Where has the summer disappeared to? Here it is almost to July, the middle of the summer, and it seems to be rolling down so fast and vanishing! We are only days from our departure from Hart Ranch and the second half of our summer experience and it doesn’t seem possible that it is that time already. I have only four working days left before we spend some time preparing the coach for hitting the road and pulling out of South Dakota!

We have been continuously kept busy mowing, weed-eating, and trying to keep up with the weather that Mother Nature has provided us. We have had a few rainy days (with hail), several days with beautiful, sunny skies punctuated with an afternoon shower and complete clearing for the remainder of the evening. We have even had a few days with no rain at all! About three weeks ago I fertilized the front portion of the Center Court and I can truly see the difference between it and the unfertilized part. The grass is more green and lush than the unfertilized part. When the rain hits after a warm sunny day, you can almost hear the grass growing. And the parking areas and sites are requiring that we mow at least twice a week. We have six men working in Grounds on any given day - that’s less than last year. And all of us are busy with mowing, tree-trimming, etc. It’s has been a wonderful season, so far, and we have had a great crew to work with.

Dottie and I have been going every Sunday to the First Presbyterian Church and enjoying the fellowship we experience there. Rev. Bob Evans and wife, Gretchen, are an energetic couple with big ideas and outgoing personalities. Bob has managed to increase the number of younger folks in the congregation and has more things going on for the whole congregation to become involved. This coming weekend the State Presbytery will be meeting in Rapid City and First Presbyterian will be the host church. Over the winter the church purchased an older Bluebird 20-passenger bus. There aren’t many folks in the church with proper licenses to drive the bus. I inquired with the head of South Dakota driver’s licenses, our friend Larry Schuman, and he assured me that my commercial license is acceptable for driving the bus. So, I’ll be volunteering on Friday and Saturday driving the attendees to the church, lunch, and probably dinner in the bus. I plan to get some time to clean it up and check it out thoroughly before the weekend.

We have enjoyed the company of so many of our summer friends and are almost saddened to leave. We know that we’ll return on August 24th and probably stay for another month before returning to San Diego. Our travels will take us to Springfield, OH for the Monaco Pre-Rally where I am on the Parking Crew, Bowling Green, OH for the Family Motor Home Convention, Wauseon, OH for a two-week Habitat build, and on to Chicago to see my Mother’s brother. Then we’ll go to Kenosha, WI to see cousin Mary Anderson, and over to LeMars, IA to see a former Associate Pastor from First Presbyterian who has her own church now. Then we’ll take some time to see Brookings, Webster, Roscoe, and Mobridge, SD before returning to Hart Ranch. During that two-month trip, we hope to see some of our Monaco friends at the rallies and on the road.

Our coach is running great and we’ve had the opportunity to do some small fixes to some of our problem areas. Like a house, it seems that the little things never end. However, we’re ready to travel and get some more miles on the “old girl”.