Summer 2008: Day 3

We left Miles City this morning at about 8 a.m. -- pretty late start for this old traveler! Usually, Grumpy likes to get up before daylight and hit the pavement just as the roosters start to crow. Oh well, we got a good night's sleep anyway [Well, Grumpy did, but the Grand Mother made some comment as to how she would sleep better tonight when it wasn't so cold. Gee, I thought the icicles on the floor lamp meant the room temperature was about right! It was sure better than the night before at the Brooks Street Motor Inn, where the air conditioner didn't work at all!]

Today was a shorter drive -- you see Grumpy miscalculated the distance between Missoula and Miles City, and I guess he took it off of the distance between Miles City and Mobridge SD. The GPS kept informing me that our ETA at Mobridge was about 11 a.m.! It was probably a good thing because shortly after heading out on US-12 toward Bowman ND, we encountered a herd of cattle blocking the highway! It brought back memories of last summer when we were marooned behind a herd of buffalo in the North Dakota Badlands! Grumpy fumbled for his camera and didn't get a picture of the herd until they were completely across the highway and being guided down the grassy right-of-way by about 5 or 6 cowboys -- oops, it looks like there are some cowgirls in there too -- I think this one was the boss-lady. Friendly, though and allowed us to take her picture with the tail end of the cattle herd over next to the right-of-way fence.

Later, we had to stop in McLaughlin and see if we could find the location where we parked our "trailer house" in 1951-1952 when I was located there with the Soil Conservation Service. Yep, here it is -- about where that little tin shed is there in the back of this house. The house has been built on what was an otherwise empty double lot when we lived here.

Next, we had to see the hospital where Susan was born. Here is where the front door was; there were a bunch of steps leading up to the first floor level where the Grand Mother basked in luxury after having Susan the morning of 3 June 1952. Her room was the window at the far right in this photo.

After a cup of coffee and some darn good soup at the "Prairie Dog Cafe", we sped on down across the once Mighty Missouri and into Mobridge SD. This is the town where Grumpy put in his flying hours to obtain his Private Pilot's license dated 1952. The place where the airport used to be is now occupied by the highway that we enter Mobridge on, and several businesses, including the Mobridge Kountry Inn where we stay tonight.

The Grand Mother wanted to get some postcards to send to people who were not fortunate enough to be able to come along on this slow trip to ..... As we shopped, two people came to mind who lived here: Kenton Jundt [his folks, Emil and Irene, were good friends of ours when we lived in McLaughlin, and we will be seeing them later in this trip near Rapid City] and Ward Timothy Jundt [named after yours truly, and my godson!!].

Ward described himself as "wearing shorts and a checkered shirt, and tall, skinny and good-looking." He was all of that, as you can see in this photo. I was proud to meet him after all these years! We were living in Seattle when he was born in 1956; our only contact was via the cards and remembrances appropriate for a godfather to send his godson and namesake.

We were unable to see Kenton as he and his wife had gone to Minneapolis for a car show. But we had coffee with Ward and met his long-time girl-friend, Dawn, and her cat, "Cisco".

Next stop: Tomorrow, the Sheep Shedde in Olivia, Minnesota! Don't miss a single episode of this continuing saga!