Yesterday we sat in the motor home listening to the pounding rain. It's hard to accomplish a damn thing when it 's like this. We couldn't load the trailer, couldn't load the truck so we can haul the last of our storage stuff off. We wanted to drag the small freezer outside so we could defrost and wash it out – we couldn't get that done. We couldn't get the smoker fired up and workable in that "gully washer". When we checked the rain gauge it had a hair over 2" of rain from yesterday alone.
If we are going to stick to our schedule we've got today and Wednesday to get it done – but it's looking like we'll be a day late getting out of here – which means we'll get to our first real "destination" Saturday night rather than Friday. Everything is just going to slide a day later. It's not a huge deal but just throws everything off. Of course this could be said to be our fault. We took Sunday afternoon off! We knew we shouldn't have, but our reasons were good.
When we got here we were introduced to our 'friend's' family. They immediately welcomed us to the family and have included us in events, visited us for dinner's, invited us to their homes, brought us a deer for the freezer, helped us with this move, and informed us Sunday that they have adopted us as Cousins. If I haven't mentioned them before I have been horribly derelict. We have been so amazed by the people here, and the "family" stands head and shoulders above them all in so many ways.
A Saturday invitation to lunch at a Cousin's house was so amazing. It was a lovely day for an al fresco lunch in their yard. That morning, in the shower I was considering our planned trip to a local farmers' market and hoping for lovely tomatoes for a Panzanella salad. Sadly I resigned myself to the fact that there is NO wonderful crusty bread here and I wouldn't have time to bake any. When we got to their farm the luncheon was laid out along with incredible Rhubarb Slushies (alcoholic ND summer nirvana), fresh fruit, cucumbers, burgers with homemade buns (and all the trimmings), and a beautiful huge Panzanella salad!!!!! Oh, oh, oh, it was so amazing – the flavors, the texture; I was in heaven. She used beautiful fresh tomatoes, herbs from her garden, and . . . for the bread – leftover pepperoni pizza and cheesy breadsticks!!! OMG – the innovation, the imagination, WOW!!! Who'd a thunk it??? I'll have to remember that trick!
Thanksgiving at another Cousin's with the family was wonderful, such a traditional Mid-West dinner with the deviled eggs, roast turkey & ham, and all the sides and desserts. There were two tables to seat all the family and they both were groaning! It also introduced us to the most incredible beverage – Apple Pie; a perfect warming adult beverage to bottle and stuff in snow banks for winter drinking pleasure I have to admit that the greatest part is finding a gallon jug that got "lost:" in a snow bank in the Spring.
Sunday the family invited us to spend the afternoon with them. We accepted, knowing we couldn't spare the time, but, because we wanted to have a chance to visit with them and say our "byes" off we went to the 39th Annual Tappen (ND) Demolition Derby. Neither one of us had ever been to a demolition derby, really weren't sure that we'd stay more than an hour or so – but we were there to the end, and enjoyed the hell out of it. We even tried some North Dakota "booster event food" – a strange but oddly wonderful chili dog; a steamed bun with a brilliantly pink hot dog, a kind of sweetish chili, and some not too spicy cheese sauce. Hmmmmmmm.
Sadly at the end, after the guys had totally wrecked the cars, the 'girls' got to drive those wrecked cars in the "powder puff" round. The throttle stuck on one car and it flew through the exit area and crashed into a Fire Dept. pickup truck and injured a spectator. It was the first accident in the 39 year history of the event. It put a somber end to the event but the injured man waved to the crowd as they were loading him into the ambulance.
We said our "byes" and drove back to the farm to get on with our packing. We're missing them all already but we're looking forward to a Spring return home to North Dakota.
