contemplating the return

So now it is Sunday morning here at my parents' home. This morning I will start packing back up, we will go to church and then we will lunch and load up. We will hang around a little longer than initially discussed, because dad has been leading a 4:00 Vespers service for the residents of a local nursing home for umpteen years and I would really like to take the family to experience that. (Dad has been doing it since I was in high school, I think, maybe earlier--and I have never gone with him, which now seems a shame. Besides, all those old folks who have been attending for years might like to see some of dad's family. I am not sure mom has ever gone either.)

But then we will head on the second leg of our amazing summer homeschooling roadtrip extravaganza! first stop, the home of an Iowan relation for a couple of days, then on to the "Little Town on the Prairie," De Smet, SD, the town in which Laura Ingalls and family lived during some of her books (including my favorite, "The Long Winter"). Then on to Custer state park in SD, then Mount Rushmore (which, I learned, was named after the leader of an early three-man expedition--one of the other three was the husband of Carrie Ingalls, younger sister of Laura), then Yellowstone. I have never been to any of these places, and am really looking forward to it. The only bummer is that D cannot be with us, since he had to fly back to CA from Chicago the day after the wedding and work. But we are hopeful that on the way back home the timing should work out perfectly for us to meet D in Yosemite and camp there for the last weekend of the trip. That would be a lovely way to end our adventure.