Buffalo and Mule Deer -- We're in the Dakotas!

Well, I haven't done a very good job keeping up, but there is an excuse. Not a good one though. We were too busy having a great time with all our friends and relations (sounds like Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh) that we neglected to blog. Oh well, there's a lot to catch up on.

First of all, there needs to be a CLARIFICATION. The picture on the top of the last blog is NOT US-- WE ARE NOT THAT GOOD LOOKING (and we haven't aged that much either). So, we'll try to get a picture of us up again soon. Anyway, we left you as we were about to visit the Amana Colonies in Iowa, an old German religious settlement featuring hard-working people who get to eat lots of great German food. You might say they take the best with the wurst. Sorry.

From there we stayed and played in Baraboo, Wisconsin, home of the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum which was fun to explore and relive old memories, like watching that poor guy get shot out of a cannon at the end of the show and wondering how much it hurt. We then drove to North Prairie (near Waukesha) to see great friends Jim and Nancy Hannen who we have known for many years. Jim fixed about six things in our van and they also had a big gathering with many old friends to reminisce with. We continued the visiting with a 4 day stay in Green Bay where we saw many of Gloria's relatives and also got caught up on the lives of our childhood friends who we hadn't seen since grade school. I met with Jim Pfeiffer, blood brother and best friend in 5th grade who now is retired and married to a beautiful school administrator 15 years his junior. What a life! I always knew Jim would do well. Gloria also saw Nancy Deacon, 4th grade friend who used to go ice skating with her and also slide down their bannister. I asked Gloria to demonstrate her sliding down the bannister skills again, but she demurred for some reason.
We were hosted by a wonderful cousin, Joyce Kolb, and Gloria arranged for a big Reimer reunion in a pizza restaurant while the Packers were playing. On TV, not in the restaurant. They won and everyone cheered, we assume for us, but suspect the Packers may have had something to do with it. Our final family get-together was in Rhinelander with cousin Marsha and Jeff Schultz where we were taken to supper clubs for scrumptious dinners. We also went to their son's establishment, Big Daddy's, where we had fun trying a chocolate martini (delish) and dancing to the juke box.

Now, back to the travels. After Green Bay we headed north to the U. P. (Michigan's Upper Peninsula) where the people are called "Yoopers." They eat "pasties," meat pies which really stick to your ribs -- the old iron miners used to eat them. I golfed at a 5* course, Timberstone, where I was joined by several retired guys who were a lot of fun, especially Bob Pedo, an Italian Stallion who sang and told great jokes. He said he was Frank Sinatra's brother, "Notso Hotsa." From there we visited Sauk Centre, Minnesota, home of Sinclair Lewis who wrote Main Street and was hated by the townsfolk who recognized themselves in the book. They now have lots of tourist attractions all named Sinclair Lewis this or that, and they love him. See what 85 years can do for your reputation. When I read his Arrowsmith in 8th grade in which a young guy goes into medicine, fights a terrible epidemic in the Caribbean in which his wife dies, I thought it sounded cool to be a doctor. All except the wife dying part, that is, Gloria wants to add.

We met three more wonderful golfing partners at Grey Stone Golf Club in Sauk Centre, including a retired dentist named Dave Mayer who stayed for lunch with us afterwards. He and his wife found us just before we left town and gave us four delicious cinnamon rolls as a parting gift. How nice is that? They will definately go on our list of nice folks in the book.

We continued west to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, North Dakota where we took a 36 mile drive around the park and saw herds of buffalo, some only a few feet away from the van. Gloria has a picture of one engaging her in a staring contest -- he won. We also saw lots of mule deer and heard elk bugling loudly near our campsite. The next morning we were surprised when we saw a new life bird -- Sharp-tailed Grouse which was displaying before two females on the road a short distance ahead of us. It was an unexpected pleasure. I played golf that morning at Bully Pulpit, an amazing course near Medora, with some of the holes high up in the Badlands providing fantastic views. General Custer camped on the third fairway along the Little Missouri River just before he had an unfortunate run-in with Crazy Horse and half of the Sioux Nation. I guess he should have stayed to play golf instead.

Continuing South, we entered South Dakota where we stopped at the Geographic Center of the United States and tried to take our picture by holding the camera up. It looks quite goofy. We then went on to the Black Hills, but didn't stop at Mt. Rushmore (we've seen it a number of times before and it always looks the same). We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and ended up in Hot Springs where we are currently. I again played golf alone as Gloria is not quite healed up from her leg injury, and had fun just before dark hacking away while racing along the cart path while I could still see. There were storm clouds in the distance, but our luck has held out. For the 40th time we have played golf with NO RAIN! Amazing, since it has been a very wet year, especially along the upper midwest and Galveston, Texas.

So today we'll drive further south and a bit east with the eventual goal being Gothenburg, Nebraska where they have a real sod house on display, along with a Pony Express Station and remnants of the Oregon Trail, plus a neat golf course. The van is running smoothly, we are still speaking to each other, still eating too much, sleeping reasonably well, though my allergies are kicking up. You might know that I am allergic to smut which is a problem since I am walking around on a lot of grassy golf courses. Oh, smut of course is that fungus which grows on the side of grass. What were you thinking it is? Well, with that I'd better get out of here. Achoo!

