Memorial Day 2007

The best to all of you this Memorial Day 2007 - it’s a day of pondering, reflecting, remembering, and honoring all those who have made our wonderful lives possible. Stop for a few moments and think about the many soldiers who are giving their all for us to be able to exercise our freedoms, live our lives in this great land of freedom, and sacrifice for our sakes.

This Memorial Day is a busy one for us at Hart Ranch. However, we have over 60 sites vacant this weekend - in the past we’ve had a full park for the holiday. I don’t know if the fuel costs, the weather, or what is causing people to stay home this summer. We are enjoying our stay here and can’t believe we’ve been in South Dakota for almost a month!

Our weather has been absolutely splendid! We have an occasional rain shower that has caused the grass to grow like crazy. We have been mowing as fast as we can and still can’t seem to stay ahead of the growing grass. After the rains stop, you can almost hear the blades of grass stretching out and growing. It’s truly amazing and the park looks better than it ever has for this time of year. I have been staying busy every day working a riding lawn mower or handling a weed eater keeping the Center Court manicured. We are spending almost every day mowing the grass and continually trying to get the small jobs accomplished. Weather is a major part of the news each day and the weathermen have a lot of neat tools to view the thunderstorms the radar picks up.

We are back in the part of the country where eating out is affordable. On Fridays we like to go to the American Legion hall for an all-you-can-eat fish’n’shrimp dinner for $7.25/person. Or the Sunday morning brunch at the Rapid City Elks Lodge for $6.95/person. And, of course, there’s always our favorite Shipwreck Lee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill. The Shipwreck burger - half pound of ground beef with grilled onions, peppers, and jalapeno peppers - is one of our favorites! Dottie may start working there next week once the daytime chef begins working the lunch hour.

Nancy, our new Sheltie, is slowly growing to adjust to her new home. It’s difficult to realize we’ve had her for four weeks now, but she seems to be more comfortable in the confines of a motor home. She is showing signs of being very comfortable with us and sticks close to our sides when she’s outside. This morning we heard what appeared to be a bark - she was feeling frisky and hungry when I got out of bed. I started playing with her and she began to jump around with here tail in the air. All of a sudden there was a muffled bark and I think she surprised herself as much as us. She’s on a twice-daily feeding routine and very good about letting us know when she needs to go outside. We’re both very pleased with our decision regarding her as she’s quite a little lady and fun to have around. We take her back to the vet on Tuesday to have the stitches removed from her surgery and the vet will do a general check-up and know the results of the blood work we requested.

We are enjoying our summer and anticipating a busy one this year. We always look forward to seeing old friends, especially folks from San Diego. We are looking forward to seeing Earl & Rita Newell from San Diego this week. They are in the area and hopefully will be staying at Hart Ranch for a few days with us.

Have a great Memorial Day!!!

Happy May Day!!


One of the most enjoyable features of this full-time lifestyle is having the flexibility to change plans and adjust our schedule. Boy, have we ever done that!

We left Branson and drove north to Springfield, MO. We circled around Springfield on the north side, hit I-44 for only six miles, and turned north toward Kansas City. My plan was to spend the night at the Flying J in Kansas City. On the way up we got a phone call from my brother, Bill. He had been out to California for a conference, spent time with our sister Peg in Santa Rosa, and traveled to San Diego for a weekend with our Mother. From there he flew to Colorado Springs to meet his son, Will, who has spent the last four months at a Focus on the Family conference. Bill met up with Will and they were to drive back to their home in Florida via Lincoln, Chicago, and Tennessee. Bill’s phone call was to see where we were and check the possibility of meeting up with them. As chance would have it, we were close to Kansas City and it was only 1:30 in the afternoon. They were in Ogallala, NE headed for Lincoln. I decided that we could bypass Kansas City and press on to Lincoln. Working on my mapping software, I figured we could arrive in Lincoln about 5:30, in time for dinner, and see both of them before they left on Thursday morning. I asked Bill to check with the Quality Suites where they were staying and see if they’d allow us to park the coach in their huge parking lot for the night. They approved, and we arrived shortly after 5:30 after they had already checked in. We met them in the parking lot and headed down the street for the Olive Garden for a relaxing dinner. It was an absolutely wonderful time to see both of them and share a meal while getting caught up on Will’s latest experiences. Even though we drove over 400 miles that day, it was worth all the fatigue we felt to see both of them.

Thursday morning Bill and Will pulled out early for a long day’s drive to Chicago. We took our leisurely time to eat, pack, and drive the 30 miles to Milford, NE and our cousin Nancy Obermeyer. She lives on a farm about two miles outside of town where the peace and quiet can be almost overwhelming. It’s a beautiful farm with about two acres of lawn that she has to mow. It was ready for mowing, so I had the opportunity to mow it on her Snapper riding lawn mower. Nancy had to work both days we were there, but she and Dottie had a lot of fun running errands together.

