On Sunday, May 2, 1999, Michael picked up Cathy at her house pretty much the same way he had every Sunday for the whole four months they had been dating. This time was different, though... in the few days before they had smuggled clothes and a few other things out and put them in Michael's car, and the big problem that Sunday was to get her curling iron and hair dryer out of the bathroom without waking up her mother! Fortunately, her mother was still asleep... they had no problem getting anything out of the house. By 10:30am, they were on the highway on the way to Arkansas!
The place they had decided to get married is the
Little Bell Wedding Chapel
in Harrison, Arkansas. They calculated the drive at about three hours, but Michael wanted to leave a little bit of time available to stop for lunch and a rest break so they wouldn't have to
drive the whole way at one time. (Good thing... the drive turned out to be more like three and a half hours instead of three!) Finally at around 2:30 or so they arrived in Harrison and called the chapel to let them know that they had arrived and to find out if it would be okay for them to eat some lunch at the Long John Silver's they had arrived at. After they ate lunch, the two of them spent a little bit of time writing out their own vows and then headed over to the chapel.
Michael and Cathy had made an appointment for 2:00pm, but because the trip took longer than expected and because of their stop for lunch, it was around 3:00 before they finally arrived at the chapel. They had to wait for the volunteer who was meeting them there, and even then they had a long wait ahead of them... on Sunday, finding a county clerk in that area turned out to be a hit-and-miss proposition. Mostly miss, as a matter of fact... nobody was available to make the license out! After spending some time on the phone trying to locate one of them, the frustrated volunteer suggested a few ways they could spend a little bit of time in Harrison while they waited. Michael was a bit frustrated but patient, but Cathy was becoming genuinely preturbed... so they left to find someplace to relax until it was time to get married.
The two of them wound up at the Harrison McDonald's, eating ice cream and watching Rosie O'Donnell announcing some kid's awards on Nickelodeon. One long wait (nearly two hours) and a couple of pay phone calls back to the chapel later, they learned that the head county clerk had come in from some work he was doing on his land and would soon be ready to make out a license for them. Back to the chapel!
Next: read about The Ceremony!
 visitors since 5/24/99
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