Septermber 9-19, 2014 Rapid City, SD

Wow, what a fun and busy 10 days! 
First: time with my son, Pete.  He plays in band called the River Liffey Boys.  The River Liffey runs through Dublin.  They started as an Irish band, but they play a lot of their own music and some other cover songs.  I was able to listen to them perform 5 different nights!  And various friends joined me on every occasion.  Pete and I also had some great mom/son time on his days off.  Can’t get enough of that guy!

Business:  I saw my dentist, doctor with lab work, accountant, lawyer, insurance agent, massage and hair appointments.  I still own my old office building with a previous dental partner.  We rent the building to the dentist that bought my practice.  So there were maintenance issues to look at and plan, too.  Dr Haave did an awesome job of redecorating the waiting room and her private office!

Friends:  Tracy and Richard Perdue were gracious hosts.  We are close enough friends that it was comfortable to come and go as I needed.  I had fun cooking a couple meals for them and having friends join us.  Tracy’s sister, Tami, her husband John and son Cory joined us for a couple meals at Tracy’s.  I actually new Tami before Tracy, and we have been friends for over 20 years.
Thursday, Sept 11, I was greeted by snow on the ground!  This was a record for early snow fall in Rapid City, SD.  At noon, I went to a Zonta meeting.  Zonta is an international service organization that I was a member of for over 20 years.  It was great to see so many of my friends.
 
Friday morning Sept 12 and 19 I met with the “coffee girls”.  I have a group of friends that meet for coffee every Friday morning after working out at 6:30am.  I was a part of that for at least 15 years.  Now I occasionally call them on Friday mornings and they pass the phone around to say “hi”.  I had to scrape the windows of my car that morning!

Yvonne, me, Connie, Marge and Barb

 Saturday, Sept 13, my good friend, Barb Auwerter organized a bicycle ride for her 63rd birthday.  There were about 15 of us ranging in age from 47-67.  Barb is such a lively, friendly, happy person.  After the bike ride on the bike path in Rapid City, about 10 of us rode to the Meadow Brook golf course.  We sat outside eating pizza and drinking beer from about 11:30-3:00.  I think we went through 11 pitchers of beer!!!  I have not been with that many women who like to drink beer since my last family reunion :)  Good thing we were on bikes and not driving.

Sunday, I went to church at the Cathedral and talked to many people that remembered me.  After church, several choir members that I used to sing with went to lunch at the Colonial House (my favorite restaurant).  I really had a nice time visiting with them, too.
Cheryl Ulmer, friend for 25 years, and I spent a couple evenings playing cribbage and just enjoying “girl talk”.
Great lunch with Debbie and Denny Stuck, from our sailing fleet in SD.  Can't mention every name, but great seeing so many people. 

I filled everyday to the fullest and loved every minute.  Not sure when I will be back in Rapid City.  But with Pete still here, it will happen.

Below are pictures from Saturday night at Murphy's listening to the River Liffey Boys.

Colleen Schneider and me

Lonny and Kim Weyer and me

Lorraine Himrich, me and Colleen Schneider

friend Kiley, Colleen, Jason, and Gene Schneider (dental school classmate)

Me and my partner in crime, Cheryl Ulmer

Jim Thompson and me (love Kim's dad)

September 5-9, 2014 Sioux Falls, SD and Okoboji, Iowa

Sept 5:  I left for Sioux Falls today.  I drove through Groton and stopped at the local drug store to see if, by chance, a friend of mine would be working.  Boy was Nancy Sundstrom surprised when I walked in the door.  She follows my blog, so she knew I was in MN, but not here in Groton, SD.  Nancy and I were classmates in dental assisting school in Watertown, SD in 1974.   We even shared an apartment for the second half of the year.  We have been friends for 40 years!  We were friends when Dave and I started dating.  We have stayed in touch over the years.  We made plans to get together when I get back to Aberdeen later this month.

In Sioux Falls, I went to the home of Sheryl Gerdes Bedard.  We have been friends since 1st grade, 52 years.  Another grade school friend, Lori Landgrebe Schneller, joined us for dinner.  Afterwards, we went to Sheryl’s and got out our high school year books.  We went through the entire class to refresh our memories for the 40the reunion later this month.  Oh my, did we ever share some laughs and great memories.  I am so blessed to have such great life long friends.

Sat Sept 6:  I met Ski for Light friends, Chelle and Steve Hart, for breakfast.  I used to guide Chelle cross county skiing back in the 90’s for many years.  We have stayed in touch over the years.  Her sister passed away with cancer a couple years ago.  So she gave me a pair of her sister’s earrings.  The family had the jewelry they wanted, so Chelle is giving jewelry to friends that are like sisters to her or who cherish their sisters.  That was so special!

