Part I: Rich and Molly Get Hitched in Hayfork

Rob’s best friend is Rich Greenwood. His fiancé is Molly Rourke. Last weekend, Rich and Molly invited 200 guests to Hayfork for their wedding. This is part one of the story of two city folk on a big adventure! Click here to see all the photos!

Rob and I loaded up the rented RV on Thursday night. Miraculously, we found four open parking spots right in front of our apartment building and packed everything quickly. It’s stressful driving a RV in the city, even a small 20 foot RV. We eventually made it over the bridge and headed north to Red Bluff, where we spent a boiling night at a hot Wal-Mart parking lot after our four hour drive.

On Friday, we picked up Rob’s tux in Redding. Good thing he tried it on first, the pants were hemmed at least four inches too short! He would have looked more like Pee Wee Herman than a best man. After a quick tailoring we hooked a left and drove to Hayfork. After a very curvy hour in the mountains, the Rourke ranch appeared! This lovely 1,000 acre cattle ranch has been in their family for six generations. We parked the RV down by the creek and were put to work immediately. Rob set up tables while Margaret and I went to pick wildflowers for the centerpieces. Here’s a great shot of us hard at work in the hot sun. Of course, ten minutes after this photo was taken I went half blind with heat stroke and spent the next two hours drinking Gatorade on the shady porch!

A BBQ rehearsal dinner was held that evening with Molly’s uncle cooking up hot dogs and hamburgers. Around 9pm, the women folk trucked over to the local high school to arrange all the flowers for tomorrow’s ceremony. This was supposed to have been done earlier in the day, but promptness isn’t one of Rich and Molly’s many lovely attributes. The family worked on making the bouquets and boutonnieres with hydrangea, tulip, rose, peony and lavender. The rest of us peons were tasked with hacking up seven buckets of local wildflowers into 30 centerpieces and 60 teacups…with steak knives, not scissors. I immediately went into PR crisis mode and set up an assembly line. Here’s a photo of Rich’s Parisian aunt helping with the arrangements. All the flowers were done around 12:30. I met up with Rob watching a movie on the side of the hay barn and took my scraped up fingers straight to bed.

The cows woke me up on Saturday morning. Apparently cows really do wear cowbells, who knew!? Here’s a photo of the Rourke herd. After a leisurely breakfast, Rob headed off for his best man duties. By this time, most of our friends from San Francisco and SLO had arrived. I made sandwiches for everyone before we headed down to the nearest swimming hole for a much needed dip. The water was delicious and, despite a small water snake, we swam for about two hours. The wedding started at 4:00, so it was already time to get ready. My DVF dress was lovely but was of course a semi-ridiculous choice for this particular event. We looked very much like “city folk” with the rest of the guests wearing their best wranglers and cowboy hats.

Molly looked absolutely gorgeous! The ceremony was the perfect length, the flower arrangements were lovely and the wedding went off without a hitch. Molly’s uncle served up pit roasted beef and BBQ beans for dinner. Rob’s best man speech was a hit! Rich’s dad made everyone misty-eyed with his emotional speech. I got “Cotton Eye Joe” stuck in my head for the next two days. After the happy couple took off for the other end of the ranch, the rest of us walked back to the camping area for an after-party until 1:30 am.

The next morning, we walked back to the main house for brunch at 10 am. Finally! A meal without beef! I feasted on sausage, fruit salad, hash browns and pancakes cooked up by Molly’s uncle. The newlyweds made an appearance at 11:30, well after most of the guests had headed home. We chatted with Rich’s family while they opened their wedding gifts. Around 2:00 we hugged everyone and drove off for part two of our weekend adventures!

Coming tomorrow: Part two of our adventure. Rob and I camp on the Lost Coast!