![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.butchieboy.info\/ThorpeRobertKarenWedding-04-19690501.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFriday, May 1st was Karen and my 40th wedding anniversary. It was also Lance and Cherise’s 10th wedding anniversary. We called and asked them if they would like to go out to dinner together but they had already made reservations earlier. A little later Lance called back and asked if we would like to have him try and make their reservation for 4 people instead of 2. We said that sounded good, so he made the arrangements. On the big day we drove to Iowa City and picked them up then went to the Augusta Restaurant in Oxford, a small town to the west of Iowa City. The owners located there in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. As you might expect, there were Cajun touches to the menu. Cherise and I had ribeye steaks and Lance and Karen had something they called Hanger steak, whatever that is. It was marinated and the chef sliced it thinly to serve it.<\/p>\n
Karen had to work all day and I was feverishly trying to finish up arrangements for hotels, train rides, and passes to museums and the Metro in Paris. We didn’t have time to do anything else but go to dinner, come home, and go to sleep.<\/p>\n
We were married May 1, 1969. It was a civil ceremony performed by Judge Harold Vietor at the Linn County Court House, here in Cedar Rapids. The judge stood in front of the bench with Karen and I facing him along with my best man, Jim Cada and Karen’s maid-of-honor, my sister Judy. The rest of the family sat in the jury box passing sentence.<\/p>\n
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After that we went to Les and Ruby’s, Karen’s parent’s house for a small reception where we cut the cake.<\/p>\n
![\"Cutting](\"http:\/\/www.butchieboy.info\/CuttingTheCake.jpg\")
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After our reception we drove to Iowa City where they were having the riverside Thieves’ Market. Back then it was called Gentle Thursday.<\/p>\n
Towards the end of the day we went to Palisades Park to start our honeymoon. We borrowed a tent from Phyllis Brooks, Judy’s old Girl Scout leader. It was an umbrella tent with two side extensions. We had never seen it before and couldn’t figure out how it all went together. We got the center part up but had to extend the wings by tying them to a picnic table and the bumper of the car. We borrowed Judy’s Volkswagen because we didn’t own a car yet.<\/p>\n
![\"Cobbled](\"http:\/\/www.butchieboy.info\/CobbledTent.jpg\")
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The second part of our honeymoon was at Devil’s Backbone State Park. To our relief, we saw a tent just like ours as we drove in and I got a quick lesson from its owner on how to put it up.<\/p>\n
![\"Proper](\"http:\/\/www.butchieboy.info\/ProperAssemby.jpg\")
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After the camping honeymoon it was home and the start of our 40 year married life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, May 1st was Karen and my 40th wedding anniversary. It was also Lance and Cherise’s 10th wedding anniversary. We called and asked them if they would like to go out to dinner together but they had already made reservations … Continue reading