LOL. Thanks for the concern from my freinds on this board. I sent Steve an answer to his mail of 15June, which I did not see until yesterday. I will post that now, as it sums up part of what I have been up to the last two weeks.
Hi Steve, Just got back from a two week plus ramble with my wife, neice, grandson, and 90 year old aunt. Went from Portland to Fort Yates, North Dakota. So I didn't see your message until yesterday when we got back.
Very interesting trip. My grandson is 13, my neice 17, my wife, 60, and me, 70. A spread of ages that normally might have resulted in some serious friction. Plus, until last December, I had not ever seen my grandson, and even at the start of the trip, was not sure of his personality. But the trip went wonderfully in spite of weather. And even that was considerate enough to have the breaks in the bad weather located timewise so that we did everything we planned.
Started with giving grandson his first flying lesson here in Oregon. So he has logged his first hour in a formal instuction in a plane. He did well. Then collected the neice, she has been on two other trips, when she was 11 and 12. Now at 17, my pretty little girl is now a beautiful young lady. Then picked up
Aunt Marcella. Drove Portland to Missoula, Montana, the first day. Second day, down to Philipsburg to the Rock Creek Saphire mines, and collected some saphires. Kyan got 46 carats, including two over 2 carats in size, Falcon and Marcella got 23 carats each, I just washed and shook the gravel for them. Then to Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman. Met my cousin there, and we did the museum, and then went to dinner. He is only 2 years older than me, but an auto-immune disease is crippling him up. In fact, none of the people that I used to bang around the mountains with can do that with me anymore, not from lack of desire, but from the insults of aging. We went to dinner, and his son joined us. Steven kept Kyan and Falcon entertained for the whole of the dinner, and we all had very good time.
The next day, to Billings, the Little Bighorn Battlefield. Explored that with Kyan and Falcon. Explained how Kyan was related to some of the Hunkpapa Lakota that fought there. Falcon also has Native blood, but is is West Coast, Grande Ronde. And both show little of it. In fact, most take Falcon to be my daughter because of her bright blue eyes and somewhat auburn hair. Saw Pompies Pillar, then back to the motel. On to Fort Yates and the casino hotel in North Dakota the next day. First of the memorable thunderstorms on the way. Everything in the Dakotas is green. High grass, a very cool spring and early summer.
Took care of Aunt Marcella's business with the BIA at Fort Yates. Quite a run-around dealing with both tribal agencies and the BIA. When Custer left to go the the Little Big Horn, he said, "Don't do anything until I get back". That seems to still be in effect.
Then down to Hot Springs, South Dakota, for the kids. Jewel Cave, Wind Cave, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, saw the blast there, an aerial park with the kids climbed on cables in the trees, and did a zip line that must have been a 1000 ft long. Saw Deadwood, Saloon #10, Devils Tower, and Costner's tribute to the Plains Indians just outside Deadwood.
Leaving Devils Tower, got caught in a thunderstorm that was the worse I have ever experianced. Continous lightning and thunder, rained so hard that most cars were pulled off the road. The highest speed I could go for about 10 miles was 25, often down to 20, gusts of wind were pushing the front end sometimes 6 inches. Rainfall like I have never seen before, some chipped paint on the front of the van from hail. When we were near Buffalo, water across the road a foot deep, and running fast. I-90 was effectively closed for small cars. Even the van had water splashing over the hood with we crossed that. There was not a single day on this vacation, until the last two days in Oregon, that we did not drive through at least one violent thunderstorm, and somedays, as many as three. Yet, they all somehow bracketed the things we planned so we did all of those activities.
Dropped our grandson off in Ashland, and now know him pretty well. I think that we will take more trips with him in the future, a very good kid with lot's of potential. Large economy sized, 13, and within half an inch of six feet. He will be a much larger person than either his grandpa or dad. Going to drop our neice off this morning. Hope we can do more trips with her in the future, but she will be 18 next summer, and ready for college. Life get's real busy at that point, and she may not have time for old Uncle and Aunt. But if she does, she is welcome on any adventure we go on.
All in all, a wonderful time, and a good deal of fun.
He's a great poster!
