Johnna and Paul arrived at the Three Hills Inn on Friday, April 24, 1998. Bear, our loyal German Shepherd and best dog, was there to greet us. However, aside from some of Paul's family, no one had arrived yet. Johnna and Paul took advantage of the reprieve from duty, and headed for a nice, leisurely dip in the Warm Springs Baths, where FDR used to go for hydrotherapy. (Remember that Johnna and Paul had been without any hot running water for three days!) The baths are heated naturally by springs that are 98 degrees all year round. Julie, Paul's sister, went as well. After Johnna and Paul were completely pruny, we left to go back up to the Inn, but on the way back, remembered that we still hadn't gotten the marriage lisence yet. So we turned around and drove to the Courthouse. The Clerk of the Court, Mr. Claude Dodson, very kindly offered to marry Johnna and Paul on the spot, but we felt pretty strongly that we wanted our ceremony to be the real one, so we decided to wait.

At 4:00 that afternoon, the Inn prepared high tea for all the guests, so that Johnna's and Paul's family would have some time to get to know each other. Later that evening, Paul's father, Doug, and his wife, Donna, hosted a wonderful pre-wedding dinner at The Inn at Grist Mill, just down the hill from the Inn. We had a private upstairs room that was beautifully lit with candles. The food was incredible, and desert was ice cream with chocolate sauce. The evening was also special because it was also Johnna's parents' 34th wedding anniversary. Doug made a terrific toast to them. We gave our parents, grandparents and close friends pie servers engraved with our names on them. As a joke, we told everyone who had received one that they would have to serve pie at the wedding the next night. Much to our surprise, everyone wanted to!

After dinner, our good friend, Dean Scott, put on a fabulous music sing-a-long back at the Inn. Dean played guitar, as did Laurie. Gene luckily had brought his suite of harmonicas, and Chris his native American drum, and everyone else brought their voices. It was a boisterous noise, and sometimes, we even sounded pretty good!

At the after-party in the Crabapple Cottage, all the guys smoked cigars out on the porch, while Andrea read Johnn'a tarot cards. It was an auspicious reading and the future bodes well.