
Happy Labor Day!
What a beautiful day; a nice breeze, crickets singing in the cool, moist air, and the light has begun to change... Fall is comin'!
My walk to Vivian was almost completely uneventful, except for one thing: I was about 7 miles out of Vivian when I was passing a little house with nothing around for miles and miles, and I saw three tiny children come walking up the drive and I thought; "Great, they think I'm the ice cream-lady. Wait, do they even know what that is? Why would an ice cream person be way out here? EVER? What if they really do want ice cream? I could give them a cookie. But what if their parents get mad because I gave they an unwrapped cookie? I don't want to piss-off ranchers..." Yep, that's where the mind of a wandering wanderer goes.
Turns out, they had water bottles for me! So sweet! They must have seen me coming and came out to meet me. I asked the oldest girl (maybe 5?) if they saw me earlier, she said yes, and then they ran away. So cute!!!! I later learned that their parents saw me at the football game the other night in Kadoka and they knew I would coming out that way. Totally made me day, if not my whole week.
But I loved it, just enjoy everything going on around me. Watching the cows and horses, or the farmers collecting their hay for the season. The birds are starting to gather in greater numbers I noticed a few days ago, and the sunflowers have all bloomed (I missed the peak, dang it!), and are now setting seed. Everything is still very green, but I imagine that will be changing pretty soon. I'll be curious to see what happens when I cross the Missouri river. Apparently it is very different over there... Don't really know what that means, except for it's more humid, we'll see.
When I woke up this morning, I still had no idea where I would be staying, I didn't even know the name of the town. Bonnie left me a few numbers, so I called Donita, who lives in Vivian (took me awhile to find it on Google) and she was super nice, and friendly and said she had some feelers out for finding me a place to stay tonight. When I got there, she said her neighbor, Kathie had a spare room. So we went over there and I met Kathie who just got done baking homemade, from scratch, doughnuts. -----YUM. SO GOOD.---- For tonight's potluck they throw every year for Labor Day.
I showered and ate a few doughnuts just to make sure they were good, and we headed down to the shop where everyone gets together and eats. There was SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. All homemade stuff: rice and beans, brauts, hot dogs, hamburgers, potatoes, salads, veggie dishes, and lots of desserts.
What a crazy little town. A bunch of tricksters, and goof-balls and dirty-minded people. I loved it. They are great and hilarious. I mean, who holds a plastic penguin (put out for winter time) for ransom for $10 and then gives it back because the only bar at the time that was open, was someone's garage, and that someone happens to be the owner of said plastic penguin, and doesn't want to pay $10 for it, so locks the garage, until whoever has the penguin, gives it back..... Which happened the very next morning..... I mean, that's pretty random, and funny. Like I said, great people, and great community. Thank you Donita for introducing to Kathie, and thank you Kathie for sharing your home with me. I had a great time!
What a beautiful day; a nice breeze, crickets singing in the cool, moist air, and the light has begun to change... Fall is comin'!
My walk to Vivian was almost completely uneventful, except for one thing: I was about 7 miles out of Vivian when I was passing a little house with nothing around for miles and miles, and I saw three tiny children come walking up the drive and I thought; "Great, they think I'm the ice cream-lady. Wait, do they even know what that is? Why would an ice cream person be way out here? EVER? What if they really do want ice cream? I could give them a cookie. But what if their parents get mad because I gave they an unwrapped cookie? I don't want to piss-off ranchers..." Yep, that's where the mind of a wandering wanderer goes.
Turns out, they had water bottles for me! So sweet! They must have seen me coming and came out to meet me. I asked the oldest girl (maybe 5?) if they saw me earlier, she said yes, and then they ran away. So cute!!!! I later learned that their parents saw me at the football game the other night in Kadoka and they knew I would coming out that way. Totally made me day, if not my whole week.
But I loved it, just enjoy everything going on around me. Watching the cows and horses, or the farmers collecting their hay for the season. The birds are starting to gather in greater numbers I noticed a few days ago, and the sunflowers have all bloomed (I missed the peak, dang it!), and are now setting seed. Everything is still very green, but I imagine that will be changing pretty soon. I'll be curious to see what happens when I cross the Missouri river. Apparently it is very different over there... Don't really know what that means, except for it's more humid, we'll see.
When I woke up this morning, I still had no idea where I would be staying, I didn't even know the name of the town. Bonnie left me a few numbers, so I called Donita, who lives in Vivian (took me awhile to find it on Google) and she was super nice, and friendly and said she had some feelers out for finding me a place to stay tonight. When I got there, she said her neighbor, Kathie had a spare room. So we went over there and I met Kathie who just got done baking homemade, from scratch, doughnuts. -----YUM. SO GOOD.---- For tonight's potluck they throw every year for Labor Day.
I showered and ate a few doughnuts just to make sure they were good, and we headed down to the shop where everyone gets together and eats. There was SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. All homemade stuff: rice and beans, brauts, hot dogs, hamburgers, potatoes, salads, veggie dishes, and lots of desserts.
What a crazy little town. A bunch of tricksters, and goof-balls and dirty-minded people. I loved it. They are great and hilarious. I mean, who holds a plastic penguin (put out for winter time) for ransom for $10 and then gives it back because the only bar at the time that was open, was someone's garage, and that someone happens to be the owner of said plastic penguin, and doesn't want to pay $10 for it, so locks the garage, until whoever has the penguin, gives it back..... Which happened the very next morning..... I mean, that's pretty random, and funny. Like I said, great people, and great community. Thank you Donita for introducing to Kathie, and thank you Kathie for sharing your home with me. I had a great time!