This being 2011... and me not being in Idaho since 2009... I decided it was time to return to homebase and play catch up...
So Patti, Jarrett and I set up a time that she could take off work, and still be late enough to not get caught in any real bad storms... (surprise) and meet in Rupert.
Louise didn't get her voice mail from Patti or her email from me... and so we showed up at her doorstep ready to stay with her and take on Idaho...
It's a good thing that we are at least related... she was surprised to say the least... and sweet as always. Hoping that she didn't need to change her plans to much, cuz she didn't know we were acomin' we all climbed into bed for a good nights sleep... and I slept... phew!!
We wanted to accomplish 2 things... visit with the Aunts and prepare our parents grave site for Memorial Day the end of May. I hadn't been back to see if all Mark's info was carved into the headstone or that the info was even correct... and I was feeling really sad that I had not been up to see Aunt Mae since she had become ill. tears all the way around...
Friday we woke and went to the "Wayside Cafe" in Rupert just off the highway... the best biscuits and gravy in Idaho. It's a truck stop and was very full of locals and truckers, always a good sign of good food inside. We then set off to visit with Aunt Mae. She lives in Burley at the best guest home I've seen... Mark would call it that and it sounds so much better than an assisted living center. We interrupted Mae's pinochle group and glad to do so... After they finished their 'hand' we took Mae off to visit in her room. She is still the same feisty Aunt we grew up with... even in a lovely wheelchair that makes pretty good u-turns. We then dropped in on Aunt Irma. The visit was short, but we made plans to meet up again Saturday and go to Shoshone Falls and our cousin Vernal Sheen in and around Twin Falls, Idaho.
Saturday morn we got up and gathered Louise's garden things and headed out to Rupert Cemetery to clean things up and prep for Memorial Day. It was pretty overgrown. We couldn't get the things out to put flowers in... That still needs to be dealt with, but we will have to get the cemetery people to do it.
We then picked up Aunt Velola from a funeral service in Rupert and took off to meet up with Irma. The drive was lovely. Traffic at a minimum... the van was sweet, our little road trip let us visit with others and not take 2 cars... We all fit in the van. Irma, Louise, Velola, Patti, Jarrett and me.
Our first stop was the falls. I gave my opinion about seeing the falls before the party, cuz I thought we might all be to tired to stop and it was well worth the stop.
I can't say enough about Shoshone Falls. It was amazing... brilliant... fantastic... WOW!! The water was so high... running so fast, the mist was like Niagara Falls... Which I have been to in the past 10 years. So I do a bit of a memory of it. Our falls were not so wet nor so wide nor so deep... But we are out West, mostly high desert land with rocks... flowing down the Snake River.
Then the fun started... We got lost trying to find the party in Pillar, Idaho. Knowing the Sheen's it was a farm/ranch. Way out of any town. Hahaha... Patti was driving and taking directions very well, the problem was no one knew where they were going. It was rather funny.
Finally Irma got on the phone and someone talked us to the place. Gorgeous area. Green fields, cows and horses. Yippee... We would have never found it with the navigators we had reading the small set of instructions.
The company was great. We got to meet cousins we played with 50 plus years ago... on the Hymas side. I didn't even know who they belonged to other than us... I never thought to ask the connections. Just wasn't important 50 yrs ago. The bottom line is their Clara and our Zina were sisters. Arfa is Clara's daughter, and Elro, my dad is Zina's son and Vernal is Arfa's son. Not sure how many times our cousins are removed... but we are connected and that is all that really matters. Yeah... I got confused to... oh well... the genealogy sheets have it all put together correctly.
They had really great food and wonderful company. After awhile we got ready for our nap... food + tired = a nap... then we visited again. We hopped in the van and took off for home for the end of our road trip.
