On The Road

Good Morning To All,
We are now in The Wilds of South Dakota. Left Minot, N.D. yesterday. We had a wonderful restful time with Matt and Rose. Thank you so much for opening up your heart's and home to us. Looking forward to ice fishing in the winter.

We will be posting blogs most every day as we will be camping and seeing a lot of site's. South Dakota is just crazy with good sized grasshopper's and wasp's. The hopper's I can deal with the bee's, Wasp's make me nervous. LOL.

Happy Birthday to my Big brother Jim (20th) Our buddies Joe (24th) Kent (26th) Fred (29th). Glad you guys are home from Iraq. Hope I have not forgotten anyone.

This is short, we are heading out for a new place to camp. Love and Hugs. Peace "The Gypsies" Please leave comment's we love to hear from you all.

Scandinavian Heritage Center

Carlene & I paid a visit to the Scandinavian Heritage Center in Minot today. No charge for entry and a nice walk around the park. This is the Gol Stave Church, or rather, a replica of the 1212 version in Hallindal, Norway:

The woodwork is done by hand, particularly around the fron door --very cool:

More examples of great woodwork:

You can fine out more about the artists at Norsk Wood Works.

There are examples of early prairie life and the Scadinavians brought tools and techniques with them. Get a load of the dovetail joints in the side of the sauna:

Here are the same joints from the inside:

There are also confounding elements, like the contrast between the delicacy of the stained glass work in the sauna, and the small prairie home:

Here is a picture of the table:

It folds up against the wall too.

And then there is the Dala Horse, and Carlene!

Happy Birthday Howard!

We extended our stay to include Howard's Birthday (Rose's Dad), on August 19th. Carlene and I helped out with the cooking and picture taking:

What's a birthday without baloons:

A good time was had by all:

Matt and his brother Luke: Why is this girl looking so wary?

Rose was chasing her with an egg and evil intentions...

Hanging out in the hammock:

Climbing the tree:

Lugging benches around... otherwise known as Savana showing off...

And of course, Dancing!

And when all of that gets a little old, you play softball with the kids:

Dale (Rose's brother) and youngest daughter at second base:

The third base crew taking it easy:

Parker navigating the gates in the giant slalom

And, in the end, the dogs are feeling just a little left out and need some love:

The best part?

Presents!

Prairie Life

Rose's house until she was nine. The property is gone to waste now, everyone has moved on or into town and it's changed hands several times.

Still a unique character:


Here is a shot of Matt in the window:

Can you imagine plowing a mile long row with these tools?



We visited a local museum in Rugby, ND --the geographical center of North America:

The strange things you see...

Most interesting were the belt powered tools driven by a 8 HP gasoline engine.

And of course, there is the one room school house and the World's Tallest Man...

We also found a couple of very old hand-stitched quilts:

And of course, I picked up another nice picture of Carlene:

Update

Hello All,
We finally have sun after days of off and on again rain and mist.Thunder storms are so fun to watch out here in N.D. as the locals would say "it's flat here," I don't agree more like rolling hills, but you can see for a very long way and they last for a long time. We have been resting and some sightseeing, visiting Rose and Matt's families.

Lance and I have been picking digging up herbs of all types and drying,so many grow wild out here. Did you know that sunflowers and Flax are grown out here in N.D. in abundance? I have the figure's as to how much but have miss-placed the flyer. Beautiful fields of flax (purple) flower's and of course the beauty of sunflower fields for miles takes your breath away!

We have been cooking and baking for Rose and Matt as they have busy work schedule's. Let's see got my right hand shut in the car door by Matt, by error but you know me I have the need to rub it in. It hurt a bit and of course every one thought I was playing around, even my screaming didn't seem to be enough LOL! All turned out well, just bruised and sore , Matt felt real bad which made it more fun to remind him. :)

Roscoe is much better, we were so worried he was so ill. But is back to his happy self and does not seem to be eating anything but what we give him, guess he learned his lesson. It's like me and chocolate start out with just a piece and before you know it the entire bar is gone :).

We are going to Rugby, N.D. today, which is The Geographical Center for North America. I am sure we will have picture's.

The Perseid Meteor showers are going on this week, so grab a blanket something warm to drink and your favorite person and enjoy the show.

Most of our friend's are back from Iraq with there families safe and sound. Lance nephew (Rose son)Trevor will be back in the State's by the 24th of this month. Thank you ALL for your service.

Hugs Love and Peace Within, The Gypsies

Dakota Territory Air Museum

We paid a short visit to the Dakota Territory Air Museum just North of Minot today. Great little place to spend a couple of hours wandering around in aviation history.

A C-47 in the D-Day Invasion paint scheme.

And a T-33 belonging to the "Spittin' Kittens" (5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron) flying out of Minot AFB.

They also have a P-40 Warhawk painted in the "Flying Tigers" Paint scheme under restoration. Someday, it will like something like this:

Credit where credit is due: R.T. Smith and the Flying Tigers web site. The beast uses a V-1710 Allison 12 cyclinder engine:

The data plate:

Other items of interest include a Beechcraft 18 or C-45:

and "Texan" T-6:

All in all, a great place to visit if you're ever in the neighborhood...

Resting, Relaxing, Reading

A very peaceful place indeed --Matt's place. O.K. the dogs next door are annoying when they bark in the middle of the night... at anything... any noise whatever... raises an alarm like armageddon was upon us...

Well, maybe that last part was a little overly dramatic...

Did I mention that once they start, every dog within 50 miles sings along?

The view across the valley:

Roscoe and I went for a walk while Carlene and Rose went shopping. He's taking it easy now...

Matt is making a trailer, from scratch. A very talented guy:

It's a start...

The reading? Well, Obama is an idiot, Bill and Hilary Clinton are tools, and Congress should be tarred and feathered. En masse.

Enough said...



UPDATE: The trailer is about done...