Saturday afternoon, I was invited to join my friend, Sheryl, and another girlfriend of her’s, Claudia, for a 3 day vacation at Lake Okoboji in Iowa.  They had a condo rented at a resort right on the water.  What great timing!  I have been to Okoboji several times in my life, as a child with family, with Lori and Sheryl in the 70’s and with Dave in the 80’s.  Dave, Pete and I even came here once around 2006.  We had a nice dinner outside on the deck at the Fisherman’s Wharf on the water.  Then we enjoyed a bonfire by the lake.  Can’t do that on a sailboat.  Sunday we just hung out by the lake, beautiful day!  Monday shopped.  Tuesday returned to Sioux Falls and then on to Rapid City. 

Lake Okoboji

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Claudia, me and Sheryl

August 27- Sept 4, 2014 Minnesota

Dave’s Stepfather’s funeral isn’t going to be until Sept 4.  His body was donated to the Mayo Clinic for research, so they decided to have the funeral on Hap and Alice’s 41st wedding anniversary. 

Dave spent Wed, Thurs, and Friday helping his mother organize finances with appointments and phone calls.  Wed, Pete, Alice and I went on a shopping trip to Mankato.  It was nice that Pete could spend time with Alice this week.

On Saturday, Dave and I went to Minneapolis to spend some time with the Clausen’s, Joe and Erin.  Dave helped them with some household projects on Sunday while I drove to Wyoming, MN to see a dental school classmate for a few hours.  (All this was last minute plans, so sorry Jerry and Barb that we didn’t get together with you.)  On Monday, the Clausen’s had a family Labor Day picnic.  We knew the Clausen side, but were able to meet some of Erin’s family.  Fun day.  Tuesday, Dave and I spent several hours talking through all the options for our traveling over the next month.  Dave is going crazy with nothing to do after one week.  And all he thinks about is what he could be doing on the boat.  So we came to the decision that he will return to North Carolina after the funeral and I will stay until the end of September for my class reunion and family reunion.  My sister and husband, Janice and Jim, are coming to Hap’s wake and funeral.  Then I will go to Aberdeen with them, borrow a car, and spend a month touring the state with friends and family. 

Wednesday: we returned to LeSueur for the visitation at the Funeral Home from 4-8:00pm.  Hap was an avid hunter up until about 2 years ago.  For the past few years, the family made orange t-shirts with deer hunting logos and Hap’s name.  So all the family members wore them to the wake.  It was a great way to be able to tell who the family members were.  Hap had 6 children (one passed away with cancer) and 3 step children.  So there were many grand children and great grandchildren there, too.  Hap touched a lot of lives living his entire 92 years in LeSueur, except for his years in the Navy.  He was a WWII veteran.   There were a lot of fun stories shared that night.

Alice, Dave, Jay, Stan

Stan, wife Sue, Birdie

Joe, wife Jeanie, Debbie

Thursday:  The funeral was held at Alice’s church and was a beautiful service, with Hap’s 3 daughters speaking.  There was a 21 gun salute and the grandchildren released balloons.  Then there was a fantastic meal served by the church.  After the meal, I said my good-bye’s and headed for Aberdeen with my sister. 

We arrived in Aberdeen in time to have dinner with my niece and her family, Heidi and Glen Crawford, Garrett and Claire.  They didn’t tell the kids who they were having dinner with.  When they arrived at the restaurant, they all gave me hugs.  Then the first thing the kids said was “where’s uncle Dave?’  They were able to talk to him on the phone before they left.  They are growing up so fast, 1st and 3rd grade now.  Wish I would have taken a picture. 

Augurst 22- 26, 2014 PA to MN

Friday, Aug 22:
Rich was able to take the day off.  So after a lazy morning and great breakfast, we drove around the area.  His home is near the area where Washington crossed the Delaware.  There is so much history of the birth of our country in the eastern states.

We had a great dinner at an English Publick House.  Dave had a hamburger with scrapple on it.  It looked like Spam to me.  

 Saturday, August 23:
We went to a Phillies baseball game against the St Louis Cardinals, in Philadelphia.  It went into 12 Innings and wasn’t over until 12:30 am (Cardinals won).  We had  Philly cheese steak sandwiches and Yuengling Beer.  Rich had actually brought some Yuengling beer to MN for us in the early 1980’s.  He said it was the oldest still operating brewery in the US. 



