Indiana to Kansas, Home Base to Home Town

Once we returned to Indiana we had a busy schedule for a few days.  Much of that was fun stuff, like Mother's Day with a wonderful meal prepared by our daughter and son-in-law, meeting their new kitten,  catching up with friends and neighbors, sleep-overs with our grand daughters, ice cream dates with two of the grandsons and picnics in the backyard with family.  But then there were the dentist, doctor and accountant appointments along with some housekeeping and every day chores.  

 

 Our only regret with this quick stop was missing our two other grandsons!  Since our next stop was for our  45 (!) year High School Class Reunion on Friday we had to get on the road before they arrived at their Dad's.  Sometimes schedules just don't work out, but we've promised to see them when we are back at the end of August.  

So on May 25 we headed West!  With a quick night at the Cabela's parking lot in Kansas City, we made it to our destination of Alton and Osborne, Kansas.  Our parking stop for the next few days was on a farm driveway courtesy of good friends Greg and Sherri.  Many, many years ago, we were young parents together in this small community.  Sherri and I were having babies and Greg was helping  Dennis  on his construction  jobs. Now those kids are all grown up and having babies themselves.  Though G & S are ahead of us on the grandchild count!  

Sherri is currently facing some health challenges so it was good to see her  looking so good!  Prayers are still needed but she is a strong woman!

Friday night we made it to our High School Reunion.  It was great to see all the other "old" folks and catch up on the last few years since our last get together.  It really doesn't seem like it was 45 years ago that we graduated from high school.  Our class only numbered 66 (I think?) and we have sadly lost six.  We took a  fun photo of three of the original four Methodist Girls, who attended Sunday School, choir and youth group together for most of our early years!  Missing our 4th member who still was teaching school in Minnesota. It is a tradition to hold class reunions on Memorial Day weekend in our home town.  It's unfortunate that many who live out of the state cannot attend because they are still involved in school and grandchildren's activities until the first part of June.  Dennis attended grade school and the first two years of high school in the even smaller town of Alton until our two schools were unified.  We also were able to attend a short reunion hosted by one of his grade school classmates on Sunday.

Sadly most of my close family relatives in town have past, but Dennis still has several and we were lucky enough to visit with most of them.  That included a trip out to North 40 Alpacas owned by his cousin.  Aren't these guys cute?  Just stay out of spitting range!

Of course we made a visit to two cemeteries to "decorate" the graves of some of our deceased relatives.  I have many fond childhood memories of this tradition.  It was almost like a family reunion and it seems there was always a photo of the cousins lined up near our Grandparents grave sites.  

It's hard to imagine that this was Saturday night on Main Street.  Forty-five years ago, it would've been busy with kids dragging Main in their cars.  Maybe these old folks were just too early this evening!