House again, Home again.

Leaving Indiana was bittersweet. 

When I left Colorado in May, I didn’t know what would happen with our Keenesburg house.  I hoped against hope that it would sell. At the very least I was glad to be done with it for the summer. 

But alas, we’d had no offers and only a couple lookers.  The hardest part for my husband was the separation of our family.  He missed us terribly.  With no dog, cats, kids or wife to greet him and no furniture except for the bedroom; it made for a very lonely summer.  He filled the time with Star Wars troops and family events.  He would often stay over at friends’ houses. Geo-baching is hard when you are used to controlled chaos.

Some of our conversations were tense, packed with unresolved emotions and underlying disagreements.  But I pushed it aside and enjoyed the journey.

Our first stop was Naperville, Illinois to visit with his cousin Sherrill Niemann and her family.   I will give the man props for navigating through Chicago traffic with a trailer for the first time in his life.  We dry camped in a neighbor’s driveway for the night and shared a couple meals.  We saw her son, Cale, off to school.  This is his first time on the bus. 

The kids relished the fact that we homeschool and don’t have to worry about getting up so early…

Kids in front of a wagon that sat juxtaposed with the lab.

After a few cups of coffee, we packed up and headed down the road to the Ferme lab –where they experiment with neutrons and electrons.  Quite heady stuff and further reason to marvel at God’s creation.  

Bill unhitched the trailer in the Ferme lab so he could gas up the truck, as most of our driving was on back roads and there were no truck stops available.  It is too nerve wracking with the trailer otherwise.   

We went on to Madison, Wisconsin and stayed overnight in a state-owned camping park.  It was nice to have electricity again to combat the heat.  We rode bikes around and grilled.  So therapeutic after driving through Illinois and the numerous toll roads.  

The next day, we drove through Madison to admire the scenery and sample cheese.  Quite a beautiful town. 

Before leaving out, we used their dump station to flush out the system.  It was Bill’s first real experience emptying the black and gray water tanks.  Not pleasant, but necessary.

Next on the list was a stop over to visit Bill's aunt Peggy in Michigan. 

She loved our trailer!

Next stop: Lake City, Michigan to visit Dave and Joyce Janes: Bill’s surrogate parents, where he spent numerous hours with his best friends.  It is right off of Lake Pepin and home to Laura Ingalls Wilder during her early childhood. 

Sometimes things happen to alter your plans. This something happened a block away from their house.  The steering pump seal blew on the truck.  We were able to limp the truck and park the trailer in their lush backyard; a verdant assimilation of flowers in an incredible array of colors.  The garden in the back overflowed with an assortment of berries, squash and tomatoes.

Dave and Joyce live in a late 1800s house that oozes character out of every pore.  For two days, we enjoyed their wonderful hospitality and the view of Lake Pepin. 

After an expensive fix, we drove over to Pepin to see where Laura lived, after having listened to “Little House in the Big Woods” during our drive.  All the woods are gone and corn fields are now there.  A small cabin sits where her house sat and plaques try to explain what life was like. We took lots of pictures and imagined life back then.  It took about 30 minutes.

We had a quick bite to eat in a local hamburger joint and finished off with big cones of homemade icecream.  Then toured the town where “Grumpy Old Men” was filmed: cute, quaint, and small. 

The thing that surprised me the most was that Lake Pepin is actually a wide spot in the Missisissippi River.   

We said goodbye to our new old friends and trundled down the road.  The unexpected second day in Lake City meant that we couldn’t go on to visit Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.  Our finances had been overly taxed and Bill decided it was safer to head home.   

We did make a brief stop in Walnut Grove, Minnesota for another Laura Ingalls Wilder museum.  

We drove from Michigan to Nebraska in one long haul. Straight to his grandmother's, June "Gigi" Blackburn, house in Grand Island.  

She opened her heart and home up to me during the first years of my marriage to Bill.  Used to wear me out while shopping.  Gigi designed her home using legos as a base.  It is heavily decorated with oriental themed furniture and knick-knacks. Her sunk-in green tub is a favorite among the grand and great-grand kids. Bill remembers visiting her unique home as a kid.  

We stayed for two days before heading back to Colorado.

I dreaded our return because I didn't know how long I would be "stuck" in the Keenesburg house.  We pulled up to the house in the late afternoon.  While the kids burst out of the truck and into the house, I sat in the front seat -not able to put my foot on the sidewalk.  

I wrestled for several moments with pent up emotions until Bill came out and held out his hand.  With a heavy sigh and uncertain heart, I stepped out into the next season of my life.  

A beautiful sunset, on the way to Nebraska,