September 26 Gillette, WY

We did a noon sale in Spearfish, SD. That finishes South Dakota for this year. We had a little extra time, so we drove by Devil's Tower National Monument on our way to Gillette. We've been here before, so we didn't spend much time. In fact we couldn't go all the way up with the truck.

The first picture is about 10 - 15 miles before you get there. If you look, you can see the tower. It's actually volcano rock. It looks like a BIG tree stump. (Silly) people even climb it.

September 25 Sturgis, SD

This afternoon we went to a petrified forest. We saw more petrified wood there than we ever have anywhere else. It was such a beautiful day for walking, so we thoroughly enjoyed our day.






















































































The last couple pictures are interesting. They have stacked 931 pieces of petrified wood in a wood stack. It's unreal to see that many pieces all together.

September 24 Sturgis, SD

Some days are spent just getting ready to go, going and getting there. Seems like that was today.

September 23 Hot Springs, SD

This group of people are so nice (as are all the others). They always check to see if they bought enough to warrant our coming back next time. It's a small Church. They do good!

September 22 Rapid City, SD

I feel like I've been running all day. This morning I worked several hours on alumni stuff. Then we worked several more hours in the trailer, processing all the new books we got yesterday. That was a big job, but we got it done.

It was a very nice sale tonight. People waited in line so patiently to spend big money!!

We're on the eastern edge of the mountain time zone. By 7:00 it was dark. I like it better when it's light longer.

September 21 Rapid City, SD

Today was a day that riding in the truck was hard. My legs were restless, I didn't want to read and setting there hour after hour wasn't fun (barely tolerable).

We had to restock again in Rapid City. This is our last place to restock until Denver, about 10 days from now. We'll never have enough food, especially frozen.

I also got about eight boxes of books sent from R&H and PPPA. I already know other books I will need. These are good problems. We've been so blessed with great sales. I just wish we could carry enough product.

A lady from Spearfish called today. She can't understand why, if we're in Rapid City today, why we can't be in Spearfish tomorrow. It doesn't matter to her if we have a schedule, other towns to go to and that we need time to service the truck, process our new stock and even do laundry. She wasn't mad, she just couldn't understand.

September 20 Pierre, SD

Nothing exciting happened today, so I'm sharing some pictures with you. First is my granddaughter, Anabella in the sunflower patch. This was in Idaho just before we left home in August.

Next is grandson, Miles. Instead of coming from the cabbage patch, he was the pearl from a seashell.

Did you know that South Dakota still has dinosaurs? Here's proof.

I can't get over the hay bales here. They bale the ditches and any place they can find. I have too many pictures of the bales, but they are so cool looking.

And finally when I saw these cattails, I had Jim drive back by them so I could get a picture. Enjoy...........

September 19 Sioux Falls, SD

We drove to Pipestone, MN for our noon sale. What a trip! There was road construction, detours and lots of gravel roads. It wasn't well marked, so we ended up two miles from no where. We went from thinking we'd be thirty to forty minutes early to being about ten minutes late. It always amazes me how kind and patient the people are. We are so blessed to be working with so many wonderful Christian people.

One of the ladies in Pipestone thanked me for recommending a certain book to her last time. She said she really enjoyed it. That's so nice to hear.

Our second sale was here in Sioux Falls. For awhile we could hardly move in the store, it was so full.

One man was from the 3 Angels Church in Wichita, KS, where we used to attend. He's been out here about a year now.

September 18 Sioux Falls, SD

What a refund! In addition to all the other things that I told you were wrong in our motel room, we found a used towel behind the bathroom door and a towel we used had a big hole in it, the size of a basketball. Jim told the manager that this was the worse motel we stayed in. He felt so bad for us that he gave us a $5.00 refund, just to keep Jim from crying so much. He didn't even want to give us that!

We drove on to Sioux Falls and found a real motel. They upgraded us to a suite. It's very nice. We'll be here two nights.

We walked over to Chili's for supper. They had wonderful baked potato soup. Life is good again!

September 17 N Sioux City, SD

We're 2 miles north of Nebraska. We drove here to met Bill Kuehl. He brought us a load of food. We're really working hard to keep enough food on the truck. It took about four hours to get it all put away, one box at a time, the two of us working.

