Will gets married

I drove down to Lincoln last Thursday to attend the wedding of my youngest son Will. He was getting married to Erica Lance, a beautiful young woman from Seward, at the Apothecary in the Haymarket in downtown Lincoln. It was 40 degrees when I left McCook but I ran into snow at Holdrege and the temperature quickly dropped down to 34 degrees. I pressed on, hoping it wouldn't get any colder and, thankfully, it didn't. It continued to snow until I got to Kearney and then the snow changed over to rain, the temperature went back up to 37, and it rained the rest of the way.

My former wife, Linda, and son Michael were driving up from Arkansas and I was meeting them at Embassy Suites where I always stay whenever I'm in Lincoln or anywhere else for that matter. Last weekend, however, was the state basketball playoffs and the Embassy was packed with fans and families of the participant schools, including lots of kids. I mean LOTS of kids and they ran and yelled non-stop during our entire stay. I had forgotten how much energy young kids have. They don't rest and, evidently, don't sleep either because the noise level was just as loud in the middle of the night as it was in the middle of the day.

During the Friday night manager's cocktail hour, I ran into Rusty and Annette Eisenhart from Culbertson and two of their children, who were there to root for the Hayes Center Cardinals. I always enjoy talking to Rusty and we shared a couple of cocktails with each other before Linda, Michael and I left for the rehearsal dinner. The dinner was at a Greek restaurant and the food was different but good.

Saturday was the big day and the wedding went off without a hitch. They were married by Will's good friend, Doug Murray, who got his minister's license especially and exclusively for Will and Erica's wedding. Doug told me during the reception that he had already gotten another gig so he has evidently found a way to supplement his regular income. There were a lot of people there, almost all of them from Seward and Lincoln because Lincoln is an eight-hour drive from Russellville, Ark., where Will has lived the last several years and where he graduated from high school. Some people Erica worked with in Russellville made the long drive up and I thought that was a great tribute to Erica.

Will and Michael both idolized their older brother Brandon, who died nine years ago while serving in the Navy, and Will wanted to give his respects to him by getting married on Brandon's birthday.

During the toasts given at the reception, I followed Erica's mom and when I got to the part about them celebrating Brandon's life by getting married on his birthday, I became overcome with emotion and couldn't finish the toast. It was embarrassing for me to have done that in front of 150 strangers but Linda patted me on the back and told me it was OK.

After Will and Michael left McCook Community College to attend the University of Nebraska, they moved into a house on Sumner Street in Lincoln with several friends and most of their former roommates made it to the wedding. Seeing Dub, Shane, John, Michael and Will together again brought back some fond memories from 2001 and 2002. I spent several weekends with them during that span and they visited me in McCook as well and many good times were enjoyed by all of us. They accepted me as a member of their group, despite our age differences, and I felt like a frat boy again whenever we got together. We reminisced about those days between shots of Southern Comfort and talked about our memories, our mementos, and the videos we still have that allows us to at least partially revisit those fun and exciting times whenever we want. I miss those days a lot.

The reception lasted well into the night and all of us were pretty well spent by the time we made it to bed. Will and Erica flew out of Lincoln the next day for their honeymoon in San Diego while Linda and Michael headed back to Russellville and I returned home to McCook, driving in the rain and the fog once again.

I'm back on the road again this weekend, this time to Russellville, for Will's Arkansas wedding reception. Linda and I will be driving over to the Winstar Casino in Oklahoma today to see The Doobie Brothers, my all-time favorite performing rock band, before returning to Arkansas on Saturday for Will's reception and then back to McCook on Sunday. Since I left on Thursday, I missed the snow predicted for this area for today and that's just fine with me.

Both my boys are now college graduates and married. The only thing left is for both of them to find good-paying jobs in the field of their choice and my work will be mostly done.