At some point in the mid 80's to 90's, Mom decided that a number of us should attend the Cousins Reunion in Lancaster, Missouri.
The group that eventually assembled consisted of Mom, Ellen, Carla and myself. Mom and I started off from Emmett on our way to meet Ellen in Casper, Wyoming. I was living in California when the folks and the remaining kids went back east to visit Phil and Sherry by way of Yellowstone Park.
So, we headed to Yellowstone by way of the Tetons. We hiked to some bubbling geysers and I said to Mom that we could fart ourselves silly and no one would be able to tell. We did get to Old Faithful and waited patiently for the eruption. Then we headed to Casper.
We over nighted there to visit with Jim and his family. We met Ellen at the bus stop the next morning and took off to Kansas. We looked for Best Western Motels for sleep and stopped at a lot of Walmarts to stretch our legs. At this point the party consisted of Mom, Ellen and myself.
We headed for South Dakota. We saw a sign for Wind Caves and decided we would take the tour. We trooped down into the caves and at one point the guide turned off the lights. Yep, very dark. On the way back we passed some elevators. What!? Why I oughta...
We drove on to Mount Rushmore and viewed the presidents. (Can you imagine Trump up there?) The travels continued on into Minnesota and we went to Rochester to see the Mayo Clinic. We noticed that there was a tour of the Mayo mansion. So we hopped on the bus. The tour was rather neat. The estate is fairly good sized. We passed a greenhouse which was covered completely in glass radiography plates.
We drove to Mall of America and over nighted there. The next morning we were there chanting "Open! open! open!". That was awesome, couldn't possible visit all of the shops. We did get lunch.
We then left for Ohio. We crossed a bridge into Wisconsin just to day we had done so. We wandered through Ohio, toured the house where "Little House on the Prairie" author lived at one time. We shopped in an Amish store which sold quilts, I purchased a small pillow cover. Then after over nighting,listening to tornado warnings, we headed to Kansas.
We picked Carla up at the Kansas City airport. I don't remember the official name but it was largish. Carla had picked up a book containing Bed and Breakfasts and there was one that looked good in Hannibal, Missouri. She booked two rooms for the four of us and away we went. We got there in the early evening and played pinochle until the proprietor started setting up tables for breakfast.
The next morning we ate and toured downtown Hannibal, went through the house where Mark Twain lived as a boy. We also saw ads for a tour of the Stone House. Wanna go? Yep. The house is situated on a bluff well above the river. It is a huge mansion with a spacious basement where the kitchen and laundry were located. The ground floor consisted of several very expensively decorated rooms. One room was decorated in rolls of silk which cost one hundred dollars per roll. The grand staircase lead up to a landing that split left and right. Mark Twain delivered a speech from that landing. The next floor contained bedrooms, Master, Mistress and children. The Mistress bedroom had a large ceramic bidet. Looked rather difficult to use as it was only about six inches above the floor. The third floor contained a very large ballroom. The fourth floor contained school rooms for the children. There was a large map on one wall that only held one tattered piece remaining. Over the years it was considered very daring for some young men to sneak into the house and tear off a piece of that map to prove that they had indeed sneaked into the Robber Barons home. The gentleman's fortune was from timber.
The next day we drove north to Lancaster, Missouri to stay with Mom's cousin. We attended the reunion in a small town famous for its Blue Grass Festival. I met people who I would have never guessed that I would meet. Old gossip was trotted out. By old, I mean from several generations ago! I learned who was divorced etc. I also heard a story about a young girl. Her mother was heard to shout at her, "Julia, I do believe you have a buzz saw in your ass." Julie apparently was rather hard on underwear. We visited with a quite elderly sister to Grandma Horn. I saw fire flies for the second time in my life.
We headed home, we dropped Carla off in Kansas City where she caught a plane home to Seattle. Away we went. Once we got to the Colorado border, Ellen drove, put the pedal to the medal and got us to Elizabeth, Colorado in time for supper.
Mom and I left the next day headed for home. We stopped in Montgomery, Idaho which is near the the Hole in the Wall Gang hung out. The restaurant menu had hot pastrami sandwich. I ordered one. It was apparent that the people there thought the the P in pastrami stood for pork. Because I got a hot fried ham sandwich. Oh well. We over nighted there and got home the next day. Over all it was a lot of fun.
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