In
1998, not long after getting married, Amy and I spent Memorial Day weekend
camping on a small island on Smith Mountain Lake. The weather was
unbelievable cold for late May and caught everyone off guard. We had a
great time even though we were freezing and got to chop lots of firewood and
huddle around the campfire together. (notice how close the chairs are to
each other). We met Sharon, Keith and Doc that weekend. They had
just gotten engaged (they're now married and expecting their first baby.)
Brian and Jenny Hunt were the only other old married folks there. Ken
Williams, Bob Race, Mark Lavin, Mike Joyce, Brooke Richardson (now Brooke
Joyce), and Melissa Fore made up the rest of the troupe. The lions share
of that group now make up our Dinner Club.
On our way to the lake it was dark, we were late, and we
were lost.
(1998 pre-dated cell phones too, at least it did for us)
Amy
and I were mad at each other over directions and had rode around for a long time
without talking. I had the hiccups the entire time. After what
seemed like a year of silence, Amy screams at the top of her lungs. I am
really surprised it didn't give me a heart attack and that we didn't wreck.
But I lost the hiccups and we were back to being happy little newlyweds again.
Other things I remember about that weekend are knee boarding for the first time
and that noisy guy named Rooster that setup camp next to us in the middle of the
night (that's a whole other story).