Getting caught up with my email today. That was 1948 when Dad and Mom got married, (though their first date was a year earlier when Dad took her out for ice cream shortly after his dad’s funeral). Their friends had quite a time finding them home in the evening, but finally one evening they stayed home but went to bed early, so Freeman Hanneson climbed in through a widow to tell them that they were hosting a party to celebrate! Dad worked several years in Souris, first for John Deere, later for his friend Haaken Skarpol. My favorite memories come from summers on the farm, south of Kramer. Spent many hours with him disking summer fallow, riding on the big fender of the Massey Harris.

Sorry I forgot to tell you where I’m at – in the hills above Napa Valley, California, between San Fransisco and Sacramento. While I’m only an hour or so from the city, what I enjoy are the hundreds of miles of hiking trails in the area, especially Golden Gate and Point Reyes National Seashores. One of my goals is to hike the 120-mile Lake Tahoe Rim trail (in sections), which runs through Desolation Wilderness. (But first I need to finish recovering from knee surgery.)

The other day I was driving through the Sierra foothills; with so much spring rain the wildflowers were so abundant that the horse pastures sparkled golden yellow instead of green! Acutally, these hills are almost a carbon copy of the Turtle Mountains – makes me feel right at home! Speaking of horses, that’s an awesome trip Trish Larson is doing. I’ve enjoyed a bit of horseback riding in the Rockies, too, up by Estes Park, as well as a multi-day ride in the Oregon Cascades. I can thank the Pladsons for teaching me to ride (but I think that was bareback!).

Looks like you had a wonderful time at the reunion.

John