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. 

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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.

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 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.

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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.

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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.

I have no words…I mean I can’t find the right words..Where do I start? Our three days in Murdo were even better than I could have imagined and we all know I can be a pretty creative thinker. 

Monday night, Kip and I drove out to the beautiful LandMark Country Inn and spent a great couple of hours with my cousin Mark, Dave, and Mark’s mom…Aunt Irma Sanderson. This great lady is 97 years young and looks fabulous. She says the secret to her longevity is Mark, which is credit he certainly deserves. She tells me her youthful figure is owed to walking up and down the stairs several times a day. 

Aunt Irma, me, Kip, and Mark at the LandMark Inn

Aunt Irma. Me, Dave, and Mark

Me with Uncle Jeff’s Jeep…now housed at the Pioneer Auto Museum in Murdo. 

The guys who grew up in Murdo back in the 50’s and 60’s and played baseball, probably rode in Uncle Jeff’s Jeep.

I should have taken more and better pictures. 

This 97 year old Aunt made her 65 year old neice feel like a kid again. She placed her hand on mine and smiled at me. Aunt Irma has beautifully manicured nails and stunning jewelry. She looked at me and said those dreaded words.”Let me see your fingernails.”

I knew it! I should have been using hand cream more regularly. I should have, at the very least, sawed off the uneven edges of my nails with the old worn down emory board I’m pretty sure I packed. 

Just before we left home, I filed and polished my toenails. I had found some orange polish with sparkles in it at Dollar General and thought it would look good. Kip cringes when he sees me with nail polish or hair dye. He knows when I’m finished, parts of something will be a new color…like our now sparkly kitchen floor. I haven’t found anything that will remove those sparkles. My trusty Mr. Clean pads that take hair dye off of light switch plates, didn’t even work.

Wow, I really got sidetracked didn’t I? After I gave this same explanation to Aunt Irma, she dropped my hand and we resumed listening to Mark tell us hilarious stories about his aunt, who happened to be my mother. I thought I had heard them all, but I was once again brought to tears by laughter. Aunt Irma seemed to be fascinated by the expression on Kip’s face as he listened to Mark telling us how his “Aunt Loretta” had trained him in the art of making money in the motel business. 

She first gave him a few examples of her tricks, I mean methods that she had successfully used to get the customers to pay just a little bit more for a room than they had planned to. 

To test her trainee, she laid down on the floor between the bed and the wall and listened to Mark talking to a tourist. When the transaction had been completed, she raised up and shared her feedback. She had sneaked into the room when Mark wasn’t looking, and when she raised up off the floor, he nearly hit the ceiling!

She promised Mark she would never do that again. Several days later, a little boy spotted her on the floor behind a partition separating the vanity area from the bedroom and he came out screaming, “There’s a dead person back there!”

Mark was tenacious, I’ll give him that. It appears he learned the art of room renting by using some of Mom’s techniques to maximize profits, resulting in a successful business. “Never leave a dollar up for grabs,” was her mantra.

There is another story that involves chasing down a customer with Mark’s car and Mom, in her training mode, riding shotgun. I don’t think I’ve got the energy to explain that one tonight.

By the end of an evening of constant laughter, I remembered why growing up with my cousin Mark had been so much fun. We went through all 12 grades together and had the ingenuity to create our own fun. I wrote a lot about this in the earlier blogs I wrote. 

We both played the Alto Sax in the band and switched chairs several times a year. The one sitting on the other’s left, got elbowed in the side continuously, and the other one got socked in the upper arm so much we always had a lump under the skin and a black and blue upper arm. Mr. Palmer just shook his head and made us change places again. He hoped we cared who was first or second. Mark and I played a saxophone duet in a contest and got a superior plus!

We both had an older brother who went off to college which left us the only kid at home. We took Uncle Jeff’s Jeep places it sometimes shouldn’t have gone. We randomly picked names out of the phone book and made crank calls. We made a competition out of it by seeing who could keep the poor person on the other end talking the longest. Once Mark convinced a guy he was his long lost army buddy. I laughed so hard, I couldn’t breathe.

Most of what we did was harmless fun. We didn’t wait for entertainment to seek us out, we made it happen.

