Thursday morning, we loaded up both cars.  Katie came over and left her car here.  She, Zack and Josie road in the van while Jay and I rode in the Audi.  We went to Grandma's and picked up Mom and Dad.  Billy and Jen met us there and we caravanned as far as Souix Falls.  We stopped at a rest stop somewhere past Worthington and had a picnic.  It was a gorgeous, sunny hot day.  Jen had business in SF, so she and Bill peeled off there.

We reached Wessington Springs around 4:00 and immediately pulled over and tried to contact Ty or Megan.  While we were parked, the fella who lived in the house we were in front of came out and offered us help.  We told him we were in town for a wedding and he said he knew Megan's family.

We met Ty, Megan and the gal who owns the lodge we were renting (Linda) at the American Legion and we followed Linda to the lodge, about 3 miles down the road. 

I had no idea what to expect, I guess I had an image in my head of a dark, simple, rustic cabin with lots of bedrooms.  It was no such thing!  It was a large, airy, bright house that had been outfitted in such a way that it could actually be rented out to three different hunting parties. 

You walk in the door and a hallway splits the house.  A door on the left opens into a large, light pine paneled one bedroom apartment with a huge bathroom, a beautiful kitchen and an enormous living room/ tv room.  The bedroom sleeps two, the couch in the living room pulls out to a queen size bed and there were two couches big enough to sleep on.  A big dining room table served us as a game/puzzle table while we were all there.

Off the hall to the right was a door that opened onto a little entry way.  Up three stairs to the right is a big, bright kitchen, with a dining counter separating the kitchen from the dining room. A big bathroom with a laundry was to the right of the dining room and to the left was a living room with another big couch, tv and recliner.  A big bay window with a view of the hills and trees was on the west and a sliding door to the deck on the south wall made the room really bright and nice.  When I had a few minutes of down time, I sat in the recliner and worked on my needlepoint; the light was perfect.  Off the living room was another bedroom with two beds. 

Between the bedroom and kitchen, a stairway lead to four bedrooms (two beds a piece) and a full bath.

Back to the door, if you go down instead of up, you find another full apartment, this one with two bedrooms (two beds in one and three in the other) a third kitchen, a big living room (two more couches) and a full bathroom.

We had 20 people sleep there over the three days.  Not all stayed all three days; Kris only stayed Thursday then moved over to Tom and Kelly's lodge and MJ, Katie and Meg didn't arrive till Saturday but we could easily have slept all twenty people all three nights without any of the kids even having to sleep on the floor.

All three of the kitchens came fully stocked but we only cooked in the biggest kitchen.  Jay made us all enormous breakfasts everyday with everything from bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes, fruit and orange juice.  We used the percolator and went through 30 cups of coffee a day.  All the bathrooms were packed with towels so it was the perfect set-up for what we needed.

Megan's family could not have been nicer or worked harder and no one NO ONE could have put on a better party!

Make that three parties.

We all got to town Thursday, moved our stuff into the lodge and then followed Megan and Ty to the ranch.  There, we saw that they had been working like mad to get the tent up and the quonset hut cleaned out and  everything was covered in lights.  The flatbed was set up near the concrete slab by the hut and that's where the band would play and everything was hung with white lights. 

Peg and some of her sisters (there are five all together) made a great big pasta dinner for  those of us who arrived on Thursday.  She called it Greek Spaghetti and I want the recipe.  The sides were fresh corn, tomatoes and cucumbers from their gardens.  Margy and her boys arrived in time to eat dinner and check out the live stock.  Bill and Jen arrived as the sun went down but they did get to eat.

Megan introduced several of us to the horses they work the farm with.  They were all beautiful reds (roans?) with different white markings and some with black manes and tails.  Someday, I'm going to ride a horse.  Someday.

She also showed us the barn with about seven calves, all different colors and the pen with this years bulls in it.  All the bulls are black.  Two of them were very big but only yearlings so I know they'll get much bigger.  I went to a rodeo once and let me tell you; I've seen elephants that aren't as big as a grown bull.

The part of South Dakota where we were was ridiculously beautiful.  The landscape was rolling, green and lush.  South Dakota is just like North Dakota, if North Dakota had hills, trees, grass and water.

Okay, Jamestown is actually quite pretty but outside of town, not so much.

Wessington Springs is situated on a rise in the land that allows you to see for hundreds of miles (it seemed) in every direction and no matter where you looked it was gorgeous.  Very easy to see why the early settlers stopped.  The land offered everything a farmer could possibly want and miles and miles and miles of it.  Very easy to imagine the ocean of grass and the prairie schooners that crossed it.

Jim and Meg got to the lodge later and joined us for breakfast Friday.  Two carloads of us went back into town to see the Shakespeare Gardens.  Very pretty.  Some of the formal wedding photos were taken there later.  Kathy Gates joined us.  The house she and Ron were renting was right across the street.


Friday afternoon, there was a golf tournament for all the wedding guests who were in town.  My dad was a bit bummed that he couldn't play but he has a torn tendon in his right arm and it hurts to swing a club. 

Those of us who weren't golfing tried to be helpful.  We went to the Country Club, where the rehearsal dinner would be held and did whatever Peg and her sisters needed us to do; set up tables, put out chairs, chop up apples and snickers bars, teach the bar tender to make a red headed slut; whatever needed to be done.

The rehearsal went off just fine; the wedding party had all made it to town ( including one bridesmaid who came all the way from Austin TX with her husband on a motorcycle and sidecar.  That's 1700 miles they rode.  How Awesome is that?) 
Peg and I had to rehearse lighting candles for our kids to light the unity candle with.

"First you let me play with sharp knives all afternoon, now I get to play with fire!" I said to Peg.  "What next?  Are you gonna let me play with guns at the reception?"

"Do you want to play with guns?" she asked. "Cuz we can do that!"

I love this family.

 

 

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