· 15
May 2013; Fort Bale WA –
Awakening
to a new day, sobered by a good night’s sleep, and mollified by a delicious
breakfast of pancake and sausage served by none other than the left-handed,
vegetarian Swede, Grumpy began to reflect on his recently-completed safari back
to his native prairie.
 |
| Extracting Wild Onions from the hard clay |
The original purpose of this trip was to awaken – at
0500 – to smell the Spring prairie flowers Grumpy remembers from his youth. A
secondary purpose, since two Great Grandsons and their Mother decided to
accompany me, was to provide these two boys an opportunity for some first-hand,
hands-on education about the geography, wild life and plants, historical events and places, and
country lore from their Great Grandfather’s childhood life.
 |
| A proud Great Grandfather and his Great Grandsons |
The primary purpose was not achieved because Grumpy failed to do sufficient research to find the optimum time (day or week – not the hour!) to coincide with the appearance of the prairie wild flowers. We were about two or three weeks too early. The entire trip would have been a waste had it not been for the fortuitous decision by Grumpy to include the Great Grandsons on this trip; Secondary purpose was still possible and thus became the Primary purpose.
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| Aerodynamically-loaded Subaru & Driver |
There
were even benefits of having the Great Grandsons’ Mother in the Safari Party:
- Her all-wheel drive Subaru alleviated Grumpy’s concern of getting stuck in mud, snow or sand that we might encounter out in the prairie wilderness.
- She would be able to provide a relief-driver function so we could make the trip to the prairie in one day.
- She prepared a large cache of edibles – even some non-tofu based!
- Being a woman, she could do all of the cooking and cleaning up.
- She could provide comic relief with her left-handed, “girlie’, Swedish ways.
Well,
while she did not fulfill Grumpy’s expectations regarding #2 and #4, she more
than compensated with the superb job she did on #5.
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| Parboiled Great Grandsons in hot tub |
A
short, informal and very un-scientific poll was conducted by Grumpy this
morning, using the question, “What are your highlight memories of this
trip?” The results were astounding, if not surprising. Grumpy categorized
the responses into two groups: Boys only, and Adults only. The boys ranked “Hot
Springs” as their top memory [not a big surprise, since they spent a total of
about 12 hours being parboiled in the two hot springs (and two motels with pools) we visited], with Wall Drug
as their #2 memory highlight.
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| Considering what to say -- or not |
 |
| Caught with mouth open -- again |
The
Adult category might be misleading in that the participants were a Senior
Citizen and a barely dry-behind the ears Swede. However, in the interests of
Non-science, Grumpy reports that the #1 consensus of this disparate group was “Enjoying
the Repartee of Each Other”. For sure, the Queen Mother’s jibing of her Grandfather-in-law
left his memories of this trip a barrel of laughs.
What
could be better?
·
Thanks for the stories Grumpy!
ReplyDeleteLooks like an epic journey.
It truly was an epic journey; the original intent, to smell the Spring wild flowers on the prairie, was not fulfilled -- another year for that -- but what was accomplished was irreplaceable and unforgettable. For that I must thank the left-handed Swede and the boys for asking to go along in the first place.
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