February 14, 1980We were married on Valentine’s Day, in Los Angeles, in a torrential downpour with high winds. Only a few pictures were taken outside – our coats blowing, and hair flying. Valentine’s Day was a Thursday. The reception was Friday night.
The plan was to go to Big Bear on Friday for our honeymoon. My father-in-law had a friend that graciously offered the use of his cabin for the few days we had. Because of the weather, Big Bear was snowed in, and we couldn’t make it there. We were poorer than church mice, so this put a severe damper on our weekend.
Luckily Ray’s aunt had paid for the hotel for our wedding night. It was at the Ventura Holiday Inn, right on the beach. We were thrilled. We checked in about 1:00 p.m. At six we were starving. We wracked our brains. Where could we go? Ray remembered that his dad had a running tab at a pizza place about twenty minutes away. We showed up at the pizza place, ate dinner, and unashamedly put the bill on Dad’s account. The next morning we checked out of the hotel, and discovered our car had been broken into sometime during the night. The driver wing window (remember those?) of our VW was broken, but nothing else was damaged – just ransacked.
That night was our reception at my parents’ home. We traveled between Ray’s parents and my parents that day for meals, “coincidentally” showing up right when they were ready to eat. Big Bear was still closed so we stayed our second night at the Motel 6 in Camarillo. We thought we’d just drive back to BYU the next day, but the roads were closed because of flooding. Now we were in a real quandary – no money to pay for a place to stay and we didn’t really want to ask either of our parents to stay at their home. Another blessing came along. Ray’s grandparents went out of town and we were invited to stay at their house.
The next day my mom called to tell us the roads were temporarily open to get through to Utah, so we scampered around, packed up the car, and took off. Our car was a VW bug. It was packed to the gills. We even had a lampshade between us in the front seats. Ray is over six feet tall and the seats were both pushed up as far as they would go. It was going to be a long twelve hours on the road!
About midnight we stopped in Cedar City. We were so tired that we thought we’d pull over and sleep for a while. Not a chance in that cramped little car. We got back on the road. It began to rain. That’s when we discovered the windshield wipers were no longer working. It poured rain and sleeted once in a while. For a large portion of the remainder of the trip Ray had to hang his head out the window to see where he was going. We were so happy to pull up to our little apartment and climb in bed.
Fiasco? Perhaps. Great memory? Positively.
The plan was to go to Big Bear on Friday for our honeymoon. My father-in-law had a friend that graciously offered the use of his cabin for the few days we had. Because of the weather, Big Bear was snowed in, and we couldn’t make it there. We were poorer than church mice, so this put a severe damper on our weekend.
Luckily Ray’s aunt had paid for the hotel for our wedding night. It was at the Ventura Holiday Inn, right on the beach. We were thrilled. We checked in about 1:00 p.m. At six we were starving. We wracked our brains. Where could we go? Ray remembered that his dad had a running tab at a pizza place about twenty minutes away. We showed up at the pizza place, ate dinner, and unashamedly put the bill on Dad’s account. The next morning we checked out of the hotel, and discovered our car had been broken into sometime during the night. The driver wing window (remember those?) of our VW was broken, but nothing else was damaged – just ransacked.
That night was our reception at my parents’ home. We traveled between Ray’s parents and my parents that day for meals, “coincidentally” showing up right when they were ready to eat. Big Bear was still closed so we stayed our second night at the Motel 6 in Camarillo. We thought we’d just drive back to BYU the next day, but the roads were closed because of flooding. Now we were in a real quandary – no money to pay for a place to stay and we didn’t really want to ask either of our parents to stay at their home. Another blessing came along. Ray’s grandparents went out of town and we were invited to stay at their house.
The next day my mom called to tell us the roads were temporarily open to get through to Utah, so we scampered around, packed up the car, and took off. Our car was a VW bug. It was packed to the gills. We even had a lampshade between us in the front seats. Ray is over six feet tall and the seats were both pushed up as far as they would go. It was going to be a long twelve hours on the road!
About midnight we stopped in Cedar City. We were so tired that we thought we’d pull over and sleep for a while. Not a chance in that cramped little car. We got back on the road. It began to rain. That’s when we discovered the windshield wipers were no longer working. It poured rain and sleeted once in a while. For a large portion of the remainder of the trip Ray had to hang his head out the window to see where he was going. We were so happy to pull up to our little apartment and climb in bed.
Fiasco? Perhaps. Great memory? Positively.
That's a great story! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletethat was quite the adventure! thank you for making my honeymoon not quite as adventurous as that!
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