL’s!!

The Anniversary celebration occurred on Easter Sunday (that was the actual date) beginning with the Easter Service at the Lutheran Church and then moving over to daughter, Dana’s home.  Her sister Gina shared the hosting duties.

Here are some pictures:

The Anniversary cake…………..

Betty and Vernon cutting their Anniversary cake……..

SIL “Jim” photo-bombing the happy moment.  I think his face got like that when he fell out of a tree holding a boomerang..…..

Betty and Vernon showing off the scrapbook that their sweet daughters assembled for them and the occasion….

Betty and Vernon posing for photos with daughters, Gina (on the left) and Dana………..

Here’s the original wedding party; remember, it was 50 years ago!  Vernon’s brother, Bill, on the right, and Betty’s sister, Carol, on the left.…………..

To finish our the recognition of the immediate family, here’s Betty and Carol’s little brother, Jack, and his wife, Terri, (see, I remembered this time!!) in the kitchen hiding out!!!!

And lastly, here’s Betty remembering some things from the past 50 years, and thanking everyone for joining them for the occasion.  Vernon is sitting behind her wondering where all the time went????

We were glad we went, and really enjoyed the weekend.  Patsy got to visit with some of her favorite relatives!

Patsy and I left the party about 5:00pm, packed up the Bus, filled the fuel tank at a nearby station, and hit the road by 6:00pm.  We drove until about midnight, and spent the night in a Walmart parking lot in Atlanta, TX.

The next day, Monday, we arrived home about 4:00pm, and had to clean off about a million love bugs off the front of the Bus.

Tuesday morning, I had an appointment with my Dental Surgeon to get a screw put back in the insert for an implant that came out while I was eating a BBQ rib in Florida!!

Wednesday morning, we were back on the road with the Bus traveling to the Pioneer RV Resort in Port Aransas, TX to co-host an RV rally for the Texas Bluebonnet Allegro Club.  We arrived by 1:00pm and got set up……

We are here for the SandFest 2017 Event.  This little town is expected to draw 200,000 people this weekend. 

This will be the next post. Until then…………..