Gloria just updated some pictures, including the goofy one from the Geographic Center and Carhenge in Western Nebraska which is an artistic attempt to re-create Stonehenge with old cars plunked in the ground. There is also a picture of me and my golfing buddies in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Dave, Bob and Bill. Colorado and the Rocky Mountains are next.

Hello from the Heartland!

Well, Gloria took a few moments to add pictures from Uganda and New York (it has only taken us four months to figure out how to do this simple task), so you might want to back up and take a looky look. (I've always wanted to write that). Anyway, Uganda seems like a long time ago as we sit in our little camper overlooking beautiful Coralville Lake on a chilly and blustery September day here in eastern Iowa.
But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. After leaving Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame, we continued westward to Seneca Falls and a brief look at the Women's Rights Museum before landing in Jamestown in New York's southwest corner. I made a wrong turn out of Seneca Falls, so we got to enjoy plenty of New York countryside before getting on the right road. To her credit, Gloria just smiled and didn't say what a dork I was. In Jamestown we had a few laughs at the Lucille Ball Museum (Lucy-Desi) which was fairly small but cute in a goofy blonde sort of way. We also enjoyed Roger Tory Peterson's place in the same town and had a wonderful time birding the trails around it.
Ohio was next -- we were back in the midwest, the place of our roots, and it felt good. We drove 478 miles from Seneca Falls to Coshocton, Ohio (see comments of my driving above). Coshocton sits along the Tuscarawas River where canal boats traveled ffrom about 1835 to 1870, and we enjoyed learning about this early form of travel before the iron horse came along and made them outdated. I played golf at River Greens there, but it wasn't as fun as usual because Gloria had pulled a muscle in her leg and had to skip it. We explored some Amish towns (Charm, Sugar Creek) and had dinner at Der Dutchman's restaurant, but the food tasted like cafeteria offerings -- except for the pie which was great. Anyway, if you ever go there, just go straight to the pie.
We stopped in at the Jack Nicklaus Museum at The Ohio State University in Columbus and watched as some of the OSU stars were being interviewed on TV. Those poor guys, in a year or two they will be multimillionaires and their whole lives will be changed forever. You know what they say, too many major life changes isn't good for anybody. Anyway, the Jack Nicklaus story was very nice, as was the Packard Motor Company Museum in Dayton where we got to drool over some really really really beautiful old Packards and wished we were the ones who became multimillionaires so we could pick up a couple of them instead of some stupid, spoiled athletes who wouldn't even appreciate an old Packard Caribbean 1955, pink and white with those big old whitewalls and hydramatic suspension......Oh yes, I guess I got a little carried away.
Anyway, we drove into Indiana, my Dad's home state and visited Columbus, a bigger town than we were used to at 39,000 (in which we got lost immediately, which is one reason we prefer small towns to visit and play golf in). It has some tremendous architecture by very famous architects, so we took a great two hour van tour. We both had colds and Gloria looked rather puny, so we splurged on a motel which was a great idea so I could play golf at the Robert Trent Jones designed Otter Creek course while Gloria rested. We missed our old camper and didn't sleep very well in the strange big room, but maybe it was the Chinese food which made us toss and turn.
Illinois was next, the home of my mother's ancestors, and we had a super time with John and Edie Corbly over the Labor Day weekend at their great home in Urbana. They treated us royally which we didn't deserve, but we tried to be good guests and so took advantage of every situation we could. They certainly were great to us and we hope we can return the favor sometime in the future. After Urbana we went to Springfield, because Illinois is the Land of Lincoln, and were wowed at the Lincoln Museum and Presidential Library. Now that is one museum you've got to visit if you every happen to be traveling this way. Lots of fun for all ages and extremely well-done. We visited Lincoln's tomb before heading out to Monmouth in northwest Illinois, a cute small town where it is very difficult to get lost. There I played at a beautiful course called Gibson Woods. While the rest of the state is flat with lots of corn fields and soybean fields, Gibson Woods is hilly with great old hardwood trees and it was the cheapest course on the trip so far. Gloria was still nursing her cold and sore leg, so worked on our pictures while I played. In Monmouth we listened to the Agribusiness Report on the radio and had a wonderful time at the little Wyatt Earp Birthplace run by a delightful older couple, Melba and Bob Matson. We walked up the narrow stairway to see the room where he was born in 1846 and Bob told us to listen carefully, because sometimes you can still hear that first "Earp Burp." We didn't.
So now we are in Iowa and the weather has changed from hot and muggy to chilly and breezy in just one day. Summer just kind of disappeared overnight and now it's Fall and we've still got a long way to go with many friends and family to visit. We're just having the best time and think everyone should do something like this when they can, rather than waiting until it's TOO LATE, if you know what I mean. Well, I've got to go -- the Amana Colonies in Iowa are waiting.