This morning we left our beautiful spot on the Missouri River and headed toward North Dakota. We drove on two lane highways and passed by corn fields ready to be harvested for stock feed and sunflower fields that were dried up and ready to harvest for the seeds. We experienced a little rain and our first skiff of snow, but those things are tolerable in the absence of wind. We stopped in the little town of Napoleon and had gourmet cheeseburgers on homemade buns with sweet potato fries. We didn’t see many cars or people anywhere we went today. We decided we just might be the only ones taking this route to Maine.

SD this morning…ND this afternoon

We are rethinking the Rte 2, route. It’s pretty far north and though there are some things we still want to see up there, we’re going to be a little more selective. One deciding factor is we are finding it difficult to locate full service RV parks that aren’t closed for the season. We will skip going up to Devil’s Lake. My brother was there on a fishing trip a couple of weeks ago, so I’ll look at his pictures.

We are in Jamestown, ND tonight. This place has an albino buffalo. I’ll get a picture in the morning. Louis L’Amour’s writing shack is here and there is a wild animal museum that sounds interesting. The weather wasn’t very conducive to running around, but we managed to get fuel, get groceries, and walk the dogs before settling in for the night in our cozy RV, SeeYa.

We will head east tomorrow and go through Fargo and on into Minnesota. We’ll still, eventually, take Rte 2 and go up around the Great Lakes and Niagara falls. We don’t know when we’ll get to Maine, but I’m sure the trees and the leaves will still be beautiful.

Every day is a new day and we have a new experience. We love this life on the road, and as long as family and friends keep us in the loop, we can relax and be grateful for this time to see new places and do different things.

Our animals are the best! I never would have imagined the three dogs and even the cat would be such great travelers. All four of them have been with us on all of our trips.

Cyndie likes to ride where my feet should be.

That brings you up to date, but I want to mention one other thing. Have you tried Patti La Belle’s bread pudding? They sell it at Walmart. I was never a real bread pudding fan, until my friend, Barbara, and I tried french toast made with bread pudding at a restaurant in Galveston. It was so yummy, I decided to try Patti’s. It’s sinful, but I highly recommend it. Her peach cobbler is delish, too!

We got See Ya back late yesterday and tonight we are cozy in a campground right on the Missouri River. It’s cold and a little rainy, but it doesn’t matter because the day couldn’t have been more perfect.

Our friends and family we see while on the road know that we never give much notice. We really can’t tell anyone the exact time or even the day we will be in their neighborhood, but if we say we’re going to show up, 99.9% of the time we do. I will admit we are blessed to have wonderful people in our lives and often times dumb luck intervenes and we get to spend unforgettable time with those we love.

G-O-N-E

G is for Girlfriends…They expand our world, add to our fun, pick us up when we’re down, understand where we’re coming from, and insist we eat at least one dessert.

O is for Orange (Orange is my favorite color and the sky this morning looked more orange than the photo reflects.)

N is for Now…

Now deserves our attention. There is something to be said for living in the now.

E is for everybody, everywhere, every day, everything…I love my friends

I saw a sign Dianna Diehm’s daughter, Amber, made and it spoke to me. Amber knew how neat I thought it was and made one for me. Dianna sent it to me via Sherri Miller. Sherri came and picked Kip and me up, took us to lunch and gave us a special bottle of wine. I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you, Dianna, and you, Amber, but I love the sign and bookmark and Kip and I had a great time with Sherri who insisted we get two desserts.

The Gone sign has a piece of rope which is holding nothing. It could mean gone are worries, guilt, poor health, sadness, loneliness or any number of things we can surely live without. Gone can be a good thing…

Thank you dear friends for all the joy you bring to my life! I’m thinking of all of you back home, too…

We’re living the dream in Rapid City, SD. We have the three dogs and the cat with us in a very nice motel room while we wait for a call from Freightliner telling us to come and get ‘See Ya’ who has been there since yesterday. We learned that the Dallas Freightliner really botched up reinstalling the fuel tank. It had to be dropped again and put back correctly. With any luck at all, we’ll be on the road again tomorrow.

Feeding Time

We will be dining tonight on Top Ramen noodles from the microwave followed by coconut cream pie from a nearby Walmart. We had waffles from the complimentary breakfast this morning and Jimmy John’s subs for lunch so we’ve been well fed.

The wind was unbelievable today, but troopers that we are, we managed a couple of long walks at a park we found under similar circumstances last year.

The windblown look

Dinosaur Park

It’s beautiful here!!

