Finding the Family at Tioga

Allan and I climbed into our new Pathfinder and headed out to Ghent, MN, on Friday morning, May 6th, where we had hoped to pick up both of my parents, but Dad wasn’t feeling so hot, having recently twisted his hip throwing softener salt bags into the trunk of his car, so he stayed home while Mom packed her suitcase and joined us for a 10-hour road trip to Tioga, North Dakota, where our daughter Jenny and family live, and where our first grandchild Addie was about to make her First Holy Communion.  It was a wonderful and memorable occasion.

The weather was pretty good for traveling and, at this time of year, it meant a lot of road kill — on the windshield.  When we stopped for gas down the road, Mom cleaned things up for us.

Since we were part way through May, we were surprised to see snowbanks along the way, almost always on the east side of a bank where the warm western sun could barely reach.

We hadn’t seen snow for a few days already in Minnesota.

Not sure if these are man camps or grain bins or what, but they seemed to beg a photo.

A colorful farm site.

Flat horizon.

 

Looks like some clouds fell to earth.

We spent our first night at a hotel in Carrington and had less than four hours to Jenny’s house the next day.  As we approached Minot we saw the first oil pumps and knew we were getting close to Tioga.

Addie and Gunnar were playing outside and we took a picture of them in front of their playhouse.

Nice petunias, Jenny.

We went for a walk to downtown Tioga and enjoyed the beautiful day.

The Sportsman had good hamburgers.  Gunnar ate two big plates from the salad bar.

Christopher had a beef commercial. 

This is the old bank building that Chris and Jenny bought and renovated into sleeping quarters for five guys with a common kitchen, dining, living room, and bathroom both upstairs and down.

Addie tried on her First Communion dress for us.

Sweet Adeline.

Sweet  Jenny, too.

Uncle Nick and Aunt Jen’s gift arrived that afternoon.  It was a very nice silver cross and chain that Addie wore the next day.

Jenny was deciding what to wear the next day to First Communion Mass.

Jenny showed her Grandma some of her scrapbooking pages.

Addie asked if we’d like to play a game with her.

The game was called Apples to Apples and it was pretty fun.  Jenny, working in the kitchen, was our judge.

Click here to find Jenny in the kitchen.