25 Years

As of today August 13th, 2008 we have been married 25 years. I can safely say it has been the best 25 years of my life and for that I thank God and Estella, my wife. We have four wonderful children and thirteen wonderful grandchildren. Seven boys and 6 girls, that range in age from 16, almost to one and a half. Hopefully, now that we are retired we will get to seem more than in the past. Although they all live no more than four hours away, we still only see most of them two or three times a year.

As I look back on the last 25 years, it seems like only yesterday that we were married in a local park at 10 in the morning. Gladly it was 10 and not later as it was extremely hot that day. We spent a week traveling in Nebraska and South Dakota, taking in all the tourist attractions. Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills, The Bad Lands, several gold mines, Wind Cave in Hot springs and The Corn Palace in Nebraska and also The Doll House across the street from the Corn Palace. We drove 1600 miles in a little Chevy Vega, we used 16 quarts of oil and had no air conditioning. My best man offered his real nice Impala with AC, but we declined. Stupid move on my part. In Rapid City we went through a wild life park, it was over 100 degrees at the time. As we entered the bear portion, we were told to keep all Windows rolled up. We were doing alright until a bear decided to lay down in the road right in front of the van in front of us. So, there we sat and it got hotter and hotter in the car. Finally, I tried to roll my window down just about 2 inches. From a loud speaker came a booming voice telling the person in the Vega to roll up the window. Luckily, I think that startled the bear and he moved. There was another incident in the Black hills where a mule stuck his head in my window to see if we had anything to feed him, we didn't so he chewed on the door and scratched it up pretty good. If you want to know about the funniest thing that happened on our trip you will have to ask Estella to tell you, I value my life and know better. Hoping all of you can have as happy a life as I have had the last 27 years and 2 months as we have had.