Summer Honey

 Today our plan is to leave Fargo and head down to brother Dick’s in Brainerd, MN. As I prepared to write, I checked on my last post to see where I left off. We were at the Cummin’s RV repair shop in Eugene, OR. Don’s cousin Susan is right. I should write more often. It’s like preparing for a term paper. I have to do extensive research in order to accurately report on where and when things happened. So I have my calendar, phone and log I keep around me as I write.

As it turned out we didn’t leave Eugene on the 17^th as planned but spent another night and didn’t get the Aqua Hot fixed though they came up with the same diagnoses that we did. We do have an expensive fix and they didn’t have the parts so we’ll find a place in Minnesota while we are there. So we finally left Eugene.

We came up I5 to Portland and then turned to come East on I84. We saw Mount Hood in the distance and kept on driving along the Columbia River until we crossed it and headed into Washington on I82 near Kennnewick. We stopped in Connell for the night at Coyote Run RV Park. That was a good place for an overnight stop. It was close to the interstate, easy on and off and well maintained. There isn’t much to do or see there so we didn't mind leaving early the next day. That part of Washington is hot and dry this time of year.

We headed up to Spokane where we spent a couple of days at the Spokane County Fairgrounds.The Spokane Indian’s baseball diamond was block away from the campground so we took in the home opener with 7000 Spokanians on a beautiful summer night… standing room only tickets. So we found room to stand in a walkway overlooking 3^rd base. A nice usher pointed to a place beyond right field with the sun shining directly in and informed us that was the place for standing room ticket holders. So we moved closer to home plate with a different usher. She asked if we needed help finding our seat. We assured her we didn’t and moved a little away from her. We decided to take a break from the game and went to the concession stand for dinner… $1.00 each for hot dogs and ice cream sandwiches. We returned and found a good place to stand near our second usher. We smiled at her when she came by and continued to watch the game. Finally, a nice couple was leaving and offered us their seats up behind the 3^rd base line. Unfortunately, the Indians were losing so we left early in the 8^th inning along with most of the other spectators and walked back to the camper. The next day was my birthday so I got to choose what we would do. We loaded up our bikes and headed out to find the bike trail. After getting us thoroughly lost trying to find a state park, we went into the city center and started our ride there. We rode along the river and saw Spokane at its best. Don cooked some salmon on the grill and we found a table in the shade where we enjoyed our dinner. We had the campground to ourselves and later that night I sat on the front steps of the camper in my pajamas and watched fireworks from the baseball diamond. On Sunday morning we met friend Nancy Bartmess for breakfast and caught up with her. We made secret plans to meet in Excelsior Springs, MO sometime in September and do some work. Nancy moved here from Springfield several years ago to be near her daughter who has very generously given Nancy 2 beautiful grandchildren. She was part of our

bicycle group, the NOBES.

Spokane is a beautiful city and very confusing to navigate around because of the river that winds through it. 

After breakfast we returned to the fairgrounds, hooked up the car and continued our eastward journey. We stayed the night at Wal-Mart in Post Falls, ID just west of Coeur d’Alene, ID. We took the car into that beautiful city and enjoyed a walk along the lake where city residents were enjoying the beaches. Wal-Mart was not a good stop as we couldn’t put out our slides and cook out as we wished. I guess we didn’t think that through very well.

We posted a picture of me at the center of the universe in Wallace, ID. It's always nice to be there once. We continued east stopping in Missoula, MT where we stayed at a Harvest Host Venue, Big Sky Brewery. Once we were set up, I suggested that we go in the tap room and let them know we were here and see if we could get a tour of the brewery. Well, it turns out that the taproom offers 4 free samples of the beer they have on tap. So we each had four 4 oz. samples. There was no brewery tour at a time that worked for us so we took a short self guided tour. While we leaned on the bar, we enjoyed talking to a couple who liked to RV but didn’t know about harvest hosts, another young man came in to get his growler refilled and we visited with him a while. After we took our self-guided tour, we returned to finish our samples. We met a couple who had retired from the forest service. We don’t know what we said but they suddenly had to leave. We bought a case of beer including my favorite, Summer Honey, Don’s favorite Trout Slayer and some Moose Drool which brother Ludwig had when we were in Texas. We thought we’d bring the beer to Minnesota and have something special to share with family members. Turns out that Big Sky Brewery distributes this far and no one was impressed. That’s okay because that means I get all the Summer Honey. By the time we left the taproom we had very little time to tour Missoula. We were both a little testy as we had forgotten to eat any lunch. We drove around and Don showed me the neighborhood that he remembers visiting his uncle who used to live there. We were unable to make connection with his cousin who lives there. So that was it for Missoula.