So Bill is the second academy friend we're seen this week. Cool!

This is not a motel that I'd EVER recommend staying in. First room they put us in, the toilet didn't work. This room might not have been cleaned much. The bed only had one sheet, the shower curtain is moldy, and the sink is dirty. Also, the air conditioner makes scary noises and isn't very cool. We're going to ask for a BIG discount, if not a complete refund. Maybe we can get them to pay us for staying here!

September 16 Watertown, SD

Jim worked in the truck and I worked on Alumni stuff all morning. We walked two or three blocks to IHOP for lunch.

It was nice driving in the sunshine today. What a beautiful day.

September 15 Aberdeen, SD

It seems like we're busy all the time. Jim had to get a food order in today for us to pick up in Albuquerque, NM. We drove part way to Aberdeen, then stopped at a filling station for about an hour while he made out the order. It's hard to know five or six weeks ahead of time what product you'll need later. What if sales pick up big time and we sell tons of food, or worse yet, if no one comes and we don't sell much of anything.

It was a dark, gloomy rainy day and cold too. Seems like we've been in lots of rain all through the Dakota's. That's okay, it's better than driving through snow.

September 14 Wahpeton, ND

This was our last sale in North Dakota this year. Sales were very good tonight. Two ladies came in and bought 8 cases of food, plus a lot of other things.

We had a challenging time doing our laundry today. We've wanted to do it for two or three days now, but either didn't have the time or the motel didn't have a washer and dryer. This motel had one of each. And it was a small washer. So it took three loads to get the washing done. the problem was the dryer. After putting money in twice and drying for more than an hour, the clothes were almost as wet as when we started. We finally took them to a laundry mat. The whole thing took a big chunk our of our day. But at least we're ready to go for another week or so.

September 13 Fargo, ND

Now this was a fun day. We hurried to get to Fargo by noon so we could get with Bob and Carol Furst. We went to school with Bob at Enterprise and haven't seen him more than once or twice since then. I had a picture of Bob and Carol to share with you, but somehow lost it on my camera.

We went to the Golden Corral around noon and left about 4:00. I thought we should stay a little longer and eat supper too, but we didn't! It was great visiting with them.

We had a nice sale here. By the time we were ready to close up and leave, we were blessed with a gorgeous sunset.

September 12 Thief River Falls, MN

Wow, we had two good sales today. There were lots pre-orders, mostly food. Our last sale at Thief River Falls was as much as last year's total sales.

Oregon Coast in August

There isn't much to write about today, so I thought I would share some pictures of our trip to the Oregon Coast this summer. We went over there to celebrate my birthday. Our room was right at the ocean's edge, with a deck overlooking the ocean.

We went to the Lincoln City area. While we were there, we saw three lighthouses. By the first one, we saw millions of birds on the rocks. You might be able to double click and make them bigger to see them better. The last picture is of seals.

The weather wasn't too clear while we were there, but it was nice to be in 60 degree weather, instead of 105 like everyone else was having at that time. We had a great trip and just might do it every year

September 10 Grand Forks, ND

We had lunch at Olive Garden before we started restocking. Something must not have set right with me from lunch, because I was dizzy and my stomach hurt half the afternoon. But we had to work anyway.

Jim has had food shopped to cold storage places on our route, so we can restock without going to Denver, Boise or Minnesota. This should have been our first place, but we had to make that emergency trip last weekend to Rapid City. So we loaded a pallet of dry food and a pallet of frozen food to the truck today - one box at a time. With feeling dizzy, I felt like I was going to fall off the dock a couple times. I didn't! We loaded the truck, but didn't have time to put it all away, just the frozen. Now we have something to look forward to tomorrow night after sundown.

September 9 Jamestown, ND

It started out cool and rainy again. It acts like it's trying to be fall already. We were in rain most of the day.

We had a nice sale. One couple stayed extra long, so we had a chance to visit with them.

We're running out of food again. Good thing that we are restocking tomorrow in Fargo.

September 8 Carrington, ND

We had two sales today, Harvey and Bowden. The towns are pretty close, so we got to the Bowden Church about 3 hours early. Our customers would drive by the Church and stop to shop. This is a country Church, but then this is farm country.

