Home for the Holiday

To think that I almost missed the sign! At the last second, I caught it or we would have had to go back around. Jim might have balked at that. We had planned to stay overnight in Sioux Falls but it was still early in the afternoon when we arrived so we pushed on to Vivian. Dad was waiting for us there. We ditched the camper and drove back to Presho with the car (and me driving) to have dinner at Hutch's. George and Shirley Mowry, old family friends, happened to be eating there also so we joined forces. Shirley has survived some serious health issues this past winter, including having her right wrist broken in an auto accident. She is positively thin but , as always, positively SHIRLEY. Her stories of both her and George's health problems are graphic and ribald, punctuated with wild bursts of laughter. Shirley just regrets that she can't smoke inside the restaurant. She should give it up, she says, but she just enjoys it so darn much. To her credit, she contains herself to one drink (she has full-blown diabetes). George can still tell a good story. He is hand writing his memoirs but Shirley says no one will be able to read his scratchy hand writing anyway. She plans to outlive him (they are both in their mid-eighties) and she will have the final say about what is made public. George says it will probably all be balled up and consigned to the fire with him. For once I simply forgot about taking photos. Too much talking going on!

On Easter Sunday Dad and I went to Draper for 9:00 Mass, no fuss, no music, a two minute sermon and out into the world we go. Draper has some interesting old buildings still surviving on its street that was formerly old Highway 16. Like Vivian, the modern mainstays of its Main Street are the gym and the bank. Back in our hometown, the new burger joint (Red and White, Fight! Fight!) is completed on the outside and Dad says (to his disgust) that Orville has hired a manager for it.

Since nothing in Presho or Draper was open for meals, we raided the farm for food and came up with walleye for Easter dinner. Dad isn't a big fan of fish; he would have been happier with hot dogs. Nevertheless, I cooked up a fairly decent meal out of Mike's extensive freezer collection. I don't know where the walleye came from, but it was darn good! Thanks, Mike!

After dinner we left Dad to his napping and headed down the road for home. For the first time on the trip, I swear, we had a tail wind. My first feeling of being home was when we came over the hill east of Chamberlain and sighted the bluffs across the Missouri River (West River is where I live). My next feeling was when the Black Hills rose out of the plains ahead of us on I-90.

We logged over 9000 miles on our journey and feel like we have been on an adventure. I think the good thing about getting out of the every day routine and traveling like this is that time slows down instead of blurring past with only occasional markers that catch and hold you. Four and a half months--it seems like a year since we left home. We might think about making another trip with the camper to the Northwest, but this coast to coast trip was one-of-a-kind. Last night we talked about where our favorite place was and we both agreed that Biking Sanibel was the best time of all. It was a bit out of our comfort zone at first--Jim hadn't been on a bike for many years--and finding the place to camp at Periwinkle Park was an incredibly lucky chance. Before we settled on that experience as our best one, we went through all the fun times and great places we had seen: ABQ with Tam, Scottsdale with Sarah, Chula Vista RV park in San Diego, Corrales with family, Austin and the big move, Mardi Gras in Lafayette, the panhandle of Florida with Rapid City friends,Ft. Myers Beach, Manasota, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama state parks, St. Augustine, Savannah, and Charleston--and don't forget Sleepy Holler. Our motor home was a champ and never missed a beat. Driving through the massive cities was accomplished with the help of Miss Charmin Garmin--could not have done it without her. Our children were supportive and encouraging to our mad scheme for a coastal journey; my sister Teresa and daughter Sarah, in particular, kept me writing on my blog so now I have a little book to go back to when I want to relive the trip.

Where to next and when do we leave?