We’re leaving on a road trip to Texas. To the southern border of Texas, near Mexico. It’s a long ways and a few days journey we figure. Our friends who live in Plymouth, Minnesota invited us to come visit them in their Texas home, which they bought a few years ago as a place to go to escape winter.
One day last fall, while on a bike ride with other Northfield friends, we mentioned we were going to plan a trip to Texas. They mentioned they have Minnesota friends who just bought a place in southern Texas and had invited them down for a visit too. So we got out the map and discovered the two snowbird couples live about 15 miles from each other in Southern Texas (they, of course, don’t know each other).
We found that exciting and decided to plan a road trip together to make the journey more fun. So off we go – 1,456 miles. They’ll drop us off at our friend’s doorstep and continue on to their friend’s house and then pick us up for the ride back home.
I normally don’t watch football but I think many Minnesotans who normally don’t watch football are, like me, watching the games leading up to the Super Bowl, especially since our hometown team, the Vikings, are doing so well.
After a long walk through the Carleton Arb, as beautiful snow gently fell (like walking in a snow globe) we settled in and watched the Vikings play against the New Orleans Saints. I was surprised at how engaged I was. When I thought the game was over, because the Vikings were behind 2 points and only 10 seconds left on the clock, all of a sudden the Minnesota Vikings got a touchdown and won the game! I don’t know enough about football to use football language, all I know is that it was a WOW moment.
When interviewed, the quarter back Case Keenum said the best three moments in his life were giving is life to Jesus, marrying his wife and that touchdown throw!
The Vikings play another game next weekend which will determine if the they will play in the Super Bowl… on their own turf… in the U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis.
Gary and I took another trip to Glacier National Park, this one in August 2013. I wrote the following piece upon our return. It’s a little different from my usual hiking stories. I added information about the memorable hikes at the end.
Horses heading up the mountain.
Giddy up and up and up….clip-clop goes the steady sound of our horses hoofs climbing 3300’ in 6.7 miles to Sperry Chalet. It promises to be another gorgeous day in Glacier National Park. This is our fourth day in the park. This morning we’ve packed our saddlebags and said our prayers for our two nights stay on the mountain.
The horses are sure footed and they know the trail well – going back and forth to the chalet many times a week. We form a line of ten horses and rider’s. My horse, Wyatt, sometimes gets a little too close to Bobbie, the much bigger horse in front of him, so occasionally Bobbie gives Wyatt a kick with his back foot. Although Wyatt deserves it, it can be a little terrifying for the rider on it’s back! That would be me. Gary is on Chester, who behaves nicely.
The scenery is great, the pace is steady and we finally make it up to the hitching rail at the chalet after 3 ½ hours without a rest stop. We have help getting off our horses and we stagger a little to get our hiking legs back but we’re not sore and we are so delighted to be at our destination.
It’s awesome! The smells are divine…mostly pine. The sun is shining on us and the air is fresh. We find our way to the outhouses first, the nicest outhouses we’ve been in, but still outhouses. Next we find the dining room and the welcoming college-age students are ready to take our lunch order that includes fresh, just out-of- the-oven, peach pie.
The beautiful Sperry Chalet.
In 1913 the Sperry Chalet was built by the railroad (JJ Hill affiliation) to attract visitors to the park. The railroad used Italian stonemasons to build the foundation and outside walls, made from the rubble stone at hand. It opened for business in 1914. There are four small buildings: the dining hall, the chalet (hotel with 24 rooms) the old laundry building and the new (10+ years old) outhouses. There is no electricity up here and just two sinks by the outhouses for guests to use for washing up and brushing teeth. No showers. No hot water. Just bedding (1914 era), food, fresh air and mountain goats!
We find our room, take off our backpacks and head outdoors to explore God’s beautiful creation. The chalet overlooks MacDonald Lodge, to the west and down 6.7 miles. I try imaging women in long dresses riding here on horseback and hiking around camp and up to Sperry Glacier, named after Dr. Lyman Sperry, a professor of geology and zoology at Carleton College in Northfield. He was the first to reach the glacier in 1896. Tomorrow we will hike, with a naturalist, to see what’s left of the Sperry Glacier. The hike is 4.3 miles up 1500’, to the glacier, crossing over five ice fields and five rock fields (and of course, 4.3 miles back down). It’s a little farther than it used to be since the Glacier is melting.