We arrived in Casper, WY Thursday afternoon. We have traveled around 1200 miles since leaving home on Monday and we have another hiccup. Before we left, we had See Ya’s fuel tank removed and cleaned because it had become plugged with algae. All was well until the first time we had to fill up. The diesel kept backing up as if there was a kink in the line to the tank. (We can fill it, but it takes an hour.) We talked to Freightliner who did the work and they thought some damage must have occurred when they were reinstalling the tank. They are going to cover the repairs, so the plan is to take See Ya into a Freightliner company in Rapid City (SD), Tuesday morning.

After we made those arrangements, we spent some time driving around Casper. Kip and I were married in the Methodist Church there 38 plus years ago. We found our old house and saw a few other places we remembered.

Friday night, we went to our grandson Mason’s football game in Casper. Saturday morning, we moved on to Gillette where our son and his family live, and saw the same grandson play in a home game. It was cold, and the hot chocolate tasted good, but we had a lot of fun watching Mase’s JV team blow the Casper team away.

Mase is quite the star on and off the field. His team was undefeated in his 8th and 9th grade years and they’ve had no losses so far this year.

Fifth grader, Ethan is the quarterback for the Bronco team. Their first playoff game is Wednesday.

Early Tuesday, we will go on to Rapid City and hope See Ya will be ready to go in a couple of days.

This is not See Ya’s fault. She is doing a fine job keeping us comfortable and we still love her.

Today (Sunday) we’re going to spend the day with the family, eating, watching football and playing games. Tonight, we get to watch the burning of the B at the high school. This is homecoming week for the Thunder Basin Bolts!

I have to mention one other thing. Even though at the Friday night game, I couldn’t help but notice the opposing team’s colors were orange and black and their school song is the same tune as my old high school song, I had no problem rooting for the Bolts.

I did catch myself singing “Oh here’s to Murdo Coyotes” a couple of times, but in the end…love of family is stronger than my love of orange and black and my old school song…

Last night…

See Ya is heading west tomorrow. We’re going to spend a couple of days in Wyoming so we can see our son, Mason, and his family. We also get to see at least one of the two grandsons play in a couple of football games. I’m excited!!

When we leave Wyoming, we’ll head east. We will travel Route 2, which borders Canada in some places, with the ultimate destination being Maine. We are hoping we have timed it right to see the leaves turn.

I spent yesterday and this afternoon detailing the inside of the RV. See Ya is sixteen years old and has taken us on three previous six to eight week trips and numerous short getaways. She still cleans up pretty good.

It was late when I finished. Sorry for the dark pictures. I didn’t have lights. I used an extension cord to vacuum as we don’t have the high voltage electricity in the RV port installed yet.

The next day – Monday

We finally got all packed up and Kip hooked the jeep up to See Ya. He wiped out our mailbox in the process, but if you are aware of my far worse crack-up last week, you’ll know why I didn’t say anything. If you’re not aware of my mishap, let me just say I’m fine, but Kip’s truck is no more.

I can imagine how worried some might be that we’re going to be on the road for six to eight weeks. I’m sure it will all be fine as soon as we’re able to get See Ya’s motor to shut off. Yes, you read me right. The engine wouldn’t shut off, so we drove straight to Rick’s RV near Kaufman. Rick had done some work on the connector from See Ya to the Jeep we tow. It enables the turn and brake lights to work in conjunction with the RV… They might have it fixed. We’ll know as soon as Kip gets back from Kaufman. He had to go get a new battery for the jeep. I stayed here with the three dogs and a very worried cat.

Well, Kip got back and we’re off again. It’s 1:37 and we’re almost to Dallas.

We had to stop for a minute because the automatic steps didn’t automatically go back in. We slammed the door a few times and that seemed to fix it. At the moment, everything is working just fine.

We’re having a great time. If we were home, it probably wouldn’t have been a day to remember.

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My bad haircut still looks pretty good considering what I’ve been through.

There is nothing like a Murdo Girl celebration, and boy do we have something to celebrate. Our good friend, Lav is turning a new number. It happens to all living creatures…unless you’re like my mom. She once said she lied about her age so much, she finally became younger than her kids. Lav is not like that. She’s like me. She just flat can’t remember big numbers.

The old Brick House, Road Trip, and White Board House gangs are coming back to celebrate. We are anticipating there will be so many Murdoites and people from surrounding towns attending that we are going to hold it in the Harold Thune Auditorium. Anyone wishing to help organize this major event is welcome to come to the planning meeting tonight at seven. We already have a chair and a co-chair, and they have promised to have plenty of chairs set up for the meeting.

The meeting of the people who have volunteered to help with Lav’s birthday celebration

MG has volunteered to be the facilitator of the meeting and she has come prepared.

MG: Welcome everyone. I haven’t had a chance to visit with each of you yet, but that’s okay, because we will all be working closely together these next few days. I want to make this the best birthday party ever for our friend, and in my case relative, Lav.