Mostly they were going to town for the weekly Farmer's Market. This was the day that the SDA Church fixed the dinner to sale. So someone brought us our dinner. One of the food items was cheese buttons, a German dish. It was good.

September 7 Minot, ND

Finally, the sunshine! It was a beautiful day. We got back in the truck, drove a couple hours to Minot for our sale. We thought they forgot us, but everyone waited until the last hour to come see us.

September 6 Bismarck, ND

It's been cold and rainy all day, lots of rain. We spent the day working. What else is Labor Day about? We got orders in for more books, lots of paperwork, laundry and even a little shopping done. Busy day.

September 5 Bixmarck, ND

We delivered food in Richardson, ND for we got back to Bismarck. Then we sold to several others here. We just didn't have enough food Thursday.

We're at a Best Western Motel, same one we were in last week. They gave us an upgrade this time. You should see the suite. We've been in nice rooms before but I think this is the winner.

It has a kitchen, front room with an electric fireplace, a dining room with a table bigger than ours at home, through the french doors is a bedroom that is as big as the rest of the suite. The bed is so tall that I'll need a ladder to get into. And it has a jacuzzi in the bedroom. I think that the suite is about 1000 sq ft. The good news is that we have two nights here before we journey on.

Roosevelt National Park

We've driven by Roosevelt Nat'l Park all five trips, but this is the first time we've had the time and a rental car to go in the park. Until we've made these trips, I'd never heard of it before. So today we went! The best way to describe it is that it's kind of like the Badlands in South Dakota. It's mile after mile of rugged, but interesting landscape. We saw a buffalo, thousands of prairie dogs and three horses sleeping on the road.

We drove on to Dickinson for the night. There's several motels in town, but only a couple rooms available for tonight. We were lucky to get a room.

Now for the best news of the day!!! Mt Ellis Academy came in 10th out of the 20 winners on the Kohl's school contest. They are the proud winners of a half million dollars! They plan to replace their 50 year old sewer system. Good for them!! Thank you if you voted on Facebook to help them win. What a blessing this will be for the school.

September 3 Rapid City, SD

Rush, rush, rush!!! We had to get a rental car and drive about 350 miles, getting here in time to load the car before they closed at 4:00. We did make it! We should have had a cargo van but none were available, so we have a Jeep Cherokee. Believe me, it's full! We have 35 cases of canned food and maybe 20 cases of frozen. Can't get any more in the car and still drive!

We did a quick stop at Mt Rushmore tonight to see how the 'boys' are doing. They are still up there watching all the people coming and going.

September 2 Bismark, ND

Two sales in one day isn't too bad if you start in the town of your first sale. We had to get gas first, drive through wind & rain and drive a couple hours to get to Dickinson by 11:00. Jim thought the time zone was on the west side of Dickenson (instead of the east side) so we were there an hour early.

Our customers kept coming after 1:00, so we were late leaving. That's okay, we like customers. So we had two nice sales, but we hurried all day.

We're about out of food. Jim has had some shipped to cold storage places at several places on our route this trip. Tomorrow we're going to have to go to Rapid City which would have been our second stop, to pick up as much as we can. Our first stop should have been in Fargo, ND but we'll need that when we get there. We're having to be very creative to keep stocked. Nice problems, right?

September 1 Glendive, MT

After two weeks, we finished Montana tonight with an increase of more than 25%. I hope all our sales are that good.

We had to hurry to get to Miles City by noon. Then we hurried again to get to Glendive for our evening sale.

After we cashed up and was ready to close the door, three more families came to go shopping. By the time I cashed up again and Jim restocked the shelves, it made a late night.

The last couple that came in invited us to stay with them anytime we come through here. Isn't that the neatest thing? We don't even know them. Everyone is so friendly and nice.

August 31 Billings, MT

On our trip over here today, we saw three airplanes on a train going west. It's just the main body, no wings and the outside isn't finished. We saw three others a couple days ago.

We finally ran out of the rainy weather. We didn't even need a jacket this afternoon.

A lady came in our sale tonight that was a camper when I worked at Junior Camp in Kansas. I saw her at Alumni Weekend in April too, Pam Bing.