Uncle Butch, our tour guide
Spending a lot of time in the car makes Stella hungry (see the cracker between her toes?)
Trailride-that's Katrina, the Trailboss
Katrina again
My view riding Pedro, the horse
The horse pen
one of the views riding horses
Stella on the hay ride
Singing with the guy at the chuckwagon dinner
Stella on the range
Stella and her rocks
Alex, Joy and Audra on the hayride
Jackson aka Bud Cooney
On the hayride
I took a lot of photos of the hayride-Stella with Mimi and Popeye and the boys
Beefalo stew at the chuckwagon dinner
Uncle Butch and Hunter checking out the mules
Alex and Joy
Audra
Jackson
Fort Robinson
Grant, Alex, Jackson, Audra and Hunter
Sturgis
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse Monument
Hunter striking a pose
Grant doing the Crazy Horse
The elusive prairie dog
Are we there yet? (Wendy and Joy)
Stella counting Aunt Carrie's fingers
Mount Rushmore!
Stella was impressed
The Turner fam
The Badlands-I'll add more pics when I get them from Carrie and Brittanie. This doesn't even come close to what we saw. I ran out of film-probably because I took so many pictures on the hayride!
We had such a busy week last week! We arrived at the airport at 6:50 on Sunday morning, July 27th. We had some issues with baggage weight and the nice man at the counter said I should rearrange some luggage to save the $80 fee for overweight luggage. The limit is 50 pounds and my bag weighed 57. While I dug through pulling out various objects that I thought might reduce some weight, he stood and waited. When I placed my bag on the scale and he glanced at my ticket, he said "Oh no-you've missed your check in time. Let's go inside and I'll talk to someone." We went inside and the nice lady at the counter proceded to tell me that I had missed the check in time by 4 minutes and I would have to wait for the next flight. I said "People have driven from Texas to pick me up in Kansas City!" She didn't seem to care and said "The next flight is at 9:45, ma'am." I'll spare the rest of the story, but there were many tears and pleadings and phone calls made with no change in her plans for my day. We ended up having to wait for the 9:45 flight and PAY to get on to the flight. Ridiculous. No wonder more and more people are choosing to drive even with gas prices. I now understand why people go nuts and get arrested in airports. I was really close to losing it and making idle threats to complete strangers.
We ended up making it to Kansas City and from there drove to Aunt Jude and Uncle Jim's house in Omaha(www.visitomaha.com/). Aunt Carly and Uncle Dwayne, Ryan, Casey(and baby Wyatt in her belly), Reese, Brittanie, and Pete were all there to welcome us to Omaha. Carrie and the boys went on the Bancroft to stay with Uncle Butch and Aunt Deb. On Monday, we went to Cousin Casey and Ryan's house to play with Reese in her pool. Stella had a ball! Monday night, Brittanie came over for dinner/supper (apparently only people from Texas call it dinner) and then we left to go to Bancroft(www.ci.bancroft.ne.us/). Stella stayed with Mimi and Popeye(Sandy and Mike).
Tuesday morning bright and early, we left for Fort Robinson(www.nebraskahistory.org/sites/fortrob/history.htm) in Crawford, Nebraska. Fort Robinson was the site of Crazy Horse's death. I think we arrived around 2. We rode horses and rode a hay ride down to the chuckwagon for buffalo(beefalo?) stew and corn bread. Afterward, a guy sang cowboy songs around the campfire. Stella really liked the music and kept trying to convince everyone to clap.
