ACROSS THE USA IN SPRINGTIME 2016 INTRO

Maybe driving across the Continental Divide in Springtime is not a good idea.  Snow and all that, don’tchaknow.  We live in Nevada:  We do not own a snow shovel.  Gulp.  We shall see!

A couple of decades ago when my folks died, we ten Kraus kids dismantled the farm in Neenah, WI and took away what we could in trailers, trucks and boxes.  Some of the things I wanted could not be shipped to California and so, all these years later, they are still in my brother’s attic.  Rob and I talked it over and decided that it is time to “go home” and retrieve the precious childhood items I wanted so badly to salvage from the farm.  Maybe I will find that I was silly.  Maybe not.  I’m too old to worry about that.  Rob is helping me gather up a few treasures.

Thus, we are driving from Nevada to the Midwest over the next week in the BFT (Big….Truck)!  This will be so much fun!  While we are there, the Kraus Family Reunion, Wiedervereinigung, will take place and all my brothers and sisters will gather at Larry (brother) and Linda’s home in White Bear Lake, MN for the week end.  This reunion takes place every year at the same time, the week end after Easter.  Why?  Because our good Catholic parents would not let us drink and party during Lent.  Fine, we can wait another seven days.  We get together every year after Lent and Easter to sacrifice, go bowling, drink beer and wine, party, eat meat and left over Easter eggs!  We are a giving, humble, prayerful bunch.

First stop:  Beaver, Utah. Driving here was delightful.  Well, after we got through the “Spaghetti Bowl” in Vegas, where a car was on fire and there was an hour traffic delay as notified by our GPS.  Clever navigator that I am, I got us around that mess in less than half an hour!  The rest of the stretch took us through ranges dotted with cattle and their babies, foothills covered with cedars, scrub oaks and pines and, far on the horizon, white snowcaps against royal blue sky. 

I don’t know what the haps are in Beaver, Utah, and I may not be able to find out, with only one night to stay, but I’ll try.  The sun is setting behind the mountains.  The locals recommended Arshel’s Café where Mom cooks the food for you, just up the road ½ mile.  There we were seated at a table next to a nice Mormon family, Gramma, two Moms and ten (yup, count ‘em, ten) lovely Republican children, from a nursing infant to a 12 year old.  They were celebrating Gramma’s birthday and honoring her knack for storytelling.  Because of this claim to fame, she decided to tell a story about when she was a young girl.  (Sorry, I eavesdropped.)  She and her friends attended a church function and the boys invited them to share a piece of their cake.  The cake had a wonderful filling containing chunks of chocolate candy.  “Yummy!” the girls giggled.  They later learned, first-hand, that the chocolate was ExLax.  Gramma is still giggling.  Rob and I enjoyed our delicious hot clam chowder, fish, shrimp and chips and came home to the Butch Cassidy Inn.  Time to rest up for the road ahead.