Family Reunion

I am still on a high from spending the week end with my Tempel cousins, and other family members and friends.

Saturday, October 11, we drove from Blue Earth MN to New Prague MN. We took Highway 169 most of the way and it was like being home. This was the highway I learned to drive on! It goes through my home town of Winnebago. We looked for some of the old landmarks – the creamery, the canning plant, the water tower, the restaurant I used to work at, even my house – they were all gone! But there is a nice museum in my Uncle Rob’s old general store.

When I got to New Prague I met eight of my high school class mates and their mates at the Fish Tale Grill across from our hotel for lunch. What fun it was to catch up and reminisce. I had not seen some of them since high school graduation. We all had wonderful, sad, and entertaining stories to tell. 

 


It was hard to say good bye, but I still had 3 more days of renewing friendships. In the evening we went to my cousin, Debbie Hanzel’s house, for pizza, conversation, and finalizing plans for the next day.

On Sunday, some of us gathered at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church for 10:30 mass. Then almost sixty cousins of the first to the fourth generations gathered in the parish hall to enjoy food, conversation, and sharing our life experiences. After a group picture and a short memorial service for our deceased relatives, we sat in a circle and asked questions about family history. The answers were so interesting and we learned a lot about our parents, their siblings, and their parents.

After cleaning up the parish hall some of us retired to the home of David Bruzek to debrief, while many others headed for their homes.

On Monday, a small group headed for the home of cousin, Larry Tempel, in Savage MN. Liz and Larry treated us to a delicious breakfast and showed us around their town home which had been extensively customized by Larry. He also shared his recorders with us. What talented and musical people we Tempels are!

Then we headed for Milwaukee to spend time with my brother, Allen, and my sister, Dee. It was pouring rain during the drive, but we still enjoyed a couple of stops for food and shopping.

Dee had to fly back to Florida on Tuesday. Don and I spent the day with Allen, working on family history, touring around Milwaukee, and visiting his daughter, Amy’s family. We had breakfast at the North Avenue Grill, where 2 of his daughters work and dinner at a favorite Mexican restaurant – yum, yum!

Heading for Minnesota

On Thursday, October 9, we spent most of the day in Iowa. I read in my tour book about Iowa’s Great Lakes. Well, that was something I had to check out!

So, following our policy of staying off the beaten path we remained on Highway 30, the Lincoln Highway, until we reached Highway 71 which headed straight north for the lake region on the northern border of Iowa. The lakes were formed by some last minute glacial action at the end of the ice age, some 13,000 years ago. The largest one is Spirit Lake at 5,684 acres. The deepest one is West Okoboji Lake at 136 feet with beautiful blue water. This is a real resort area and quite busy in the summer months. However, at this time of year it is very quiet and many stores and restaurants are closed. But, the lakes know no season and, with the trees turning, it is a beautiful spot to visit.

When I talked about this area at my family reunion over the week end several of the cousins remembered visiting the lakes or driving through the area on family vacations. It is a place well worth coming back to.

On the next day we drove by some of the wetlands area heading for Minnesota. We stopped to look for trumpeter swans, which nest here in this protected area, but did not see any. However we saw great flocks of ducks and smaller birds in the water as we drove by.

I spent time in Fairmont MN doing research at the Martin County Historical Society, the County Court House, and St. John Vianny Catholic Church only to remember that we had done the same thing on our last trip! So, we headed to Blue Earth MN to spend the night in the fairgrounds camp ground. We woke up to frost on the ground the next day - brr!

Across the plains

I keep forgetting that Denver is the “Mile High City.” However, as you drive east the land becomes flat almost immediately and you realize you are out of the mountains and into the plains! I was still in the mood to get off the Interstate, so after a homey breakfast and a WiFi break at the library in Ft. Morgan CO, we decided to try Hwy 6. We took I-76 to Sterling to pick it up and it was a real relief to be on a two lane road again. There was hardly any traffic.  There was a small town every ten miles or so whose main feature was the grain elevator. I wonder if they still use those?

There were lots of corn fields, but the corn stalks were dry and brown. We wondered if the crop was harvested and what they did with the corn stalks that were left?  We also noticed that the fields were planted in circles. That left huge pie shaped patches between the fields and nothing seemed to be planted there. Don thought the irrigation systems were set up to better irrigate a circular field.

When we entered Nebraska we started seeing the Runza restaurants. This is a Nebraska specialty – a sandwich made from a specially prepared meat with various toppings. We stopped in Holdredge to try one. It was delicious!

