44% Chance of Rain Today

We drove into Green Bay this morning. I guess we assumed the weather would not deteriorate, but the temperature dropped, the wind came up, and it rained off and on most of the day.

We had already planned to go out for breakfast. For the most part, with the exception of Walmart, we have tried to avoid chains and go to places unique to the area. 

I googled restaurants near Lambeau Stadium and found Heavenly Cheesecake. It said they served breakfast and lunch as well as desserts, so I hit the directions button on my phone and the lady’s voice said, “You are there.” It turns out we were pretty close. The food was to die for, though I really wouldn’t want to die for food.

These ladies were most likely the Packer’s football player’s wives. I tried to over eavesdrop but I couldn’t hear anything interesting. 

We took a pastry to go…

The dogs never took their eyes off of us. We try to park and sit where they can see us. It’s not like the chipmunk no one could find in the picture last night. They’re all there except the cat.

Next we went to Lambeau Field. Kip looked around inside, while I walked the dogs around the outside.

Kip is sneaking in extra steps…

After checking out the stadium,we drove up the penninsula to Sturgeon Bay. It was fun looking around downtown and seeing the bay area with all the beautiful yahts.

I took all of the photos below on the drive there and back. All were shot through the car window.

            The Barns of Wisconsin

                **************

               Nature takes her turn

                   “See” Worthy

With thoughts of those in Texas, Montana, Wyoming, and Florida.

               What can we do?

Nature’s power is impossible to restrain.

Mortal’s efforts to control are all in vain.

The storm will come no matter what the worldly say or do.

And it will leave when a higher power says it’s through.

Should we fear that which we can’t control?

Or should we search deep within our soul…

And find the truth? The faith we must possess…

To feel the comfort of natures gentleness.

We pray for those who suffer and ask what we can do.

It’s hard to face..to see what those affected must go through.

We find strength in numbers and ways to show our love.

We help the helpless with help from up above…

        ***************

The pictures below speak to me of natures gentleness…

               **************

Tomorrow we head for Illinois. We’ll drive down the coast of Lake Michigan and see Milwaukee, and Chicago…

Today was a travel day so there isn’t a lot to write about until we go into Green Bay tomorrow. We hated to leave Rushford, but after one final walk around town, we finally headed out. I kept busy on the drive trying to find a good RV park. We wanted to be reasonably close to Green Bay, but not right in the city. I finally settled on one just in time as we were about five miles from it. I’m always a little nervous as we pull into the park I’ve chosen, but I’ve only been way off a couple of times. This one is pretty nice and it was about the same price for two nights as we’ve been paying for one night on a pretty regular basis.

Anyway, about tonight. I have received so many compliments on my photography, I thought I would show you some pictures I took today.

 

You might be able to tell that we’re in the RV in this one. In the second picture, we’re still in the RV and we’re entering the town of Houston, MN. You can see the sign on the right of the highway. It says Houston. I didn’t want Kip to put that FMCA sign on the window right in front of my face because it interferes with my pictures. That and the blue anti-glare stuff on the windshield have messed up some mastetpieces.

This was originally supposed to be a photograph of a water tower, but I got distracted by all the cars parked behind each other on the side of the street. It brought back a memory. Cousin Valerie will remember this occassion.

Val’s daughter, Caitlin, Valerie, and I drove from Rapid City to Deadwood to attend a family gathering at our cousin Blake Haverberg’s Martin Mason Hotel in Deadwood. I drove because I know the area really well. I might have been telling a story at the time, but it seemed like the traffic in Deadwood wasn’t moving at all. When I said something about it Caitlin said, ” Um…you pulled up behind a parked car.” Embaaarassing!!

As far as the picture goes, I didn’t get the name of the town, so scratch this water tower.

I blew this one up big so you could see the chipmunk I photographed. He’s in front of the car tire. Isn’t he cute? It’s hard to take a bad picture of a chipmunk.

 

Sometimes you have to just keep snapping before you find what you’re looking for, which in this case was a barn. The third picture is of the same barn after my picture app self corrected me.

