I finally got some pictures uploaded and sorted from our trip to North Dakota.

That bear almost caught me!

Other than the selling off of things, we mostly relaxed and went to the playground (with Tegue) a lot.

I affectionately refer to this slide as My Nemesis. Twenty five years ago, I fell off the top off it and broke my wrist. Six year old me was bored at my grandma’s 80th birthday party, and since the town was small and walkable, I asked permission to go to the playground by myself. I had my dress shoes on, the steps were sandy, and the kids behind me were pushy and ready to go.  As I stepped up to the top step, I slipped and fell right off the slide. A man ran over and asked me where I lived, and I told him that I was staying with my grandma (and her name). He scooped me up and ran me right to her place. In retrospect, it was only 2 blocks, but it seemed far and amazing at the time! My family was out on the lawn and I  was scared that I would be in big trouble. According to my sister, I didn’t even cry. My parents had to get the guy who owned the gas station to open up so that they could fill their car up and drive me to the nearest hospital in Bismark (2 hours away). That summer, I got good at sliding bread bags over my arm so I could shower, and I remember having to have my corn sliced off of the cob for me, and not being able to submerge my arm when I went swimming. Of course, that damn slide was the first thing my nephew wanted to go on so I just  had to hold my breath and hope for the best. It all worked out fine, but it’s amazing how things like this can bring you back. I did feel slightly better seeing it again and realizing that at least it was a tall slide (and maybe I wasn’t a total wuss.)

We also drove a LOT (from here, to there, and back again but with a side trip to Kansas City), and the Dakotas were especially green due to the flooding . The intense yellow hue of these wildflowers made me want to dig out my paintbrushes again. I have a skein of Madeline Tosh laceweight yarn in a similarly lovely yellow, though, so one day I suppose I will just “paint” with that.

Other notable stops were the Petrified Wood Park in Lemmon, SD,  Mount Rushmore (I’m the 5th face, har har), several fun yarn shops (although my faves were in Missouri), and three dinosaur related things, cause Paul loves ‘em.

Oh, and we finally went to Wall Drug–we saw the zillion signs the last time we were driving through SD, but at that time we had a budget truck containing my whole life in it, so we didn’t make the side trip. It was fifteen minutes of quick cheesy fun. We also saw some friends in KC, which was great. I have to say, road trips are  not so bad.