It’s great to revisit fun times and tell hilarious stories with someone you have shared those experiences with. It’s even more special when you share grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who are all…one of a kind.

More Murdo visit blogs to come!

The wonderful rhubarb shake at the Murdo Drive-in. This is your last day to get one before they close for the winter!

I’m going to shed a tear or two when we fire up the motor home and pull out of Murdo this morning. I’m overwhelmed with emotion. Kip just said, “You’re going to cry when we leave aren’t you? I didn’t cry when we left my hometown of Laramie and all of the girls I used to date,” he said.

That was the wrong thing for him to say. I will admit, he was a good sport about hauling me around and taking pictures of me with all of my friends. He even got to talk a little. He hasn’t mentioned yet that we never did see any of my old boyfriends. We all know about the girls he used to date in high school. So what? Nobody made him a sign.

I love this girl I used to babysit. She is so loyal. When she was pretty little, she conned someone into giving her a ride to Mom’s motel where I was renting out rooms. She said she really needed to talk to me. She was crying so hard it was difficult to understand her. She said I had to come and take care of her. Her aunt was babysitting and she wasn’t much fun. Tammy was not happy with me either when I told her I couldn’t leave. She was dragged out of there kicking and screaming. I’m surprised she hasn’t held a grudge. 

I love this picture of Kip at breakfast yesterday morning. He was happy with the size of his pancakes. Neither of us has met a meal on this trip we didn’t like.

This is for you, Billy! (He made me promise I would take Kip to the Buffalo for a steak.) This is Kip’s first attempt at an us-ie. The steak was excellent and I want to complement Amy who was our server. She was the best and I don’t think she even realized that I’m Murdo Girl. Is she new in town?

We hurried to get there before your mom left Brenda Kerns Polk. Linda looked fabulous! I forgot to take pictures and Kip didn’t remind me. He said he was grateful Tammy didn’t give me the sign until yesterday, because he would have been burdened with carrying it all over town…

I’m going to stop here. I wanted to get a little something on the blog this morning, but I need some time to write the details of our time in Murdo. There is so much to tell. 

We’re going to the City Park now for one last walk with the dogs. There is already a veil of mist covering my eyes. My heart hurts and so does my back, my neck, and my knees. Kip thinks it’s my age and arthritis kicking in. He’s not thinking right. It’s melancholy. 

I will write more and share my wonderful photos later today! 

The dogs need a walk…

I love being here in Murdo. I love being from Murdo. Murdo has more personality in it’s newly refurbished water tower than most places have in their whole main street.

Thanks Kerri Venard for suggesting I go see the water tower. Do these Orange pants make me look fat?

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You might think I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I do. Not only have I lived in the great State of South Dakota; I have lived in Wyoming, Colorado, California and Texas. 

It is important that I say something here. I have lived in a small lake community in Texas for nineteen years. Kip and I have been blessed with a group of friends that understand that friendship is a lifelong commitment. This group of people share birthdays, Tuesday night dinners, good times, and bad, successes and failures. They are there for each other no matter what! I have learned so much from this close-knit group about true friendship, which requires you to give as well as get. Pettiness or selfish actions don’t feel right, and martyrdom doesn’t either. There is nothing better than a true friendship and nothing worse than a shallow one.

I probably could have stopped halfway through that explanation, but I need lots of reminders. I don’t do the friendship thing perfectly, but I try to learn from the example of friendships I admire. There was a block of time during which I lost touch with my Murdo family of friends.

Earlier today, I heard a knock on the RV door and it turned out to be someone I had considered one of my best friends from the 7th grade through high school. I haven’t seen her very often in the past forty years, but when I have, the minute we start talking, I feel the friendship we share. We helped each other grow up, and sometimes it was hard to watch, but that’s the kind of friend you remember your whole life.

  Does Karen make me look short?

It would take a while to find our Senior pics, but trust me, Karen has been in a time warp. She looks the same. I cut the pic off at the waist because Karen makes me look fat and short…and I was still wearing the orange pants.

Just ignore the John Thune sign. I can’t seem to get away from them.

I found our red convertible, Lav! The sign said don’t touch, but you know what a rule follower I am! Good thing I had the paper crown in my purse.

Excuse me Senator, this is my blog.