Well jeez…I don’t remember taking this one. I must have been looking for something else. What a happy accident!!

This is Kip on our walk tonight. He was bragging because according to his new fitness watch, he already had 11,000 steps in. I acted like it was no big deal. I see him walking around the motor home when he’s supposed to be hooking up the electricity so the animals and I can have air conditioning.

This is my best one of the day. I call it “The Yellow Flower.”

Well, that’s it for tonight. We’re going to pile into the Jeep and head for Green Bay tomorrow. Kip wants to see Rambo Field. I’ll take lots of pictures.

 

The day was sunny and 75 degrees so we decided to spend it exploring the town of Rushford. We had seen a map that showed a trail that led to something called Indian mounds. After looking for a while with no luck, we decided to ask a lady who was jogging along a path by the Rush Creek if she could help us. She didn’t know what or where they were, but she directed us to a trail where a lot of the town folk like to go for walks.

Looking back, I think she must have been upset that we interrupted her vigorous excersize. Some people are so dedicated they wouldn’t take a call from the Queen if she called during their work-out.(smiles)

We’re suckers for a new experience, so we drove to where the lady told us we would find the trail. We found it easily. It began at a cemetary which also should have set off a warning bell. 

The trail looked pretty steep, but we decided to go for it.

I forgot to mention that we brought the dogs. “This should be a lot of fun,” I thought. “I’ll take lots of pictures along the way.”

I don’t know what this building is or was, but I was glad to rest for a minute.

Kip loves to hike now. He and Cyndie are a little ahead of me, but then I have two dogs with me and they’re little. Kip only has one.

“Can you pull on me a little harder Sammie and Pattie? I need some help here!”

What’s the use of marrying an older man if he’s going to take up hiking at this age?

“I’m almost there Kip. I’m photographing a pretty flower!”

That wasn’t so bad, but I already knew my knees were going to hurt going back down.

Look what we saw on the way back. She just stood there and looked at me.I have a video too but I can’t get it to transfer to the blog. It was so awesome watching her.

It was a three doggy poop bag walk. That’s pretty long.

“I’m hungry!”…:”Me too!”

The end of the trail…literally for some. The Oak Grove Cemetary is very serene.

We went to a fun place for lunch. I ordered a chicken pesto panini sandwich and iced tea.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

Hiking fool or not I’m keeping this guy. He knows how to scope out the good desserts.

I’ll end this with some shots of the beautiful little town of Rushford. We’re heading for Green Bay, Wisconsin tomorrow. 

Can you tell we’re really enjoying this trip? We hope you are too!

I’m going to veer off the road tonight. I want to tell you about my Great Aunt Grace, who was my Grandma Sanderson’s sister. A couple of my Texas girlfriends sent me a hilarious photo of themselves immitating two of the characters in my Connie’s Story book. One of them is Great Aunt Grace, who is loosly based on my real Great Aunt Grace, who was my mom’s aunt.

Yolie is Pearl with the huge round glasses and smoking air cigarettes, and Jean is Great Aunt Grace who keeps her shoes on with big rubber bands. 

***************************

When Kip and I moved to Texas in 1987, my Uncle Jeff Sanderson told us we must look up Grandma’s sister who lived in Dallas. He gave me her address, which I put in a safe place. (I lost it.) I had never heard of her and I was busy getting kids settled in a new school. Kip and I had both transferred with our companies, but the change from Denver to Dallas was hard on all of us at first. We had lived near Kip’s family and I knew I was going to miss having them close by.

A few months after we moved, Mom and Gus came from California for a visit. Uncle Jeff had told Mom about Aunt Grace too, and she wanted to go see her, so we did.

When Grace opened the door to her tiny apartment, Mom and I were speechless. Well, I was…Mom recovered quickly. Neither of us could believe how much Aunt Grace looked like Grandma, who had passed away almost 20 years before. 
The other interesting thing is Grandma was 20 years older than Grace. Grandma was 28 when she married Grandpa Sanderson and moved away. They were both born and raised in Iowa, but after they married they came to SD.

