ND Road Trip Part 2

Dave and Deb stayed in Zeller's 5th wheel and we stayed in the house.  They "said" they had been wanting to try out their spare bed to see if it was good.  Hmmmm!  I hope that was right we sure got a good night's sleep in theirs.  Ken was exhausted from the trip and hurting pretty bad - so I'm glad he slept well.  It has been so cold "up north" he hasn't gotten to enjoy much yet. :(

Anyhow we drove back to Bismark for the funeral.  We should have left earlier as Dave was "hurrying" down the road when he got stopped.  I hurried and got my phone ready to call Whitney (legal owner) if we ran into trouble.  Thank goodness she had given me the new insurance card to put in!  Anyway she was a very nice officer and after ascertaining we had the right to be in a vehicle non of us owned we asked where the church was.  :)  Yup!  About 400 yd ahead of us and "turn left".  It was a beautiful memorial with N/L's daughter Christy singing.  We  were all glad we had made the effort to come and represent our EB contingency.   

After lunch at the church we left Zeller's to head back east.  We took a different road (I think) and decided to go exploring just like Lewis and Clark.  :)  So we stopeed at the:

North Dakota Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.
Here are the pics that "tripped my crank".  It IS a great place and was about a 9 on my "does it compare to Baker City Oregon's Oregon Trail Interpretative Center" meter.

BEADING???  

YUK!

I think maybe Dave wants to take it with us.  Dave is seldom too hot.

The logger inspects the wood......

It also has some pretty good scuptures.

More BEADS!

The front entrance.

Back in the van we went and headed on to Garrison Dam.  Oops! More tourist stuff on the left.
(Conversation: "Ken, what's the name of that Fort we visited in ND?  (silence).............uhhhhh shoot, I can't remember."   "Well, spit!!! Neither can I!")

Thus here is the cool fort we visited.......

His head is CLOSE to the roof!  Knowledgeable tour guide.

Onward we traveled in search of Garrison Dam! We all saw picutres of this spillway working near capacity in summer

2012 around the same time.....

Linda's picture from 2011.  

The Missouri River seems pretty calm this year.

A huge fish hatchery,.

And back to Hazen we went.  We toured town, had pizza and went to the Z's to wait and kick some Golf butt!

Road Trip Part 1: Lemon Petrified Park

Life just keeps smacking us in the head. Newell's mother was unable to rally after her heart valve replacement so Dave, Deb, Luc, Ken & I head to NorthDakota for the funeral. This was the third death of our little group in about 8 weeks.  Linda/Randy's son, Sharon and now Newell's mom.  Life is beginning to slap us alongside the face.  I am SOOOO glad we decided to hang out together for 4 years.  We knew eventually these kind of things would happen.  

We met them (and Luc) in Spearfish and headed out.   It was a hectic 3 days.  Dave drove the van with Ken up front and Deb, Luc and I shared the rest of the area.  

The Petrified Wood Park in Lemmon.

 Around lunchtime we found ourselves in Lemmon and stopped for lunch.  Great lunch!  We then went to satisfy our curiosity about the Petrified Wood  Park.  All 5 of us thought it was cool.

See the bear????

Hmmm.  I can't quite identify this rock.

I thought these might be man made - nope.  Found more in the wild.

We decided we weren't going to make it to Hazen before the viewing so went a little different way - through the reservation - a drive none of us had been on yet.  Enjoyed this drive a lot.

The Veteran's Cemetery - beautiful!  We got to Bismark for the visitation then went to Newell's brother's before heading to Hazen.  They are my kind of people - notice the clothes line?

 I had my B12 shot before we left and as I came out of the office I noticed these butterflies working the lilac bush.  It was once again a reminder that when we are done with our bodies we come out as new life just like the butterfly. May You All Rest In Peace!

Back in Wyoming

Let me outa this thing!  I smell WOMAN.  Wiley was so happy to get to Gillette!  They were just a blur as they reacquainted themselves.  They are so much alike it is hard to decide which one is which.

We hit town just in time to watch the final episode of spring soccer.  It was just like herding cats; but they had a blast.  Ethan's leg are so short he spent his time running to catch-up with the others.  Aedan is taking a little longer to get acquainted.  He isn't talking yet; just grunting!

Summer has officially begun!