The next day we headed through the mountains past the Three Forks of the Missouri River down into the Yellowstone River Valley. I realized at some point that we had come by many places of the Lewis and Clark trail so I found the book Sacajawea and downloaded it on my NOOK so I could reread this saga about that amazing woman. We were back into familiar territory with familiar faces. That was good. I hadn’t realized how good it would feel to know our way around and see people we’ve known forever. We stopped for a night in Columbus and camped by the river. That is where we took the picture from our window of the River. This is the town in which Don’s mother grew up and his Aunt Ruth, aged 97 still lives. She is Cousin Susan’s (from San Fancisco) mother. We stopped to see Aunt Ruth to let her know we would be back in Columbus in a few days and headed over to Billings. On the way to Billings I received a message from Niece Kelsey letting us know that she was in Montana. That was a delightful surprise. We told her where we were headed and she said she’d be there in a couple of hours. We had picked the Billings KOA for a night because we thought it had full hook-ups and we could do laundry. While this is a very nice KOA with lots of amenities and very well maintained, it turned out there was no sewer connection (hence no laundry) and the sites were very small and it was the most expensive overnight we have spent anywhere, even the KOA near LA. It is also the first of all the KOA’s.

Kelsey arrived in her Miata convertible shortly after we were set up and we were happy to feed her some lunch. Don’s brother Bill and his wife Carol came over for steak and salmon dinner. Kelsey was very kind to grill the meet while Don and Bill told stories. It was a beautiful evening.  The next day when Kelsey took off, she clipped a couple of pieces from her jade plant, put it in a plastic cup in the cup holder in her Miata and took off for the Bear Tooth Pass on through Yellowstone Park on her way to her friends in Wyoming.

We stayed 2 more days in Billings at Bill’s friend’s place across from the KOA. He was kind to let us boondock in his field for 2 days. We drove to Don’s hometown, Laurel to do our laundry and stopped to see his cousin Larry in Park City and enjoyed a visit with them. While we were in Montana, the temperature each day was a little higher than the previous day. By the time we left the state, the temperature was near 100 degrees. We went back to Columbus for a couple of days and stayed one night by the river and decided to move to a campground where we could have electrical hookup and run our air conditioner to our heart’s content. We took one of those days to go up to the mountains and look for cooler air. We walked partway up the Mystic Lake trail and reminisced about all the times we have been there beginning in 1972 when we went up with brother Ludwig, then girlfriend Peggy and brother Jim; again in the 80’s with brother Paul, in 1992 with our children and their friends and 10 years ago with the Trip of the Shiny Dime. We returned to Columbus and had dinner with Aunt Ruth, Cousin Susan, her friend Bill, Cousin Mary and her husband in the house in which Don’s grandmother lived when he was a boy. The whole crew came by to see our camper before we left on June 29.

 

We followed the Yellowstone River for many miles and finally left it behind when it veered north to catch the Missouri on its long trip the Gulf of Mexico. We spent a night at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and kept on going arriving in Fargo on June 30.  We had many meals with my Brother ^th of July we drove back to Minneapolis in our car to go to a party at Greg and Peggy’s where we got to see several more family members. I will post a picture rather than name them all. We also enjoyed playing with Edie. We stayed at brother Ludwig’s house and then drove back to Fargo to see Doug and Georgene one more time. On our way out of Fargo we made one obligatory tourist stop and took a picture of the infamous wood chipper from the movie named for this city.

Doug and his wife Georgene and he showed us his office in the federal courthouse and introduced us to his boss, the judge. Kelly was in Minneapolis last week and drove up to Fargo to spend a day with us. While she was there, we had dinner with our Niece Jenny and her family. We’ve been eating a lot of meals with family lately and not doing nearly enough hiking and biking. For the 4

We are no longer tourists but are now officially visiting family and catching up with Minnesota folk. I’m writing this it is a couple of days since I started.  Now we are by the Mississippi River far upstream from where the Missouri joins it down in St. Louis. We moved over to Brainerd and are parked next to Brother Dick’s house. We’ve eaten a few more family meals here and have left messages and are waiting to hear back. I have one message answered and have plans to have lunch with My Aunt Ruth on Saturday. She also has a daughter, my cousin Susan who has a husband named Bill not to be confused with Don’s Aunt Ruth, his cousin Susan and her partner Bill.

Today I went to Costco optometry department to see about getting new glasses. I went up to the counter to ask about getting into see the optometrist. A pretty red-haired young woman with bright mischievous eyes and my cousin Tim’s smile said, “You’re my cousin! You are one of the Nesheims.” I looked at her and said, “You are Tim’s daughter.” I happened to be wearing an old tee-shirt from an event that she recognized. Don visited with her and told stories while I had my eyes examined. Unfortunately, by the time I was done she had to clock out and I didn’t get to order my glasses from her.