On the Road...

Our inaugural day of travel brought us across the increasingly unfamiliar landscape of western Minnesota.  Roads were nearly devoid of traffic, the sun was shining, crops ripening in the fields; altogether a picture perfect drive to Big Stone Lake State Park on the border with South Dakota.  Along the way we passed many sites of historical importance to the early days of our state and the war we fought with the Dakota back in the 1860’s; Mankato, New Ulm, the Upper Sioux Agency were among them.  Did I mention I like history?  Our first evening out, Earl and Marsha from Michigan introduced themselves in the campground (there were three sites occupied out of 37 available… nice problem choosing the right one).  They had been drenched by rains the day before, in Wisconsin, and were drying out their tent as they set up camp.  Earl’s ancestors had lived in nearby Ortonville and they were hoping to find the former homestead the next day.  We spent a very few minutes speaking with them before they were gone and we resumed our first evening’s fire.  Next morning we were getting things put away in “The Wheal House” (the new name of our trailer… think Elmer Fudd saying “It’s a wheal house… uh, uh, uh, uh uhhhh), when it started to rain.  Diane noticed Earl and Marsha sitting in their small car at their campsite.  She mentioned it to me and preparations to leave ceased; the coffee pot was put on and I walked to their site under the umbrella to invite them in for coffee.  We felt it was God’s prompting to encourage them.  The next hour brought out the laptop as we investigated the area on Google maps; with the information Earl knew, we located their family homestead just a few miles away.  The rain stopped, the sun came out and they excitedly left us and the still warm coffee to drive out to see it.  We’ve said the people we meet will be better than the landscapes… it’s true.  Good luck and blessings to Earl and Marsha as they search their past together (did I mention I like history).

We’re in Theodore Roosevelt National Park this morning, after driving across the fields, rivers and buttes of South Dakota.  Yesterday I mentioned my desire to see a pronghorn antelope in the wild… a couple hours later we crested another in the numerous uphill parts of the drive and there, in the corner of a green grassy field, was a large pronghorn buck. I woohooed and exclaimed, “That’s it, I’m done, I can go home now… (pause) wait, I am home.”  Funniest moment of the day.  We’ve also seen prairie dogs by the colony, white tail and mule deer and several bison.  I took a series of photos of Diane and a large bull buffalo… the one in today’s blog is after I said to her, “Hold still and keep looking at the camera, he’s coming closer and looks pretty mad.”  She erased the best ones.  We’ll continue to share about people and places we meet; you continue to do what you do and stay connected.