Sentimental Journey OH OH OH YES

Going to take a Sentimental Journey, which one should I choose.

Last trip with parents to family in mid west works best tonight.

In 1994, Dad, Mom and I got in his Buick and toured to the midwest. I shared the driving with Dad. Mom had stopped driving many years before. We were on our way to share in two family reunions. One on Mom's side (DUVALL) and one on Dad's side (MYERS) which of course covered FOULK'S since they intermarried a few times over the years.

The Duvall reunion was held in Wyoming east of Wheatland in a very flat and warm valley near the Nebraska border called Torrington. I met many, many new cousins I had heard about and many I had not heard about. Learned about the two sets of twins, one in the Wilson family in IOWA, the other was I think in Kansas. Learned how, more than one Duvall had married into the Hoffman line. Later, learned one of the family members worked with my husband here in San Diego. (When I went to their wedding and met the groom he was from the WILSON family I had met a couple years before in WYO.) It makes the world much smaller place. We had a great lunch and time to swap data and share. We did not stay for the night activity because it was to warm for MOM and it was also bothering me. I think it was 118 degrees that day.

A week later we went to McPherson, Kansas and met with our cousin Ken and Dolly Foulk (also from WYO and used to be our neighbors here in California, and then went over to meet the new family members of the Myers line.
I loved the drive to McPherson, It was my first trip to Kansas and I can tell you the
road trip was not fun but it was slow enough you could really see the country side and the lay of the land. Slow rolling hils planted with various grains for harvesting and soybean or safflower plants, sunflowers and some corn. It was not as flat as Nebraska and not as dry as sw IOWA. I heard that sw Kansas is much dry like sw IOWA. Never been to that corner. The Highway was under major construction and one lane for ten miles then one line for ten miles for almost 50 miles or more. I know we could only go 15 miles an hour so we were hours behind when we finally go to the interchange to go south to McPherson.

The one thing I loved about trip was I was in the back seat and I asked DAD many questions and had my tape recorder on. I have to replay tape and hope it still works.
I can remember most of the questions and comments because I had asked them so many times in the past. Of course I took my turn driving, actually did more than Dad. He was 80 I think at the time.

We left Sonoma County and drove to Reno, NV then east over to Salt Lake City,UT to my Aunt's, Dad's sister. We then drove to Wheatland, Wyoming to my Uncle's (Mom's brother).
We visited with my Aunts and Uncle and Great Aunt and Great Uncle and other family members in the area. We went to the Reunion and met many more family members plus some that had come up from Kansas for the reunion.

I enjoyed my visit with new family members and the sharing and exchanging of data with the young and the old. They had a well planned reunion for events and sharing.

We left Wheatland and went to Denver to see my other Aunt(Dad's sister) and her children and their children. We then headed east on 40 to go to Kansas. We hit a hail storm and some dust storms almost back to back. Then when we got into Kansas they had decided to repair the road. As I said earlier it was slow going but you could really observe the area. The smell of the fields was great compared to the tar on the road way.

The town of McPherson was nice sized not so huge you would get lost in it. The Reunion was held down on the Fair Grounds. The second day there was the start of it. It was held Friday night, Saturday and Sunday day. The had copy machines and other equipment to help in the sharing of the information that everyone from everywhere had brought.
I think there was someone there from each of John And Catherine's children, or we were missing only one line. They took family group pictures of each line of whom was there. ( I missed last year due to my knee surgery boy was that a bummer).

We left there later in the week and headed back to Denver and then to Wheatland and up to Idaho Falls to see my brother and cousins and Aunt that lived in Afton, Wyo.

We left there and then came down from Pocatello to Utah to Nevada and stopped to see Hartley and Jeane (cousins)family in Winnamucca, Nevada. We spent one evening with them and then headed west to Reno and then back to Sonoma County, CA.

Dad had some medical troubles in Idaho so I took extra week from work to get him well to come home.

It is a trip I would love to duplicate for my Children and Grandchildren to know more about their family. Other than my Uncle who lived near us here family was all many hours or days away. Being my husband was Navy and Uncle was Navy seems we ended up in a retired Navy town now city. Many little stories with in this story to tell another time.