Catching Up - Part One

Well, it is time for me to get you caught up on what has been going on in the Frozen Tundra lately. I mean that literally, we woke up to 39 degrees this morning.

First, our trip to Kentucky was wonderful, my son Ben and his lovely wife Jena did all the driving and we had wonderful weather. We had a large seven passenger RV and it was good because there were four adults and three dogs.

We got to Bronston, Kentucky on the Fourth of July, and because my dad is not always “with it”, I got into trouble with my mom and Ben for foolin’ with him. He could not remember who I was…sometimes he thought that I was his dad, sometimes his older brother, and every once in awhile he remembered that I was his oldest son. But he would say that I was twenty years older than him, and the devil made me agree with him. Mom chided me because she had worked so hard trying to keep him in touch with reality.

Next, we went to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and then to Gatlinburg. Ben and Jena rented a Jeep and went up into Smokey Mountain National Park and Sarah and I chilled with the dogs in the RV. We had a wonderful southern dinner at the Old Mill in Gatlinburg, and headed back to Bronston.

We celebrated my dad’s 86th birthday with him, and this time I made an effort to get him to remember things both from the past and present and to try to connect the two. I was great to see dad and mom, and we got the added benefit of seeing my nephew Tim and meeting his wife Sharon. They are really very helpful to my parents and I am very thankful that they are there.

We had a very short visit, but it was good and my folks can’t handle too much company.

Then we went on to Signal Mountain, Tennessee to visit Sarah’s niece, Beth DuRoy. Her husband Jason was in Washington D C, so we didn’t get to meet him. Beth is an opera singer and has a beautiful soprano voice. She has two wonderful children, Kathleen and Jack , and another one on the way. It was a wonderful visit because she treated us all as though we were family. Sarah’s brother, Mike and his wife, Shahnaz came up from Huntsville, Alabama and spent Friday with us. Ben helped Beth create a blog to promote her singing career and I got to enjoy Jack and Kathleen. Southern kids are a lot different because they were always calling us Mr. Ed, Mr. Ben, Auntie Sarah, and Miss Jena. But by the end of our visit I had become Uncle Ed. This was another high spot of the vacation.

We went back through Saint Louis and had a meal at the Mark Twain Dinette in Hannibal, Missouri.

We got back to Thief River Falls with the better part of a day left before Sarah had to go back to work.


That’s all for now…see you next time!