 Sunday Aug 24:  This morning we received a phone call at 6:00 am.  It was Dave’s mother telling us that Dave’s Stepfather had passed away during the night.  She and Hap have been married over 40 years.  He was in his early 90’s and was a WWII veteran.  He had been in and out of  hospitals since last Thanksgiving with lung problems.  And within the last month, he was moved to a nursing home and put on hospice care.  In the end, he was just worn out.  So he went peacefully.  But Dave’s mom will be very lonely. 

So, we decided to get up, pack our bags, and head to Minnesota.  We were about 10 hours away from our boat in North Carolina and returning our rental car.  Last minute flights would have been expensive.  So we decided to drive for 2 days to MN.  We made it as far as Indianapolis today. 

Monday Aug 25:  We drove the rest of the way today to LeSueur, MN.  We have gone through 19 states and 2 countries since we left NC Aug 6.  Pete arrived tonight also.  He will be able to stay until Thursday.  It’s so great to see him.

Tuesday Aug 26: Alice, Pete, Dave and I drove to Eden Prairie, MN today to watch our great nephew play football.  Mateo is in 10th grade and into multiple sports.  We met our niece, Dena and her other 2 kids, Julianna and Malachi, and a family friend, Bill, at the game.  They won 28-0.  After the game, Dave’s brother Dean joined us and we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.  We had a fun evening with family. 

Dave, Mateo, Pete and Malachi

Alice, Dave and Dean

August 21, 2014 Hudson River, NY to PA

This morning we walked over the Hudson River on an old railroad bridge.  It was a beautiful morning and great to be able to go for such a nice walk.  Then we drove to Newtown, PA.  Dave hates traffic.  I need to get him back to the boat.  One comment while driving was “This really f***’s with the rhythm of life.”  But I must admit, the countryside in these northeastern states had been beautiful.

We arrived at Rich and Cindy Valent’s home in New Town, PA in time for a nice dinner at their home.  This was the third couple we have visited on this trip with ties to our days in Germany while Dave was in the Air Force back in the late 1970's.  Rich was room mates in the barracks with Lee Glenister (Dave’s room mate) after Dave and I were married.  So Rich and Lee spent a lot of time with us.  We had never met Rich’s wife.  They have twin sons close to the age of our son who both now live in New Orleans.  Dave was his usual self, teasing and joking.  Rich commented a few times that it was nice to have Dave visit, because it made him look better in the eyes of his wife.  Funny

Hudson River

August 20, Conn to NY

I did return to Mystic Seaport on Wednesday morning to see a few demonstrations that we missed the morning before.  Dave wanted to do some things on the computer while we had a good wifi connection.

We drove to Waterford, Conn after I picked up Dave. There is a boat supply mail order company there called Defender.  Dave has ordered half of the things on our boat from them.  So it was nice to actually go there and look though their warehouse display/ship store/Chandlery.  We have been planning on buying more anchor chain.  To have it shipped, it would have to go by truck.  And we usually don’t plan on being in one place long enough to have it shipped.  So we did some figuring and decided we would be able to take it with us in our rental car.  And that would save the cost of the shipping.  The chain comes in a barrel.  So we had to measure the hatchback area to see if there was room for the barrel to stand up AND the forklift to be able to lift it into the car.  We bought 200 feet of chain which weighs roughly 350 lbs.  So you can see that we saved a lot in shipping, but it may change our gas milage.

We had a late lunch at a Greek restaurant in Waterford. We looked at the map to go directly to our next destination, Newtown, PA.  We would have had to drive on the outskirts of New York City with after work traffic.  Plus our friends there weren’t expecting us until tomorrow. So we detoured and went straight west to the Hudson River.  We ended up in Poughkeepsie, NY. 

August 18, 2014 Maine to Connecticut

We walked to a restaurant overlooking the ocean for breakfast.  We shared a lobster and scallop omelette and Dave had one blueberry pancake and I had one slice of blueberry french toast.  Dave giggled like a child when he found out he could have whole milk. 

After breakfast, we walked to Pemaquid Point lighthouse and toured the buildings and the grounds.  Very picturesque.  Nice rocky coast and great view from the lighthouse.   

We decided we had seen and done the basics in Maine-ate lobster, toured a lighthouse and saw the rocky coast.  We decided we DO want to return by boat to see the coast from the water.  So instead of driving further up the coast, we decided to drive to Connecticut.  We drove through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut today within about 6 hours.  We found a hotel in Mystic so we can tour the Mystic Seaport tomorrow.