[at-l] Hiker/Musician Wedding

[Art Cloutman]

Kipling Hill is mountain top in Tunbridge Vermont.  Yesterday after 
noon,  Fancy Free aka Janet Clark, married Jim Abbott.  You may 
remember that after her thru hike of the AT  Fancy purchased property 
in Glencliff New Hampshire to open the Hiker's Welcome Hostel across 
the street from the post office.  It has passes hands a couple of 
times since then but is still run as a hostel at a critical point 
along the AT - just before the "Whites".  I met Fancy while doing my 
Thru hike in 2004.  She was out for a reunion hike planning to do 
just the Smokies but ended up hiking all the way to Kent, Ct.  She is 
now back to teaching elementary school in Vermont where she met Jim 
Abbott.  Amongst  other things, Jim is a musician.  He meets weekly 
at a local establishment to play his music with other musicians of a 
like mind.  So you can see that amongst those attending the wedding 
were family members,  friends from work, friends from music and 
friends from the trail.  I guess I should have known but I discovered 
music people are a lot like hikers.  Many wear their hair long, dress 
in unusual manners, are passionate about their avocation, and all are 
very friendly.

It was an amazing wonderful wedding. The procession was accompanied 
by bagpipes.  Jim wore a plaid kilt and Fancy wore a country style 
gown with a sash that matched Jim's Kilt.  Two singers framed the 
ceremony with appropriately stirring songs.  The official part of the 
ceremony was very brief.  It was windy and drizzly but some pockets 
of sunshine broke through and a rainbow blessed   joining.  We 
caravanned back to the town hall where a pot luck supper ensued.  One 
of the members of the wedding party has an apple vineyard.  He 
supplied hard apple cider which he bottled and aged himself for the 
toasts.  After dinner we retired to the main room of the town hall 
where the musicians produced their instruments and played song after 
song.  Primarily country music with lots of stringed instruments and 
the musicians ranged in age from 16 to 76 years old.  I had a 100 
mile trip back to the Lakes Region of NH so had to leave before the 
featured band began to play.  It was a wonderful experience and I 
could not help thinking about Felix and Pilot with their recent 
mountain top wedding.
-- 

Life is Good!!!
Art Cloutman