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Well, I have people out there who are clamoring to see me. I just had a few seconds to dash this off, and I won’t have time to stir stuff up if I don’t get going. I’m already behind with my reporting to all of you who hang onto my every word.

Someone told me there is another Murdo Girl…get outta here! 

No, I mean it!! Get out of my Murdo!! 

I’M IN MURDO!!! Actually, I should say WE MADE IT TO MURDO!! We left the Motel 6 in Rapid City and never looked back. It took us all day to get here, but that’s okay.

Cyndie and Sammie are so happy to once again enjoy the comforts of home.

We drove through the Badlands National Park, and it was spectacular. The day was sunny, the temperature was in the 70’s, and there was no wind. Let me also say we were really grateful we had the National Parks pass you can get if you’re a senior citizen. Without it the fee would have been $40.00.

A small herd of bighorn sheep

We had taken Highway 44 out of Rapid City to 240, which brought us to Interstate 90 right at the town of Wall…Perfect! I had promised a friend, fellow Murdoite and seasoned blogger, Judy Dykstra Brown, that I would take Kip to the famous Wall Drug for a hot beef sandwich and cherry pie. It turned out to be an excellent choice. It was every bit as good as the hot beef sandwiches I had eaten at Fern’s Cafe and Mack’s Cafe when I was growing up in Murdo. Kip added a vanilla milkshake made with homeade ice cream which he said was excellent. We also added to our T shirt collection.

Fat and happy, we headed for Murdo. I was a little worried because I hadn’t made a reservation at the only RV Park in town. We were really fortunate and got one of the last two spots they had. It’s really a nice park.

I didn’t want to cause a lot of commotion tonight, so I haven’t told anyone we’re here. (Well, except for my friends Sherri and Dianna, but they live in Pierre.) Unless they read the blog, people won’t know that we were on our way to Murdo.

Going through Kadoka…home of Kodak Kadoka. Sorry Kim Lindquist Deuter, you were still at work in Philip.

1880 Town… Kip and I are going to see it tomorrow if we can squeeze it in.

I’ve been thinking and I’m worried.

What if nobody wants to see me? What if they say they have never even heard of a Murdo Girl? I promised Kip I didn’t dream up the red convertible and the parade. There really was a sign on the corner last summer when cousin Val and I were here for the reunion. It said, “Hometown of the Murdo Girl.”

Maybe I should have at least told my relatives I was coming… or maybe….Wait a minute. This is so ridiculous. I am the Queen of stirring stuff up. I’ll make a big deal over myself in the morning…after I’m rested.

Whew! I can’t wait to tell you all about it! In the meantime, I’ll polish up the old crown.

We couldn’t have planned the day any better. After breakfast at Mickey D’s, we located the football field where our grandson Mason’s game was to be played. The whole area was absolutely beautiful. One thing we can say about Rapid City is it has countless beautiful parks. The football field was first rate and the surrounding flower gardens, soccer fields, bike and walking paths, all following along a clear creek, seemed to go on forever. 

We arrived early and enjoyed a long walk with the dogs before Mason’s team got there. Mason Sr, Amy, and Ethan made it a little before game time. By then, Kip and the dogs had attracted quite a crowd.

The right team won. The Thunder Basin, Bolts beat the Rapid City, Cobblers 32 -0. Mason had a great game!

Ethan is in 4th grade. He plays quarterback on his league football team, the Steelers.

Just as the game was finishing up, Kip’s cell phone rang. It was the RV shop calling to tell us SeeYa was ready to go. Kip took the dogs and went to check it out before meeting all of us for a celebratory lunch at The Texas Road House.

After saying goodbye to the family, we picked up our beautiful home and took it to a self service place to wash. Afterwords, we went to Perkin’s Restaurant for more food…and more dessert.

Sometime tomorrow, SeeYa will be rolling into Murdo with the king and queen of roly poly… Kip and Murdo Girl, along with their three worn out puppy dogs, and one very bored cat.

Does The Murdo Drive-In still make those delicious rhubarb milkshakes?

I sure hope we haven’t lost any of you who have been hanging in there hoping Kip and I, the three dogs and the cat would be able to continue our epic journey. 

