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The Adventures of Me & My Shadow # 76 in VA,WV,KY,IN,IL,MO,KS,CO & WY 8/20/02 2,134 miles this trip, odometer now 26,388, total miles this year 30,848 From Warren AFB, WY, Hi Everyone! Well, the trip west was just the opposite of the trip east. Besides going up hill I had a light head wind all the way till I got into western KS where it was very strong from the northwest. This lasted into eastern CO till I got almost to Denver. There was dust in the air but visibility seldom got to less than a half mile. I started the trip with a week to get to Denver. So I held my speed to 55 MPH most of the way to save gas and I would stop at all the rest areas and some truck stops to spend about an hour or more putting information back into the computer. I even got more sleep than usual and I arrived in Denver for the Jensen Family reunion a day sooner than I had planned to. The roads were in pretty good shape except for MO. The roads there were very rough and in need of repair. Some places the weeds next to the road were 2 to 3 feet tall and it made me think that there was no one home. I found the best roads in KY and KS there were lots of construction zones all the way and this gave me a twisted adventure in CO where the normal posted speed limit is 75 MPH on the Interstate highways. I was running 55 and trying to stay out of every-ones way but in the construction zones in single lanes they dropped the posted speed limit to 65. I had to increase my speed 10-MPH in construction zones to keep the truck drivers happy. The traffic did slow a little in the area where men were working. The high 110-degree temps were a problem for a lot of people but not for me. I saw several vehicles having cooling problems but not my old GMC. Like me, she likes the warm weather and her temperature stayed in the normal range all the way and as long as she is running 40 MPH or better the electric fans never come on. The family reunion was great! I hope it can happen again. I met a lot of old cousins and some new ones that I had never met before. I remember other family reunions in the past, now I am old and the kids are in their 30s,40s, 50s,and 60s. We old ones reminisced about things that happened a long time ago. But the one that stole the show was a darling little 5-year-old girl, Alexandra "Lexie" for short.  One time she got me to laughing so hard that my upper false plate dropped down and this really surprised her. Soon she went to her room and came back with her own false teeth I guess they were part of a Halloween costume. The most amazing thing was when she brought out a bat and ball and got one of her uncles to pitch to her. She swung the bat just like a pro and hit more than she missed. This summer when she gets on a little league team she will be a force to reckon with. There will be no "T" ball for her, she will show the boys how it’s done. I hope more cousins can make it to the next one. After the reunion I headed north to WY and checked into the Fam Camp on Warren AFB next to Sheyenne, WY to kill time and get more Genealogy data back into my computer before the Western States GMC rally in Cody, WY next month. The temps here were much better and we even got some rain. One day the temp was in the 50s, I almost headed south but it soon got back up in my comfort zone. This is my first time here and it will not be my last time. This is one of the best RV camps I have ever been in. It is not fancy. There is no swimming pool or tennis courts just a good place to camp. There is a newly built Office with a phone line for getting on the net with a computer, Laundry and Restrooms. It was well designed, perfectly built and very clean. It is the only public rest room I have ever been in where I get instant hot water any time day or night. Most Airforce bases have aircraft to contend with but not here. There are no runways or aircraft, only a lot of underground silos with missals in them. It is so peaceful and quiet here that the place is overrun with wildlife besides all the campers, there are cotton tail rabbits, squirrels and antelope.  There are warning posters about mountain lions liking the peace and quiet also. I even saw a ferret, no, it wasn’t a wild one it was on a lease and was a pet. It reminded me of a ferret I saw about 65 years ago when I was a kid in NE. It was teamed up with two dogs and for a price the owner would rid a farm of rats. It was something to behold, the ferret would flush out the rats and the dogs would be very busy killing them till there were no more rats. Now they use rat poison that is made with cumidin the medicine that is used as blood thinner. The rats bleed internally and die. One evening last week we had a pot luck dinner and as always I took a small portion of everything and ate too much. There was just too much. I am making progress getting the data back in my computer, of the over 12,000 names I now have over 4,500 names back in. It looks like it will take another month or two if I can find the time. Because of the number of names now in the computer it is slowing down and it takes me longer to find the connection each time I put in another name. It gives me a good feeling when I realize that I have lived longer than most of the ancestors that I enter. I feel sorrow for some of them. Yesterday I was entering a family that had lost five of their six children to scarlet fever. One child died in Sep. three died in Oct., two on the same day and one in Dec.. I don’t know how they could take it, to loose just one child would be hard to take, the oldest boy did survive. I feel sorrow for all the little ones who only lived for a few minuets, or a few hours, or a few days, or a few weeks or a few months or years. I wonder just why they died, were they abused or neglected? Did they ever smile and know that they were loved? Yes, I am indeed very fortunate, my children are all alive and healthy as are my grandchildren and great-grandchildren and I am still alive and enjoying each day. Till next time, Dallas
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