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!!!