Wednesday morning, we left for South Dakota. Part of the group went to Flintstone Park with the kids and the others (my group) went to Wind Cave(www.nps.gov/wica/). There was a lot of talk about prairie dogs( www.desertusa.com/dec96/du_pdogs.html) on the way. Uncle Butch loves them! He was full of interesting trivia and loved pointing them out to us on the drive. I think he would have one as a pet if he could, but they carry the plague. After Wind Cave, we travelled on to the Crazy Horse Memorial(www.crazyhorse.org/). They are not finished with it, but I think it is going to be an amazing site to behold. I guess the Nolting/Cooney/Newman/Turner clan will have to make another trip out west in 5o years or however long it is going to take for them to complete it. Mount Rushmore (or "the heads") was next on the itinerary. ( www.nps.gov/moru/) It was incredible to see. We were able to walk around the base of the mountain, but didn't have the time (or energy) to hike on some of the trails. That night, we drove to a hotel (I don't remember where) and the kids really enjoyed the pool. Aunt Carrie took Stella swimming and she loved it. I think she is going to be a little water baby.
Thursday morning, we left for Deadwood(http://www.deadwood.org/), South Dakota. Apparently, this was home to the site of Wild Bill Hickok's death-the Franklin Hotel. It was a great little town with a lot of gambling and saloons. Josh would have loved it! I kept thinking "I wish Josh were here" every time we would see something cool-and it happened a lot on this trip. After Deadwood, we headed for Sturgis(http://www.sturgis.com/) in South Dakota. This is the site for a motorcyle rally that is held every year in the first couple of weeks in August. There were a lot of beautiful bikes, scantily clad women, and leather clad men. Interesting, to say the least!
Do you think we could see any more sites? Well, hold on to your hats because I'm not finished!
Next, we drove through the Badlands of South Dakota(www.nps.gov/archive/badl/exp/home.htm). I have to admit that from the highway, it looked like nothing spectacular-just a lot of sandy looking dunes and lots of prairie dogs-Uncle Butch was so excited! I think he wanted to stop and pet them, but we wouldn't let him. We went into the park and it was absolutely breathtaking. It seemed to go on forever and I bet the sunsets there are incredible.
From the Badlands, we made our way to Wall Drug, South Dakota. I had no idea what this was, but it ended up being a really large place to shop. (http://www.walldrug.com/) Sandy called Carrie and told her that she got a cup of coffee for 4 cents! I guess since we had paid so much for everything else on the trip, a 4 cent cup of coffee sounded like something we had to see!
I think that our last stop on the tour of South Dakota was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota-an entire palace made of corn! (http://www.cornpalace.org/)
We finally made it back to Bancroft around midnight Thursday night. Friday, Carrie took us on a tour of Bancroft and we went to Cousin Wendy and John's house to play with Jackson on his new play place. John built it while we were gone and it looked like a lot of work. He did a great job and the kids really loved playing on it. Friday afternoon, Uncle Butch and Aunt Deb had some family over for dinner. We had a great meal and a lot of fun hanging out with everyone. Stella loved being around all of the kids (Audra, Alex, Jackson, Payton, Brooklyn, Hunter and Grant).
Saturday, we helped prepare the corn for winter. This involved shucking, cleaning, boiling, cutting it off the cob, and bagging it for the deep freeze. Several people from town (including Cousin Carl) came to help out. It was an experience and it made me realize how busy things are on the farm. We didn't do a fraction of the work that they normally do on a daily basis and we were exhausted when the day was over.
That afternoon, we went to Sandy's family reunion at the Bancroft Community Center. We met a lot of Sandy's extended family and it reminded me lot of the Brunette family reunions. Stella played with a little boy that was born a day after she was. It was crazy-they instantly found each other and started playing right when we got there.
Saturday night,Carrie and I went out (with Wendy, John, Cletus, and Joy) for a night on the town in Bancroft. We had a great time and didn't want to leave, but had to head home around midnight to get some rest. We left Sunday morning at 7 a.m. and headed back to Kansas City for the airport. The Newman/Turner clan dropped me off and started their journey back to Texas. Now that I am back in Atlanta, I miss the farm. I really do. I think that their way of life is great. There are no locked doors, no alarms, no sirens (except for the occasional tornado siren, I suppose), no honking cars with angry drivers, no traffic jams...they love each other and it really shows. They are a close family and they take care of one another. It really made me miss my family in Texas. It even made me think I wouldn't mind living in a small town someday. I don't think that will ever be possible, but we will try to visit as often as we can.
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