We spent the night in Kearney NE. The next day, Wednesday, October 8, we took it easy. I studied the tour book and found that the Museum of Nebraska Art was here and was well reviewed. And it was free! We spent a couple hours there and it was quite lovely. The art was mostly 20^th century and there was a nice display of Native American artists. The building was the former post office (maybe Santa Monica should look at this for their abandoned historic post office).

Kearney also has a fort (which we didn’t visit), and a giant wooden arch built over I-80. We stopped there, but decided not to pay to go through their exhibit of pioneer life. It would be fun to do on a later trip. We enjoyed walking through the grounds, looking at the maze and the bridge over the lakes.

Highway 6 is parallel to I-80 to the south. Today we went north of I-80 to pick up the Lincoln Highway. That is Hwy 30 through Nebraska and Iowa. The Lincoln Highway was built in the early 1900’s to make it easier for the new motor car to travel from New York to San Francisco – the first transcontinental highway. Most of it is still intact (unlike Route 66). The drive was very much like yesterday, except we had a lot more traffic. One forgets how to pass a slower car, but we quickly remembered the tricks of passing!

Highway 30 parallels the Platte River on the north, so we saw lots of beautiful scenery. It also parallels a main railroad line on the south. We saw lots of trains going in both directions. Some were made up of only coal cars (full going east, empty going west). Some only had single or double layers of container cars. Some consisted of only tankers or only cattle cars. I was interested in this apparent segregation of train traffic! Many of the trains were just parked. We soon found out why – they were laying new ties further up the line. There was so much interesting equipment to see, but no one seemed to be working hard at their job.

We spent the night in Fremont NE and studied the tour book to see what we could do in Iowa the next day.

From the desert to the mountains

By Saturday morning we had had enough of Las Vegas traffic and noise and left for quieter parts of Nevada. We were on I-15 heading east with all the trucks, but making good time. Mesquite is one of the last places to gamble in Nevada, but we decided to eat instead! We had lunch at the buffet in the Virgin River Casino. That was a great value for the price of $9.

We were in Arizona for a short time before entering Utah. Don pointed out that this little corner of Arizona was really cut off from the rest of the state by the Grand Canyon. The scenery was so beautiful that we decided to stop early and camped at the Virgin River Canyon Recreation Area just before St. George UT. We had a lovely hike almost down to the river, but it was too steep and rocky for me!

The next day, October 5, was Sunday and we found out that the Mormons really do honor the Sabbath. Most stores were closed and we had a hard time finding a place to eat in St. George. But it was all compensated for by the gorgeous drive we had. This whole part of the country, with all of the National Parks, and interesting geology is something that everyone should visit. We have driven this route and seen most of the parks, so we just enjoyed looking at it all as we drove through. The Virgin River Gorge is particularly spectacular. We passed the back entrance to Zion National Park and Don noted that the Virgin River flows out of this park.

The early settlers tried to farm this land, but I think they found better luck in mining and ranching. We saw lots of cattle and scrubby vegetation. It must have rained recently because the road shoulders were covered with yellow wild flowers and the landscape was quite green.

We left I-15 briefly at Cedar City, which is on the way to Cedar Breaks National Park. We rejoined the Interstate at Beaver UT where we often stop to buy cheese. However, the store was closed on Sunday. We turned east on I-70 and spent Sunday night in Richfield UT. The only thing to note in this town was the lack of WiFi. Even the trusty McDonalds had a lousy connection! Maybe it was only because it was Sunday.

On Monday we decided to head for Denver. We wanted to get through the mountains while the weather was still good. It was another day of spectacular driving. We stopped in Green River UT to buy melons. It is on the Green River which meets the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park – one of our favorite parks.

The rest of the day was spent driving through Colorado. The trees are turning, so the hills were covered in yellow. We also saw some snow, especially as we drove over Vail Pass at 10,000 feet. Colorado advertises itself as the “Color State” and it certainly is. Not only the colorful vegetation, but all the different colors in the rock formations, makes it live up to this name. We got into Denver about 6:30. We were ready for a fast food dinner and sleep in another Wal-Mart parking lot.

Heading for a family reunion in Minnesota

We are off on another adventure in our Sportsmobile Dodge Sprinter van conversion. We are so lucky - our van is our home away from home, fully equipped for our needs. 

We left Thursday afternoon, October 2, 2014. Traffic was terrible heading east out of Los Angeles. Where is everyone going at 2 p.m. on a weekday afternoon?

