Wedding Blog

Late last week, my mom decided that she’d like to join me on my trip to Montana for my Super Wedding Weekend. At first, I was a little worried about my mom being there. It meant that couldn’t have any “secret single behavior” time on my grand solo adventure.

I don’t know what “secret single” things I imagined doing out there in a secluded cabin, but I don’t get to spend a lot of time alone, so I was looking forward to it.

Anyway, after about five minutes of selfish wheedling, I realized just how great it was that my mom wanted to come. She’s been very busy and somewhat detached from the wedding planning process so far, and I’ve gotten used to that. On the one hand, I’ve been happy that neither she, nor Mr. Cherry Pie’s mom, nor any other relative tried to take the reigns from me. On the other hand, I’ve felt overwhelmed by the planning at being somewhat alone in my enthusiasm for the wedding a lot of the time.

I’ve been so used to going it alone that it didn’t even occur to me to ask her to come with me. Once I realized that this would be the perfect way to get my mom involved in the planning process, I was really psyched. We’d get to do wedding stuff… together!

I looked into getting her a discount Amtrak ticket but they were sold out. No big, right? We could get a regular ticket, maybe even a sleeping compartment for the overnight trip! I called up Amtrak to ask about the price of splitting a sleeping compartment.

It looked fun, but it just wasn’t affordable for a weekend trip. No worries, right? We can handle sitting in coach seats for one night. Then I asked about packing up our bikes for transport.

They told me that we couldn’t take bikes on the train.

Welllll, we were kind of relying on the bikes to get to the cabin, being that there are no shuttles or other public transport running this early in the season. And bike transport was the reason I bought my ticket in the first place.

They explained that West Glacier is a carry-on, carry-off station only, meaning that they don’t stop long enough to unload checked bags and bikes. They said we could train into Kalispell and rent a car or ride our bikes or the bus from there. Aside from getting ridiculously complicated, the train trip combined with other time/money expenditures was looking quite expensive.

So Amtrak is refunding my ticket and mom and I are driving out to Montana today. It’s a 10-hour drive and the cost of gas will equal the cost of my discount train ticket. We’ll take turns driving (like Mr. Cherry Pie and I usually do) and enjoy the scenery. It’s supposed to be gorgeous, green, and UNSEASONABLY warm out there this weekend.

I’m bringing my bathing suit!

I am disappointed because I really, really wanted to take the train… I never have! But, I’m glad I called Amtrak to ask about a ticket for my mom because otherwise I would have shown up to the station today with my bike and then I woulda been sh*t outta luck. So my grand solo adventure is looking slightly less solo and slightly less grand but it will be an adventure nevertheless.

With everything we have planned—floral appointment, food and cake tastings, hair and makeup trial, listening to our band, and visiting our venue to plot the ceremony and reception locations— I’ll have a lot to report on when I come back on Monday. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to hear about, comment to let me know and I’ll fill you in when I get back.

(Image Sources: 1, 2, 3)