Cousins

Days 19 and 20

The weekend is a feast of food and family. Sean is about the same age as his cousins one generation junior to him. Their were nine altogether, all boys. Saturday was too Windy for boating, so they had to content themselves with sports, electric ATVs and Nintendo.


My generation was represented by Audrey, Eileen and Bill. The next generation down is closer to my age. Bill and Eileen Suchor's son Brett and wife Christine (or is that with a K?) were also staying at the house, as I mentioned. His sister Jennifer is just married and honeymooning in Fiji. Bill Appel's girls, Angie, Melanie and Tiffany are all married with boys. Audrey and Charlie Reeds boys couldn't make it.


Food and Wine came in waves throughout the day. Angie's husband John filled us in on the problems with wind power in Gillette. Brett and I discussed the business of electronic entertainment. Family stories were told by all.

We went to bed knowing we didn't have to go anywhere the next day, which may have been the best part.

The wind was a little better the next day. Bill Suchor, Brett and his family and all us Appel's went fishing. The fish weren't biting in the Key Hole Reservoir, but a good time was had trawling for walleye. By the time we returned, lunch was ready and a full compliment of cousins had arrived.

The nine boys went out on the lake for tubing behind the boat. MarKay and I stayed behind, which allowed Sean to be adventurous and join in with his peers. We talked about this over bear and wine and that for hours. In the late afternoon my cousin Mary arrived. She is one of my uncle Leonard's girls, a branch of the family that we don't see often at get togethers. I hadn't seen her in forever, so the tow of us ended up talking until late in the evening.

Mary and Bill Appel both think that the coal companies are moving more quickly than expected, so we might see an offer on the ranch land before we're all in nursing homes. That would be nice.

Audrey and Charlie bid us farewell. They presented us with a Lewis and Clark cookbook and some local jams and treats that we look forward to sampling. Sean got a history game for the road. Bill and his family had to leave a little later.

As the evening wound down I got caught up in a CNN report on Iran. I was amazed to see all that had been happening since we had left Georgia. We've been living in a vacation bubble that the outside world doesn't penetrate. It was surreal to see how much we had missed.

Tomorrow we start back towards reality.