Say What?

For our getaway this summer we headed for the Black Hills of South Dakota. Tammy and I have been there twice together and we thought Rachel would enjoy the trip as well. We left Toby and Allie in the loving care of Jackie and Jerry’s family. I’m always a bit concerned when I pick them up after they’ve been at Jerry and Jackie’s for several days because I think they enjoy their house more. You can’t beat having a fenced-in backyard to run free in if you’re a dog. At our home, they can only sit by the back sliding door and dream of being outside. Maybe we should consider an invisible fence. On our way out of town, we stopped by Mom’s to show her the van we rented. Her flowers are looking very beautiful this year if you haven’t had a chance to see them. We were on our way a little after 1:00pm and had a reservation at the Radisson in Sioux Falls. Rachel makes some very cool lanyards from the array of threads she has. She’ll have us pick out a few colors and in no time she’s showing ...

Wow, what a trip. In planning for this ride, I figured I’d have only two weekends this summer when our schedules could come together to give it a go. The first of those two times came and went two weeks ago when a steady north wind kept me grounded. There’s no way I could have gone the distance into the wind, and what I was really hoping for was a stiff southwesterly breeze, but that wasn’t in the cards either. After looking at the wind forecast on Wednesday, I told Tammy that it looked as though we were looking at another no-go. I’d been watching the forecast the previous 5 days, and they consistently said to expect a light wind from the southeast. It wouldn’t be a headwind but wouldn’t be much help either. I came home from work on Thursday morning and looked at the forecast again, but it hadn’t changed. I got a couple hours of sleep, then woke up to work in the yard. Then, I decided I wouldn’t let the lack of a tailwind keep me from going…just so long as it wasn’t a headwind. I tol...