Now…I have studied up on what it takes to provide adequate leadership to pull off such a feat and I’m pretty sure I can handle it. The number one duty of an effective leader is:

1. To ensure the committees function properly… ( Did she say function as in functional?)  This is so daunting. Why does everything have to be so hard?

Voice of someone seated way in the back: How long are you going to stand up there and talk to yourself, lady? I have to clean this floor and if you’re having a party here you’re going to have to put the plastic tarp down.

 Coach standing on his floor..Where are the chairs?

MG: Oh hello Coach Applefloor. I didn’t recognize you at first. You’re almost standing straight up! Don’t worry about your floor. I’ll organize a committee to put the tarp down.

Coach Applefloor: I play golf now. It requires a person to stand up. I like it,  but the only time I get to yell is when someone is in the way of my golf ball… “Fore!!”

Someone finally shows up to the meeting. They walk to the very front and take a chair.

MG: PG (Presho Girl) is that you? You’re wearing your hair longer and you have a 35 mm digital camera! Does that mean you don’t draw your photographs anymore?

PG: Not too much…arthritis. I’m excited to be here MG. Lav’s the best and I want to help with the party. I’ll get some great pics. Is there a place to buy film around here? I’ll need a dark room with a bulletin board, and a string with clothespins on it. Oh, and a tub with developing stuff in it?

MG: Uh…Oh wait! here comes two more people.

MG: PICO! DM! I’m so happy to see you two! I’m going to pass a committee sign up sheet around. PICO I want you to be in charge of nuts, mints and hobnobbing.

PICO: And punch. I’ll bring punch. All I want to do while I’m in Murdo is hobnob and go to the Pioneer Auto Museum. I like cultured stuff.

MG: DM…I know you like to defense monitor, but will you also help with Coach Applefloor’s tarp. I have a feeling he’s going to be hanging around the whole time. He’s so worried about his floor. It’s named after him, you know.

Suddenly, a loud voice is heard. It’s A I… She yells, “Wait!!! I have been investigating the whole Brick House, White Board House, and the Road Trip gangs and there is one person who holds a grudge. A very big grudge. I fear they want to do us great harm.

MG: Who is it A I?

A I: (Walking around eyeing everyone and looking kind of Barney Fifeish) I’m not quite ready to rat them out yet. I just know they intend to strike the night of the party.

Here comes Jerry the bean counter and KK (Kodak Kadoka).

KK: Sorry I’m late. I’ve been out taking pictures of fence posts. I have post dramatic stress syndrome, you know.

Jerry: Hey, MG…I saw TC (Town Cryer) at Super Value. She said to tell you she’ll be here in a few. She’s trying to find a bargain on a new cheese head. I slipped her a few beans, you know she doesn’t even have two Limas to rub together.

MG: Makes me sad…Anyway, KK, I would like you to be on the greeting committee. Lav will be sitting on a throne. We couldn’t figure out how to get a red convertible in here. You can direct people to the enthroning area and if they have gifts, tell them to drop them at her feet. She’ll like that. Let’s see, who are we missing? What is that loud noise?

A rather loud crashing sound followed by three screams is heard by all!

TC, who is just walking in, cries…It’s the Queen! Long live the Queen! She’s in Windy Lindy Bergh and Airy Heart’s airplane. They just landed in the town swimming pool! I didn’t realize their airplane is amphibious. We better help them get out. The pool is supposed to be closed!

Everyone runs to their aid…

Windy: Well live and learn. I thought we were still flying over the pond, then I saw the auditorium and had to quit propelling and land this thing.

Airy: Where is the Queen? Did we lose her on the descent?

Queen: Glub, Glub, Glub…You said to abort!

Windy: I said, “Where is the airport?”

DM rushes to the scene and has enough presence of mind to throw the Queen a lifesaver and drags her to the side of the pool where she manages to awkwardly get out. DM picks this rather inappropriate time to ask her if she will knight him since he saved her life and all.

MG: Wait! I thought you were bringing Treason (Teresa the Liaison). She likes to fly with A I, but A I is already here. And we’re missing Patty-cake. She’s supposed to make the birthday cake. The cowboy is supposed to come riding in on his pig or trike or something. It wasn’t supposed to be like this! I wanted everyone to function properly!!!

Treason, Patty-Cake and Cowboy

Oh no! Barney and Barnella just drove up in the squad car. The siren is going and the lights are whirling around too. Barney gets out, sniffs, hikes his pants up, touches his gun, and says, “I’m here to nip your whatchamacallit party plans in the bud.”

Barnella, Barny Fife, and MG

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Look at it this way…It was just the first planning meeting. Things will settle down before Lav gets back. Murdo just has a small jail…I’m not worried. And besides, Yram isn’t even here yet!