Hitched and Rolling

Tuesday, Nov 18, 2025.
DC to Cambridge OH.

Well, we did it. We got married! It was a little stressful leading up to the wedding but it all worked out. A big thanks to my parents, my mom in particular for the work that she put in, and to Heather for helping make it all work. The ceremony was administered by Bryan Clubb and was absolutely perfect. I say this in spite of Bryan’s father Chris likely being this blog’s sole reader: Bryan’s ceremony was from the heart and a wonderful mix of humor, insight, wisdom and structure, and it set a very authentic tone for the entire wedding. For his efforts we are deeply grateful. Alex (my cousin) and Ashley (Bre’s friend and my our hiking partner on the AT) gave excellent speeches, and the night was wonderful overall. I would also like to acknowledge Kristen Clubb who won what I am dubbing the unsung hero award for her efforts behind the scenes. My sister Brooke and Bre’s friend (sister) Claire did readings during the ceremony. Honorary mentions to Sam McDonough, our makeshift family videographer, and to Lynn Alexander, our chugging referee.

But this blog is not about the wedding ceremony. It is about the hitched and rolling tour, which kicked off yesterday.

In a turn of events that absolutely no one could have predicted, our first day started much later than expected. A noon departure became 1pm, which morphed easily into 2, and then 3, and we finally actually pulled away just a hair after 4pm.

Our first stop took us to Cambridge, OH, the home of Anthony “Patches” Miller. Patches lives directly off i70 which made his hometown a perfect first stop for us. We are heading out to Denver for this weekend which is basically interstate 70 the entire way. We convinced Patches to buy a one way ticket to DC so that we could drive him home as our first tour stop and he obliged. This is not the topic of this blog, but he and I once attempted to hitchhike from San Francisco to Virginia and in 5 days made it only to Sacramento, so needless to say Patches is up for asphalt-mediated adventure.

After saying our goodbyes we slammed the sliding door shut and turned on the ignition. Having left around 4 it was dark (what felt like) almost instantly, and we three travelers trudged through some mild traffic towards i70.

The drive did not go quickly. We stopped for about 20 minutes to let Duke use the bathroom and grab some dinner, and by the time we got back into the car our ETA had moved back by a little over an hour with no clear explanation whatsoever. So it goes. My friend Grant from law school is house sitting while we are away, and we spent a couple hours on the phone with him on speaker talking about the intricacies of the house and other various topics.

When we finally arrived at Patches’ parents house it was after 11pm. Meg, Patches’ mom, was incredibly welcoming and provided us with an awesome basket of travel snacks. After a few minutes catching up with her we headed back to Patches’ house, where Woo and I slept in our newly-rented van for the first time. It is fairly tight but overall I think we were both glad to find the spaciousness more than adequate. Duke, who is very much unsure how he feels about the trip in general and the van in particular, and was panting and refusing to lay down most of the 6 hour trip, finally curled up with us and went right to sleep. A great first day.