Back in Bismarck — October 7-20, 2016

By the time we made it back to Bismarck, Mom’s cracked/broken ribs had healed enough that she was largely free of pain.  We were delighted to see how youthful she looked — almost back to where she had been before the awful summer of her ill health began.

Our outside activities during the period of this posting were minimal — we stayed home with Mom during several periods when Zona spent some time at Lake Sakakawea and Minneapolis. We took the RV out to Tappen, ND, where it was stored away for the winter in a huge building owned by Marvin Bodvig as part of the complex that comprises the Tappen Farm Supply Company.  We had a nice visit over lunch with Marvin and Violet after tucking in the RV.

We spent quite a bit of time with Jon and Cathy Docktor and their children Katie and Cole, including meals at Zonas and a meal at the Dockters and a farewell dinner at the Bistro in Bismarck.  We attended Katie’s last basketball game of the season.  And when Zona returned from Minneapolis she brought along some brun geitost (brown goat cheese).   We had brought along tyttebær syltetøy (lingonberry jam) from the Ikea store in Las Vegas.  So when Zona made fresh norske wafler (Norwegian waffles) we all gorged ourselves with waffles eaten by hand and spread with the jam and brown cheese.  Yum yum yum!

Barb mostly doesn’t appear in the photos below; the last picture reveals the reason:  she was in the throes of a multi-week treatment to remove persistent pre-cancerous growth on her blue-eyed visage.  As I write this she is back to her beautiful self.