On Saturday there was a dog show in Seward, so we drove up and checked out the Shelties that were being shown. We met a gracious lady, Carolyn Foreman, from Omaha, who was showing two of her male Shelties. As we conversed with her, we realized we knew mutual friends, Bill & Jidge Holbrook, who raised collies and Bill is a retired AKC judge. One thing led to another and we discussed the purchase of one of Carolyn’s female puppies in May. She was a great source of information on Shelties and we left with her name and address. We had to get back to Nancy’s to pack and get moved up to Genoa.

Cousin Ike Anderson lives in Genoa and I wanted to spend some time there with him. He is in the process of leaving his farm and moving in to town in a beautiful home they purchased. We arrived at the Genoa City Park about 5PM. The park is situated next to the Loup River and is free the first three nights, then $10/week after that! We were only going to be able to stay two nights since we needed to get up to Hart Ranch. We joined Ike and his wife for dinner at the Great Plains Café on Saturday night. It is always good to see Ike and I wish we had more time to spend with them. Genoa is a quiet little farm town with so much going for it. We love the quiet pace, the friendly people, and the relaxing atmosphere we encounter every time we’re there.

On Sunday morning we joined Ike and Dorothy at the Lutheran Church for services. Prior to church, Nancy called from her work and told me she had been perusing the Omaha World Herald newspaper. She found an ad for a two-year old Sheltie female. I phoned the owner and discovered the dog is a purebred, but was the smallest of the litter - definitely NOT show quality! They have had the dog since she was a puppy. They are moving into an apartment and can’t take the dog. She needs some serious grooming (hair between her toes, hair around her ears need to be trimmed, lots of patient combing and brushing, etc.) and was fed M&M’s as snacks by the father of the family. She’s a bit overweight and VERY timid. Other than that, she is exactly what we were looking for - she’s housebroken and comes to you on command. She is a sweet little girl and we are going to love having her. We’re giving her plenty of time to adjust to living in less than 400 sq. ft. She’s learning to live with us, hasn’t barked yet, and loves to be in a lap or share a chair with us. We feel very fortunate to be able to be her new owners. Her name is Nancy and she is beginning to respond to both of us. I’ll have pictures posted on our Blog page. (see below)

We left right after church and drove the 100 miles from Genoa to Omaha to pick her up. We didn’t really know what we would be getting in to, but it turned out to be a very good move for us. We got back to Genoa by 4:30 and relaxed for the rest of the day. Ike and Dorothy drove by to see her and we followed them out to the farm. Ike was fixing the mud flap from the coach where it got a little bend in it from the parking spot at the park. We finished up the repairs to the mud flap and returned to the coach for the evening.

Monday morning Ike brought the mud flap to us in the park and we packed up in preparation for another day of travel. We left about 9AM and drove to Valentine, NE and the Wacky West RV Park. We drove close to 230 miles through some of the most enjoyable, scenic farmland along state highways. The more I drive this state, the less I want to leave. We both feel we could spend a summer traveling through these four Great Plains States and seeing all the small towns that have so much flavor. (Dave and Sandy, we all need to take a month off from the work-thing and spend some time traveling these states!) Plus, it’s an unusual experience to drive along and have oncoming drivers actually wave at you as they pass. They don’t know us from squat; yet they are all so friendly and simply give a small wave of the hand or fingers from the top of the steering wheel. It truly feels like we’re home when we travel though this state. The farmers are getting ready to start planting and the huge tractors and planters are out of the barns getting prepared for the task of getting seed in the ground. Most of the fields have been plowed and are waiting for the planting to begin. It’s a great new beginning of the crop season and everything appears to be in anticipation of the work ahead. I wish we could be here to be a part of it all!

We got to Valentine and checked in to the park to see the owners with a new Schipperke puppy! Their pup is such a cute little thing and brought back some wonderful memories of our Justy. She is about 4 months old and full of devilment! We had to spend some time talking and playing with the little critter and remembering the great times we had with ours. It makes us appreciate our new dog that won’t require the rigors of “puppy-training”. The Schip is a little cutie and just like Justy was in her youth.

We departed Valentine and fueled up at the local truck stop. Driving north into South Dakota we had the realization that we were almost home for the summer and our last four months of traveling were coming to an end. It has been an amazing journey with some awesome memories of friends, food, and fantastic country. Our new dog sat comfortably in Dottie’s lap for the whole trip and seemed to be secure with her new “mom”. We arrived at Hart Ranch shortly after noon and got settled in. It’s great to see a lot of old friends and the park is in excellent shape considering all the minor changes that have taken place. There are several new buildings, the roads are getting some new asphalt, we have some new lawn mowers, and I’m anxious to get started on the grounds. The new Maintenance Mgr. seems to be a great guy and will be fun to work with. I’ll start work on Wednesday morning and there is lots to do to get the park up to speed. Nancy is getting used to her new home and environment. She is enjoying all the grass she has to walk on and we hope to be able to get her in to a vet for a full check-up and eventual neutering.

The weather forecast is calling for temps in the 70s on Wednesday through the weekend and cool nights - great for sleeping! It’s good to be “home” in South Dakota!!