The End of June ALREADY!

Amazing how quickly time flies when you are having fun!

It has been an interesting couple of weeks. I did two island events back to back. These are generally the toughest to do logistically. You have to be on a Ferry at a certain time or you risk being very late.

My June 17th island event was at Jones' Landing on Peaks Island three miles from Portland. Fortunately, they have a car ferry which is much easier to deal with. It costs about $70 round trip and they fill up fast in the summertime so you generally need to be there at least one hour in advance of the boat's departure. It was a very fun party with all of the guests being from New York, Chicago, or Boston (not one single Mainer except me!) I don't believe I played a bad song during the open dancing.

I took a brief vacation the following Monday through Friday at Smuggler's Notch in Vermont. The grounds were very nice and they had plenty of activities. The place we stayed at was kind of dark and really nothing special (especially for $200 a night). My wisdom tooth extraction played a big role too as I had headaches caused by what we think was a tiny hole in my gums.

Thank you Anbesol and Orajel for helping me through that week!

So then we get to Saturday June 24th. This time the wedding was on Chebeague Island, just off the Cumberland coastline. It is accessible by two ferries, one based in Cumberland that is more expensive and a lot more work, or the Casco Bay Lines in Portland. It is a much less expensive, much longer boat trip.

I had called CBL on Friday asking about schedules. The wedding was 3-10pm. I was told to take a 10:00am ferry out that would arrive at noon and an 11:40 ferry home that would arrive after 1:00am.

That's a very long day, but I had prepared for that and built in extra fees.

When I arrived at 8:30 on Saturday morning, I was told the same thing. Packed my freight into their carts and got onboard the ship.

The wedding coordinator meets me at noon at the Chandler's Cove dock on Chebeague. He is barefoot (which raised my eyebrow for a moment) and proceeds to help me load my gear into his truck.

The island had received two inches of rain the night before and it was still foggy. We get to the site and it is muddy everywhere. Since we cannot get close to the site and a cart would not help me, the coordinator again helps me with my gear.

I have a table waiting for me in front of a riser, I test the table by pressing down only to see it sink an inch while barely pushing. I ask to switch tables to a smaller one so I could be up on the riser. This works out very well for everyone.

I am fully setup by 1:30 and the wedding gets underway ontime at 3:30. Unfortnately the bride and groom are 175 feet away from me and about 150 people are surrounding them making it impossible to see. The wedding coordinator does a great job cueing me for music (the minister woould not wear a microphone)

All goes as planned throughout except the mud keeps getting worse. In some spots in the tent it is six inches deep. There was so much mud on the dance floor that the wedding coordinator asked people to dance on the adjacent grass outside of the tent. That worked for about an hour, then they moved in anyway. There was one slip and fall that broke glass on the dance floor, but it generally went well.

As time went on, everyone got mud caked on them. Even the brides dress was completely messed up (I hope she got it thoroughly cleaned). My tuxedo was totally caked in mud to my knees and I had mudspots elsewhere too.

The family surprised the bride and groom with a 15 minute fireworks display atthe end of the night. I played a couple of encore songs and finished up at 10:15.

I am brought over to the dock at 11:15 waiting for an 11:40 ferry back to Portland.

The people that ran the bar were waiting for their water taxi which was late due to the heavy fog. At 11:40, the water taxi arrives and I ask the driver how far behind the CBL Ferry is. he look sat me funny and says there is no ferry on Saturday nights. I ask if he is kidding. He tells me that the ferry runs only on Friday night.

Jonathan, the gentleman who's home was used for the wedding, happens to be fishing at the dock and hears my plight. He tells me I can leave my gear there safely and they would send it over tomorrow morning if I want to take the water taxi. I inquire but the driver says there is no room. He already had the maximum of 8 people onboard.

All the other water taxis are shut down for the night too. I am officially stuck on the island.

Jonathan offers to let me use his air mattress and sleep on the floor of what will be his restaurant.

Of course, I have no change of clothes so I have to wash the mud off my tux pants as best I can. let them dry, then sleep.

I woke up at 6:30 Sunday morning, read the newspaper, then walked back toward the reception site where the wedding family happened to be staying. The best man eventually brought me back to the dock and I arrived back in Portland at 10:15am.

I talked with the CBL management about the error. They apologized and graciously refunded me my freight costs.

That's a story I'm sure I will laughingly tell my grandkids about someday.