One of my fondest memories of growing up in Murdo was of the day my cousin Valerie and I played Rawhide. I wrote about that fun-filled day in one of the little Murdo girl stories. I’m republishing it today because it’s Valerie’s birthday, and I hope the memory will make her smile.

Thank you, Val/Lav/Baba for making me smile over and over through the years, and now that we’re 70ish girls, we’ve still got a lot of good stories and laughter ahead of us.

Hafty birthday to one of the sweetest and dearest people I know. I love you bunches.

Here’s the story.

One day, my cousin Valerie and I decided to play Rawhide. Valerie rode Mark’s horse Prince, and I rode Guv out to Aske’s ranch, where they have a bunch of milk cows. We were having so much fun herding those cows all over that we decided to spend the night. I volunteered to ride back to town to get some supplies like food and matches. I already had the saddle off Governor because he was pretty hot from running those cows all over, so I rode bareback. The ride back was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. I really didn’t feel like riding all of the way back to Aske’s, so I went to my cousin Mark’s to play. It didn’t seem like such a big deal until I saw Aunt Ella, (Valerie’s mom), drive up in her pink car. She was looking for Valerie, and when I told her that she was at Aske’s ranch, she said to get in the car. Well, I must have forgotten that Valerie had both saddles, so she just couldn’t have hopped on Prince and ridden back. It would have been hard for me to find my saddle if she’d just left it in the pasture. Valerie wouldn’t have done that, anyway. As it was, I had a little bit of trouble remembering exactly where I left Valerie. When we found her, she didn’t say much except that she was hungry and did I even remember to get food and matches. Thankfully, Aunt Ella didn’t hear the part about the matches.

We decided we weren’t going to play Rawhide anymore because we found out it’s not really good for milk cows to run that much. Valerie and I feel guilty every time we see Mrs. Aske working at the Super Value Store. We never heard anything through the Murdo grapevine about Aske’s having cow trouble, so I guess it turned out okay.

Huckleberries have changed my life. It is said that Mark Twain named Huckleberry Finn after the huckleberry because it grows on a short but very tenacious bush. While blueberries can be found in the supermarket year round, huckleberries, on the other hand, are not grown commercially. Huckleberries hate domestication and are traditionally harvested from the wild, making them much harder to come by. If you are eating something made from huckleberries, it’s likely because either you or someone else went up into the mountains and picked them. They can be found in the Pacific Northwest. The bears love them. We found some delicious things made from huckleberries in Montana near Glacier National Park.

Not counting rhubarb, huckleberry is now my favorite flavor. The pie and shakes we consumed are amazing. Kip also has become a big fan. One day, when we were out and about, I told Kip I wanted to buy a huckleberry pie. I knew nothing about the berry, nor had I tried them. Imagine my surprise when I found the pie cost $47.00. (This was before I learned huckleberries aren’t grown commercially.) We opted for 2 pieces at $7.99 a slice. It was love at first bite.

Now we’re in a beautiful little RV park nestled between the Columbia River and a vast peach orchard. We’re going peach shopping tomorrow. I already know I love fresh peaches…yum!

Glacier National Park is all of the above and more. While I hope you enjoy the highlight reel I put together, I have to say  I white knuckled it around every curve of the “Going-to-the-Sun Road.” I couldn’t capture the straight down view that we experienced as we traveled straight up to the top, but it was so spectacular, it took my breath away. My cell phone camera shots were in no way equal to what we saw. Kip agrees and will vouch for me. All I can say is go and experience it yourself.

We’re going on another drive into the park tomorrow. We’ve been to several national parks, and they each offer something unique but so far, if I had to choose only one to recommend visiting, it would be Glacier National Park.

Just one footnote…I didn’t have to drive on the very curvy road where I was looking straight up or straight down for as far as I could see. In addition, the barrier is only 2 feet high for 30 miles. Kip did the driving. You can book a shuttle bus or one of the large red convertible bus/cars and let someone else do the driving. You’ll still have the experience of a lifetime.

Enjoy this glimpse of today. I wish I could have shown you the really captivating views…

Life is a lot about the numbers. Kip and I celebrated our anniversary on August 22nd, and we just happened to be in Casper, WY, where we were married 42 years ago. We experienced a flood of great memories.

We had a great time driving around and looking for our old houses.

Next stop, Gillette, WY, and the FMCA Rally. After the rally, we’ll be staying on to spend time with son, Mason, and family. Time to watch grandson, Ethan, play some football!

Wow! Did that 3 days go by fast or what! We arrived in Laramie, WY, on Thursday and attended the reunion Friday and Saturday night. It covered all the classes who attended Laramie High School in the 60s. I, for one, think the 60s had great music. My brother graduated in 62 and had all the albums and 45s, so I knew the words to all the songs. I graduated in 1970 from Murdo High School in SD. Kip’s sister, Karlyce, graduated from Laramie High in 70, and her class wasn’t honored, but she went, anyway.

Kip’s family was represented by all 4 kids, 1 from Laramie, 1 from Sheridan, WY, 1 from Greeley, CO, and 1 from Texas. I will say that for me, the siblings all getting together was the best part of the whole weekend.

There were over 500 attendees which I think was pretty good since the ages ranged from around 70 to over 80. They had an area where the pictures and names of those from each class who are deceased were displayed, which depressed some, but all felt they should be recognized.

One thing I noticed as I walked around and observed the attendees was that everyone was shocked that people had aged. It was like they thought everyone should look the same as they did in high school. One thing they did, which I thought was a great idea, was to have lanyards with everybody’s senior picture on them. There was no getting around it. Some people had aged.

We have moved onto Casper, WY, where we lived 40 years ago. We’ll be here for 3 days before heading to Gillette to see our son and his family and also attend an FMCA Rally. We’re happy travelers looking forward to the next adventure.