This weekend, or last weekend once this posts, was a great weekend. In the midsts of the joy and the sorrow, it was a great weekend. For me, the weekend started Thursday, when I was planning to take a half-day at work and drive with my brother Jonathan straight through the night to Billings, MT for my cousin Anne's wedding. Early Thursday morning, after I had just poured my cereal and sat down to watch the morning news and sports news, my Dad called me to tell me my grandma Muriel Nelson had just died. The work day was surreal. Normally, taking a half-day feels a bit odd, like when you're in school and you know you're getting a snow day, and you're just waiting to get out. Thursday was a mix of sorrow, planning for the weekend and trying to finish things at work.
Jonathan and I left Madison at 1:45p and arrived in Billings at 5:15a local time. A 15.5 hour trip straight through to Montana. It was actually a pretty relaxed and easy trip. We stopped a few times the first few hours to get gas and see our Grandpa Wee in Worthington, MN. After seeing grandpa, we drove on to Billings, battling very high winds from Madison to Cedar Rapids, IA and deer after that to Billings. We were going to call Aunt Judy Rickbeil once we got to Billings to see the family, but 5:15 seemed a bit early. We had breakfast at Denny's, because it was too early for Perkins', and went to see Judy, who was staying with her son Mark and all the other family members that crashed there that night. We got there about 6:30, and when the kids ages 2-6 awoke at 7:00, all bets were off. The bride-to-be Anne was sleeping in the living room after her bachlorette party, but the nieces and nephews wouldn't allow her much peace. Poor thing.
After exchanging pleasantries with the family, I took of to Red Lodge, an hour SW of Billings, to ride up the Beartooth Pass. Unfortunately, I learned that the pass had closed the week before. Undeterred, and with nothing better to do with the bike in the back of my Vue, I put on all the warm clothes I brought and put extras in my pockets. The temperature at 9:00a was a brisk 45, which is slightly cool for cycling, but I was heading 2000 feet or so up the pass to the gate. On average, the temperature drops three degrees for every 1000 feet you climb vertically. This means that I was looking at weather in the high 30s, and with the vicious wind and low rain clouds, the temperature would actually feel much colder. The first ten miles were fine, except for the wind which when gusting, slowed me ten mph in a matter of seconds and pushed me back and forth across the lane. Good thing there was no traffic. The next two miles were calm, but there was a slight drizzle. By the time I got to the gate, the rain changed to snow. I considered ducking under the gate, but I didn't know if a firing squad lurked on the other side. Talking to Mark and his wife Stephanie after my ride, they said people go past the gate all the time, and people are in the forest hiking and backpacking because it is a national forest. Oh well, maybe next time. I had a good climb, and when I turned around, I knew that the rain and wind without any of my own heat generated from my own exertion, would make my body instantly cold. I didn't need that for more than a few minutes.
The rest of the wedding weekend was great. It was fun to see my cousins and other family again, though I saw most of them at Jonathan's wedding in August. Anne and Chad had their wedding at the lodge where Chad works as a guide. The lodge is located on the Crow Indian Reservation, about 70 miles SE of Billings, near the Wyoming border. (Chad, or someone else, can you give me the website of the lodge? This blog reaches millions, and since you're now family, I'll only charge my family rate for advertisement.) For the reception, we all headed back to Billings for dinner and dancing at a saddle club (horse riding for those of you non MTers).
Sunday morning, I got to ride again in the beautiful Montana foothills outside of Billings and enjoy the strong Montana breeze. It actually made me a bit misty-eyed, thinking of the good-old-days at my alma mater Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. There, a calm day was a 15 mph wind, and a 'breezy' day was 40. Occasionally, after a particularly bad day, the local sheriff's department would go out into the country and gather the children that blew away. They usually found most of them, and if not, the cold would flash-freeze them for later use, like frozen vegetables. There was only one or two they didn't bring back to life in the four years I was at Concordia. A good record if I do say so myself.
Jonathan and I left around 11:00 for the short eleven-hour trip to Minnesota for my grandma's funeral. The trip was quite easy. The wind was light, we made good time, and we had much better gas mileage, 25% improved. We arrived at the farm a bit before midnight. Quickly, we went to sleep, glad not to have to drive through the night.
Monday was a beautiful fall day. There was a light breeze, but plenty of sunshine to warm the day. When we got to the church at 9:30, the narthex and fellowship hall was already full of people there to pay their respects. I guess the crops must have all been in, because I actually felt late with most of the people already at the church. The service was beautiful. The pastor at their church had been there for a few years and he did a great job of retelling stories and memories from her life. We drove from the church in New Ulm to the cemetery in Lafayette, only a mile or two from the farm. The analogy 'from dust you were made and to dust you shall return' was the perfect description of the scene. The small cemetery was in the middle of a farm field. I can think of no better place and scene to describe life. Life and death, renewal and eternity, a peaceful and picturesque scene of southern Minnesota. Truly, rest in peace.
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