Mobridge Vacation

At the last minute I decided to fly with Brent up to Devils Lake, ND to join Audrey who is there to see her ailing mother and to attend her school's class reunion. So we left Denver in a little Cessna and headed for Mobridge, SD where we would stay the night. The intention was to leave Mobridge at 8 this morning and arrive at Devils Lake at 10:30. Well, the weather isn't cooperating. Rain this morning, a low cloud ceiling, and storms between us and our destination. So, now I am enjoying a vacation in Mobridge.

The motel, MoRest Inn, wasn't so hot. Hard beds, noisy air conditioner, bathroom door doesn't shut, no place to set a tooth brush. But, by George, we do have high speed internet. We also had to rent a smoker's room. And the town is overrun with boats. Lake Oahe, you know. Big fishing tournament.

Oh, we did get an airport courtesy car. An old Crown Victoria with cracked windshield, speedometer doesn't work, and wiper blades are bad. And it was raining, of course.

We had breakfast at a family cafe, and that was actually pretty good. I had choice French toast and ham. I asked what was choice about the French toast and the waiter said I had the choice of ham, bacon, or sausage. The Staley's syrup gave me a gut ache.

Tonight we are staying at the Wrangler. Much nicer room with quieter air conditioner. It has an indoor pool, and I forgot my swimsuit. It has softer beds, all-day coffee, vending machines, a cafe, and....... high speed internet. The room is also much larger.

We were going to rent a car to drive the rest of the way to Devils Lake. The Ford dealer is the only ones that rent.... they we all out of rentals. Ho-hum!

Flying in I told Brent that it looks like we are at the end of the earth. Now I am convinced of it. The airport manager lives on a ranch. His closest neighbor is about 10 miles away. We must have flown over about a hundred square miles where we saw only a dozen or so houses. I'm not sure why everyone lives on top of each other in New York when they could be here fishing on Lake Oahe.

Well, I did enjoy the plane ride in. It was pretty cool until we were landing. When Brent cut the power for the decent it sounded and felt like we had no power at all. I was wondering how we were going to make it the rest of the way to the airport. We seemed much too low and slow. To make a long story short, Brent made a perfect landing with about 3/4 of the runway left over. Cool! I have to remember to get a picture of me standing next to the plane. The only person braver than the pilot is the passenger.

I think I'll go over now and get one of those free cups of coffee. If it were Starbucks this would be a great vacation.

Just remember this. I love you all. I had to tell you that because we are flying again tomorrow. :-)