After a relaxing afternoon sitting on the rocks taking in all the beauty we head back to the dining hall for dinner. Much to our surprise we have a full meal deal: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, cranberries, homemade bread, pumpkin dessert. It tastes so good. The staff assigned our seats so we meet fellow companions on this adventurous journey. We sit around visiting then get our packs ready for tomorrow, and go back to the dining hall for a night cap of delicious cinnamon hot chocolate.
As we crawl into bed we are careful to put our pants, jackets and shoes near by so when we get up in the middle of the night to go to the outhouse we can easily find our clothes. They say there are no secrets at the chalet since the walls are so thin. We wake up around 3 a.m. and quietly turn on our headlamps, get dressed and head down the stairs and out the door to a star-studded evening sky! We see a falling star and stand in awe. A mountain goat greets us and watches us walk to the outhouse. We are grateful for this interruption of our sleep to experience this stunning sight on a mountain!
Glacier National Park
***This is the end of my story from the first day of our trip to Sperry Chalet***
The following day we hiked with a naturalist up to Sperry Glacier. It took several hours. The scenery was amazing and the naturalist knowledgeable. I identified a lot of wildflowers, we saw many mountain goats, and we crossed ice fields and rock fields to finally arrive at the glacier. Then we turned around and made the trek back down to the lodge. It was an exhilarating day and we were tired (a total of 8.6 miles)
Hiking back to the chalet.
That evening, after another delicious meal, we packed our backpacks. We were hiking 6.7 miles down the mountain the next day, to our parked car at McDonald Lodge. It took us three hours to hike out. Etiquette is that hikers step off the trail on the down side to let horses pass, which we had to do.
The hike down the mountain was a grand way to bring closure our spectacular time at Sperry Chalet.
A sad note: Sperry Chalet caught on fire in 2017 and was severely damaged. There are hopes to have it rebuilt at some point…but it was such a unique and beautiful historic building…it will not be the same.
Over the holidays I broke off part of a tooth eating popcorn…of course.
So I had to go to the dentist. And I need to get a crown.
When I was much younger I had my fair share of cavities that fill my teeth but over the past thirty-plus years I haven’t had a new cavity – only repair work.
I do like to get my teeth cleaned twice a year. I would get them cleaned more often if I could, but insurance only covers twice a year.
But other dental work…no, thank you.
So I leaned back in the chair while my dentist worked on my temporary crown and had to listen to the on-going drilling sound. I’m not sure there is any sound worse than the dentist’s drill. Thankfully I don’t have to hear it very often.
I helped make a meal for 37,000 children yesterday.
I volunteered at Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit Christian organization that packages nutritious meals to be sent to hungry children around the world. Over 37,000 meals were assembled in our two hour shift.
Four of us from my church drove up to Eagan to the FMSC facility to help pack food packages. We were among one hundred volunteers working during our time slot. The system is a streamlined assembly-line process that allows for a team of six to eight people working together at one of several stations to get a lot of meals packed in a short amount of time.
FMSC: empty work stations.
The packaged meal consists of rice, soy, freeze-dried vegetables and vitamins. By adding water to the contents, a nutritional meal is ready to eat. They say that 99% of their meal packets make it successfully to their destinations. They believe prayer plays a big part in that success since they pray over every box that is shipped out of the warehouses.
FMSC: work stations filled with volunteers.
I like to support this organization both financially and by volunteering at one of the three packing centers here in the metro area. If we are looking for a unique gift, or are at a lost for a gift idea, donating money to this cause in someone’s honor, is a great solution.
A motto on the wall…
It’s a successful program and the need is great. I feel time spent helping this organization is worth it. I believe they are making a difference in the lives of thousands, if not millions, of children around the world and I hope to volunteer more often now that I’m retired.
Our boys were ages 7 and 5 at the time we took two weeks and drove to and from Glacier National Park in our mini-van, and camped for six nights in the park. Our guys were troopers – we took several hikes during our stay and overall we all hiked a total of 23 miles. We made the boys certificates at the end of the week (I can still picture us around the picnic table creating them) certifying their accomplishment and they were pleased.
A favorite picture of my two boys, 1989.
The most memorable part of the hikes was the boys carrying the hiking sticks we bought them early on. The wooden sticks had the name Glacier National Park burned into them and they had a leather loop handle with bells on them. The bells served a purpose. The bells made noise to scare off grizzly bears – to let the bears know we were on the trail. The park is home to many Grizzly bears – in this beautiful place they tolerate humans – sometimes. The first day we arrived we overheard the ranger telling of a grizzly bear mauling some hikers on a back-country trail as they neared the mama’s cubs. One needs to take the bears seriously! Fortunately we did not run into any grizzly bears on the trails.
