Rolling on the River

Emily and Lacey took on the Mississippi today when Missy hosted a paddleboat outing on a perfect Saturday afternoon. Emily is Stan's granddaughter; Lacey is Virg's, but neither joined the party on the boat, busy doing cleanup in their respective yards, we suppose. Missy texted this photo.

Adios, Harold and Marilyn

Cousins: Steve, Harold and Stan

Steve and Nancy joined us for a farewell breakfast for our Cousin Harold and Marilyn at Panera Bread. Their granddaughter Brooke packed up her prize "American Girl" doll that Grandma and Grandpa bought at the Mall of America, Harold programmed the GPS in their Buick LaCrosse (you know, the one that is big enough for Shaquille O'Neal) and they were off, heading for home in Bismarck. We've enjoyed their stay, hope they did too.
Harold's cousin, Linda and her husband, Ron, were vacationing in Canada, so Harold and Marilyn missed them this trip, but they did get a chance to hear some of their son Steve's movie project. If you haven't heard it yet, click on the handy icon below.

Looking over the Mississippi to Wisconsin

Kathleen and Stan chose an original Veeder oil painting from the artist's workshop Wednesday. They're excited to get it home, framed and on the wall. . . but at 36x48 inches, it was too big to fit into the car. No problem, we'll deliver, the artist said. So Larry and Carolyn will drop by shortly with the painting and some time for a visit. Our landscape is a scene viewed from the bluffs between Winona and LaCrosse, looking from the Minnesota side.

A gathering of cousins in Red Wing

Larry, Carolyn, Kathleen, Marilyn, Harold. . . granddaughter Brooke.
Hey Brooke, over here! Stan took the picture.

From our vantage point on The Verandah at the Red Wing St. James Hotel, it was easy to see that the nation's economy is on a roll.
As we found our places under a big green umbrella shading the midday sun, the Burlington Northern rolled through the historic depot just beneath us, rushing empty oil gondolas and steel pipe to the Bakken Shale fields of western North Dakota.
We chose from a menu of sandwiches, burgers and fries, walleye and wild rice soup. Carolyn wanted the Caesar and Salmon, but before Kelli could take her order, we paused to let the Canadian Pacific charge past the hotel with about 100 carloads of wheat, bounding southerly along the Mississippi, then probably due east to bridge at a natural ford that the French named LaCrosse.
Mostly we had iced tea and burgers, there were a couple of salads and a toasted turkey and brie sandwich mixed in, and by the time they arrived, a shipment of "clean coal" from Wyoming or Montana did too, bound for eastern power plants.
We hoped for a nostalgic moment watching the Empire Builder discharge passengers arriving from Chicago or Seattle, but they say it is hard to tell when it will come through. It must be difficult running a schedule these days. Amtrak leases the freight tracks on a space available basis, and from what we could see from our perch, there's not a lot of that right now.
Surprisingly, the trains weren't as distracting to our luncheon as you might think on this perfect riverside afternoon. More an occasional rhythmic entertainment than rude interruption. The Rolfsrud relatives found plenty of opportunity to renew friendships and swap stories. Stan and Kathleen brought Stan's cousin Harold and his wife, Marilyn to Red Wing on a mission to see our cousin Larry and his wife, Carolyn.
A renown artist, Larry produces stunning landscapes. So you might say we were in town prospecting for oil. More on that later.

Cousins: Halvor's boy, Harold; Erling's boy, Stan; Agnes' boy Larry.

Cousin Harold here with Marilyn and Brooke. . .

Marilyn and Harold with Granddaughter Brooke. Tomorrow we go to
Red Wing, to see our Cousin Larry and Carolyn.

Thunderstorms and hail swept down from North Dakota yesterday, following the usual I-94 route to the Twin Cities. Brother Virg got a piles of ice in his Eden Prairie yard, no report yet on damages, but it's a mess out there, he says.
That's the same route from North Dakota that Cousin Harold and Marilyn took today as well, but they got here about twenty-minutes ahead of the storm, and got to Shakopee in time to watch the rain out our windows.
While Marilyn, Kathleen and granddaughter Brooke visited on the porch, Harold buried himself downstairs in a pile of old letters his grandmother and aunts had written from western North Dakota in 1935-36, during the depression, to Erling, away at Concordia College in Moorhead.
"These are precious," Harold said as he worked through the trove our father (his Uncle Erling) had carefully saved for posterity.
"There's more where that came from," Stan laughed. His father was a collector, saver, archivist and organizer, and there are boxes and boxes in our basement to prove it.

Letters from Aunt Hannah and Grandma Rikka

Somehow, she beats Grandpa every time. . .

Angel food for Benita... she's 80!

Here's Mom's housemate Benita with family members: husband Curt and sister Carol. She's been celebrating her 80th all week long starting with a party for 35 guests on Friday night. Today was a smaller affair at Kell, but no less joyous. Happy Birthday, Benita.
Marcia baked her famous Strawberry Angel food cake with pink filling. (Benita had her chocolate fix later.)

He actually did it. Amazing. Not Mark Weber!

I wanna be an Airborne Ranger,
I wanna live a life of danger. . .

Stan's friend and co-worker of 35 years was always a pretty careful and cautious fellow. Not boring, mind you, he always talked about writing with an "edge," but we never thought he would actually go over it.
Saturday he jumped out of an airplane. We're still scratching our heads, dumbfounded.
Read about Mark and his reasons for jumping by clicking here.