39 And Counting

Rod & Donna - 39th Anniversay

Another Halloween - another anniversary! A bit of history: to those of you who didn't already know - Donna and I were married on Halloween in Las Vegas in 1969. I was headed off to active duty in Texas (basic training and advanced training) in the California National Guard, and we had one weekend before I shipped out. Her parents, my parents, Donna's sister and husband, and her brother made the quick trip from the L.A. area to Vegas on a Friday morning.



We got there Friday afternoon (on Halloween) and I headed to the county office to get our wedding license. After 5:00pm on Fridays weekend rates took over, and that was the difference between $8 and $15 for the license. Hey, remember it was 1969, when a dollar was worth 50 cents! I plucked up the $8, only to have the clerk tell me "holiday" rates applied. After mumbling something about Nevada recognizing Halloween as a real holiday, I was informed that it was Nevada's Admission Day. Ooops.

License in hand, we went scouting for a chapel...no problem there! We settled on The Courthouse Chapel, which I tried to get for Saturday, November 1. It was time for both of our parents to intervene (remember we were young, and it was 1969): "You guys aren't staying together in the same hotel room if you're not married!" That settled that, we got married on Friday night, Halloween!

So now you know the story!

Back to the present...since it was Friday, and our coach was in service, we asked the Customer Care people to suggest a place for us to have breakfast - a bagel place came highly recommended, so we headed downtown for a bite to eat. We did a little shopping, then went back to Country Coach. While waiting for our coach to come back, we got another recommendation for dinner - The Oregon Express restaurant. Dinner in an old railroad diner car sounded great!

Donna opted for scampi, and I had prime rib. We followed it up with a raspberry and vanilla chocolate cake dessert. Excellent choices! Thanks for the recommendation, Country Coach!!