I have not complained once about the disappointment I have experienced because I have not been able to write much about actually going somewhere. I did tell Kip today that if we had to spend one more night here, I was going shopping for new drapes and a BBQ grill.

Calvin Coolidge downtown Rapid City

We drove out to Dakota RV this morning expecting to be told the parts were in and we could pick up SeeYa in a couple of hours. The dogs and I waited in the car while Kip went in to check on things. A few minutes later, I saw him walking back to the car. I couldn’t read the expression on his face, but let’s just say, all his teeth were showing but he wasn’t smiling.

“They put the wrong zip code on the package of parts and they were overnighted to Vermillion, SD instead of here.They won’t get here until Monday now,” he informed me. “Let’s go grab a bite to eat and figure this out.”

“We just had breakfast,” I calmly replied. “You had a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and cinnamon bites. I had a bacon and cheese McGriddle with a large sugar free vanilla iced coffee. Just like we’ve had for the last eight mornings.”

A few minutes later, we pulled up to our new favorite sub place. It’s called Jimmy John’s. While Kip was ordering, his phone rang. He told me to grab a pen and write down the tracking number the guy on the other end was going to give me.

We brought our subs back to the motel and Kip got on the phone to the people who mistakenly sent the parts to Vermillion. I was proud of the way he handled the situation. He convinced the supplier to overnight another package of parts to Dakota RV, who said they would have the mechanic there tomorrow to do the work. I believe this time it is really going to happen and so does Kip.

Meanwhile, our grandson, Mason’s first season football game is right here in Rapid City tomorrow morning at 10:00, and we will be there to cheer him on.

From left, Ethan, Mason Jr, Amy, Mason, me and Craig 

Tonight, we went downtown and treated ourselves to a nice dinner. The downtown area is really fun and as I keep saying, the weather couldn’t be nicer.

We’re excited for tomorrow, and it looks like we won’t need new drapes.

 LEAVE THE LIGHT ON…HERE WE COME!!

Source: Murdo Girl…the cabin

We’re afraid to make plans. When we bought the motor home, everyone we knew who had an RV, told us to be ready for everything, but don’t count on anything. If you decided on the camping life to save money on restaurants and hotels, you are doing it for the wrong reasons. If you are unable or unwilling to be flexible, maybe a cruise would be a better option.

Kip and I listened to all of this, and I’m glad we did. At least we went into it with our eyes wide open. 

This is our third, long RV trip, and being sidelined this week was our biggest hiccup so far. I’m proud to say, we have handled it pretty well. Considering we are traveling with all of our animals, it’s been rather remarkable. The cat is the only one who is displaying crankiness. We watched her tonight and had to laugh at her antics. She was laying in wait for a dog to walk past her so she could bat them with her paw. They didn’t know they were supposed to be her punching bag, so she finally ran and jumped on Pattie, who was the closest to her and whacked her a couple of times. It dawned on me that she is like the spoiled little sister in the family. The one who is allowed to act how ever she wants to because the word no just upsets her and nobody wants to deal with the fit that will follow.

Pattie looked at me with resignation. She knew it was easier to let the cat be mean than to do something that would irritate her even more.

Tomorrow we will have been residing in room 161 of the Motel 6 for a week. Sometimes it’s better not to know the outcome of certain situations. It’s best just to deal with each day as it comes and hope for the best. Stay in denial as long as possible.

If we hadn’t been stuck here. I never would have found these cool rain boots!

Since we haven’t told any Murdo family we’re coming, we will only stop to say hello to those we can catch. I plan to drive Kip by the places he hears me talk about all the time. Billy said I have to take him to the Pioneer Auto Museum and he has to have a steak at the Buffalo Bar. We will drive the parade route which will take him by the Mack’s Cafe building, and the Harold Thune Auditorium. We will go to the cemetary, and see everything south of old Highway 16. Can you think of anything else? Maybe we can have a cup of coffee at the truck stop and someone I know will be there.

After Murdo, we will be heading East. We’ll be going places I have never been and seeing good friends along the way. We really do love the RV life. We just didn’t know the Motel 6 was going to be such a big part of the experience.

I know this isn’t much of a blog, but at least it’s short. I was on the verge of making plans and that’s never a good idea for seasoned campers like us.