We drove as far as Yucca Valley (north of Palm Springs and on the way to Joshua Tree National Park). We have a favorite Mexican Restaurant, Las Casitas, discovered by our son Chris, and the Wal-Mart parking lot is a convenient camping spot. We can load up on junk food for the trip, make our bathroom visits, and sleep in their well lit and noisy concrete pad! But it is free!

The next day we were well rested and ready to forge on towards Las Vegas. We had breakfast in another favorite, the Carousel Restaurant just outside of 29 Palms. We love the drive through the desert with its volcanic craters, distant hills and mountains, dry lakes with salt deposits, tiny towns, and light traffic. We saw an impressive installation of solar panels with acres of mirrors.

We entered the Mojave Desert National Preserve, drove past the Kelso Dunes (we have camped there in the past), and stopped to visit the park headquarters at Kelso Depot, an abandoned railroad depot, preserved as a museum. Even on a Friday, there were lots of visitors. We gathered information for a return visit when we can spend more time hiking and looking at the artifacts from Indian, mining, and ranching days.

We got to I-15 and joined the lines of cars, trucks, and motorcycles (yes, there was a motorcycle convention going on) heading for Vegas. We got there about 1 p.m. in time to do a little shopping at the outlet mall and check into the camp ground at Main Street Station. It is just a huge parking lot with hook ups and a few trees, but cheap and a convenient place to stay and have a little R & R.

We were just a couple blocks from the Fremont Street Experience so went to see what was happening. They had it all blocked off and were checking IDs for people to get in. We never did quite figure out why! Were there too many bikers around and they were worried about trouble makers? Did they have particularly sexy entertainers walking around (I saw a few that were rather remarkable)? The show was rather unremarkable, but they have a new attraction – Zip lining down the center of the street! That was certainly fun to watch.

June 29, 2014 - last day in Washington DC

Our final day in DC was quite nice. We had a last breakfast with Samantha at the Silver Dollar Diner on Wilson in Arlington. This is a fun place to eat – they have it all decked out like the old rail road car diners. There was a long line, but it moved fast. The food was tasty and moderately priced.

Holly and I spent the afternoon in the DAR Library. We both had breakthroughs in our research, but no time to pursue them! I found out these interesting facts about Constitution Hall. Ground was broken for DAR Constitution Hall on June 22, 1928. The cornerstone was laid by Mrs. Calvin Coolidge on October 30, 1928, using the trowel George Washington used to lay the cornerstone at the Capitol in 1793. Mrs. Herbert Hoover was the guest speaker at the formal dedication on April 19, 1929. Quite a legacy! 

Don and Bob walked for four hours while we were working. They saw all the War Memorials on the Mall – the Vietnam, WWII, Korean War, Martin Luther King and more. They made it as far as Roosevelt Island before they pooped out!

So, we joined up again at 3 and drove back out to Clara Barton NHS. We had the tour and learned all about her extraordinary life and commitment to the American Red Cross. She founded it based on the International Red Cross, but she wanted it to help not only in times of war but also for natural disasters and epidemics. We saw all three floors of her home which was all wood and interesting levels. The ceilings of the rooms were made of muslin – cheaper than plaster and she had lots of it around for bandages.

We got home yesterday (June 30) about noon. Our son picked us up and we were all happy to see each other (including our dog).

Saturday, June 28, 2014 - Congress is almost over!

The convention is drawing to a close! So far we have not attended any of the business sessions, but we did go to vote today. There were 8 candidates for 7 offices. Unfortunately, the lady from California did not win. I have a feeling that people are worried that California is too big and they don’t want us have too much power!

We attended some of the evening sessions. I have not been feeling well (my cold has settled into my ears and sinuses), so, I did miss the opening session. I managed to go to the All American DAR Chorus rehearsals and we performed at the Thursday night session. I sang alto and Tica (from St. Monica’s) also was singing, so it was like old times! We had fun, even though I couldn’t really sing.

On Friday we went to the Patriotism Luncheon. It was at the convention hotel, the Grand Hyatt, so Holly and I had an adventure getting there on the bus (remember that, Dee).

It is hard for me to express how important patriotism is to this group! We have done a lot to respect and thank our veterans. Tonight’s program was on National Defense. We heard from a woman admiral and a retired general. Then they gave awards to several military and to veteran’s volunteers. It was a very inspirational evening.

For those who are DAR members, you can follow the progress of the convention by looking at your member's Web site. They are putting the Congress Herald (daily newsletter) online!