Grandma and Grandpa, M.E. and Mary Sanderson, are on the right. Mary is holding Ella (cousin Valerie’s mother), and the little boy is Wayne Sanderson (Terry Sanderson’s dad). Valerie emailed these pics to me on short notice.

*************************

 Grace had never spent much time with her sister, my Grandma Mary, and said she didn’t remember her that well. Even so, she looked and sounded very much like Grandma did.
Mom and I loved it! It was almost like being with Grandma. Grace was a little contrary, but she warmed up to us after a while. 

Like Grandma, Grace weighed about 80 lbs and was no taller than 5 ft. She had wrinkles in her nylon stockings and wore a housedress and a hairnet. I noticed Grace didn’t wear beads though, and Grandma was never without them.

Grandma in front of her house. The Bork family lived in the yellow house behind her.

***************************

Grace lived alone, but was very self sufficient. She rode the bus to the grocery store several times a week. She told me she no longer went if the wind was blowing hard because she got caught in it once and it blew her way down the street. By the time she collected the groceries she had dropped, she missed the bus and had to wait an hour for the next one. 

Grace had outlived her husband, daughter, and son. The only family she had left was a grandson. I never met David, but Grace spoke highly of him and I know he helped her and checked on her frequently.

Like Great Aunt Grace in Connie’s story, Grandma’s little sister wore little ballet flats held onto her feet by rubber bands. She had pictures and cards she had received, scotch taped to her wall. She told us about losing her family as she showed us their pictures, but she didn’t dwell on the sadness.

Mom and Gus went back to California and I didn’t see Aunt Grace for a while. She had a telephone, but she never answered it. One Sunday after church Kip, the boys and I drove over to see if Grace wanted to go out to breakfast with us. It was noon by the time we got to her house and convinced her to come along, so we decided to go to Luby’s Cafeteria instead of a place that served breakfast. Aunt Grace loved Luby’s. Over the next several months we drove over to her place one or two Sundays a month to take her to Luby’s.

One Sunday after we picked up Aunt Grace, Kip changed the plan. He wanted to go someplace for breakfast. Grace didn’t like that plan at all. She turned to me and in a loud voice that she knew Kip would hear, she said, “Why doesn’t your man like Luby’s?” That is exactly the kind of thing Grandma Sanderson would have said. It was always about the men. “What are you going to feed the men?” She would ask. 

Kip took us to Luby’s that Sunday. They had a lady there that day playing the piano and Grace lit up like a Christmas tree.

School started shortly after that and things got busy. We didn’t see Aunt Grace for a couple of months. As Thanksgiving drew near, I thought about her and wondered what she might be doing. I was pretty sure her grandson would do something with her for the holiday, but I wanted to extend the invitation to join us, so Kip and I drove over there one day after work. I knocked on her door several times before a lady in the apartment next door came out and asked if she could help me. When I told her I was looking for Aunt Grace, she very gently told me she had become ill and had passed away the week before. She said Grace’s grandson had been with her. She asked me to wait a minute and went back into her apartment. When she came back out, she handed me a piece of paper with the grandson’s number written on it. 

When I got home, I called the number and talked to David. He was very sweet. He said he knew we had spent several Sundays with Grace and she had told him she really enjoyed going to Luby’s with us.

It was sad to lose her so soon after meeting her, but I’m glad we had that time with Grandma’s little sister. They were alike in so many ways and it made our move, that took us so far away from family a little easier.

You never know when someone special might come into your life or how long they will be there, but there will come a time when you will understand what a gift they were.

***************************

Kip and I and the animals are settled into a spot in the beautiful little town of Rushford, Minnesota. Tomorrow we are going to see the farm that his mother’s parents homesteaded. We’ve visited each of our hometowns this trip and now we’ll go back another generation. We love where we’ve been and we’re excited about where we’re going.

There will be no shortage of green beans this year.

The first photo was taken as we were leaving the RV park this morning. I can’t wait to post pictures of Rushford, Houston, MN and the farm tomorrow.

**I’m still assimilating information on the last of the Murdo visit stories.