The miles we accumulated that week were from hiking to or around Hidden Lake, Avalanche Lake, St. Mary’s Lake, Twin Falls via Trick falls and a boat ride, Ptagrin Falls, Swift Current Lake, and Grinnell Lake
Glacier is a beautiful place. It’s one of my favorite national parks and I have wonderful memories of it.
The skies are clear and there is plenty of moon shine these nights. The moon was full on January 1, 2018. It is not only a full moon but also a supermoon. A supermoon happens when the full moon coincides with the moon’s closest distance to earth in its orbit. Supermoons make the moon appear a little brighter and closer than normal.
There will be a full moon on January 31, 2018 too. And because it will be the second full moon in the same month it is called a blue Moon. This will also be a supermoon. This time it will also involve a total lunar eclipse, which is when the earth passes directly between the sun and the moon and casts a shadow on the moon.
I can sometimes see the moon outside my bedroom window while lying in bed. It is a beautiful sight. I find the moon very interesting. When I was much younger I wrote a letter to Pan Am Airways (an airline now defunct) and I asked to be put added to their waiting list of passengers interested in flying to the moon. They actually wrote back and said their list was full! Bummer! I believe I still have that letter in a memory box somewhere.
Enjoy the full, blue and super moons, no matter where you live.
My husband and I and our oldest son took a trip to visit our youngest son living in Mozambique Africa. This was our first trip to Africa and we were very excited to see where our son, Tim, lived, to wander around in his current surroundings, and meet the people in his life. Also, all four of us went on a safari in South Africa. We had a great experience and created many memories. This is one of the memorable hikes we took in Africa: a hike in Ulongué, Mozambique.
Walking to the market in Ulongué.
Ulongué is the village where my son lived. We were eager to see Tim’s small, four-room house, with an outhouse in the back and a water well, and banana tree in the front. When we arrived, near dark, Tim’s friend had made sure the dirt in his front yard had been swept so Tim’s house would look welcoming for us when we arrived (which I found endearing).
One day we decided to hike to the market on the other side of the village of Ulongué, about an hour walk from his house. We walked on dirt paths through neighborhoods filled with children. We took pictures of the children playing and they excitedly ran up to us to see their pictures on our digital cameras. As we walked through streets people watched us curiously.
The curious children looking at their pictures.
We were hiking to the permanent, outdoor market with multiple stands selling a variety of wares along with many produce stands. I bought several colorful fabric pieces. My husband was intrigued by the bicycle shop.
View of the market in Ulongué.The bike shop.
When we finished shopping Tim led us on a longer trek outside of town, on a footpath behind the village, to return to his house. The terrain was picturesque: beautiful, open countryside. As we walked back into town we passed several folks drying maize in the hot sun on blankets.
Photo of a photo on the trail back to Tim’s house in Ulongué.
We enjoyed walking two different routes to and from the market, and managed to take a family photo along the footpath behind the village.
Photo of the family photo on trail outside of Ulongué.
Part of our Christmas celebrations this year was the traditional gathering at my cousin’s house, with my only living uncle, who turned 90 this past year and his wife, some cousins and other family members. This is a tradition from my side of the family and we always enjoy our time together when we are around and able to participate. The gathering starts in the afternoon so people can leave in time to attend Christmas Eve services. The following day we spent with our son and his wife and their beautiful eight month-old daughter.
Christmas Eve service at Valley Grove Church, complete with snow coming down.
Gary and I like to attend a candlelight service at a country church in Nerstrand, Minnesota. Valley Grove Church is a historic church built in 1894. The church is inactive except for special events. Every year they open the doors for a late Christmas Eve service. Attenders hear good music, sing Christmas carols, hear the gospel message and at the end of the service sing Silent Night as each person holds a lit candle and the lights dim. It’s delightful and nostalgic time. This year there was an perfectly shaped, especially large Christmas tree up front.
A beautiful Christmas tree filling the front of the church.The windows rattled in the wind.
Sometimes we see people we know. This year as we were leaving the service I told my husband to go ahead to warm up the car while I took a few photos on this cold Christmas Eve. Soon I headed for the car and when I got in and looked over to the driver’s side there was a strange guy sitting in the driver’s seat. It took a few minutes to register that I had gotten into the wrong car! Fortunately I knew the stranger (he was a friend’s husband) and we started to laugh…it was funny. I got out of his car and went two parking spaces down to my own car which is the same make, model and year of my friend’s car. I got in and there was my husband…wondering what was going on.
Soon I got a text from my friend, the wife of the “stranger”, telling me she was “laughing so hard right now!” after being told what had happened.
