Day 25

No riding for me today as the plan was to spend the day at a family reunion here in the Swift Current area. I caught a ride with my parents, rather I thought I was, until Dad told me I was supposed to drive. It felt a little strange driving a cage after not being in one for almost a month. Since the weather was less than ideal it was a welcome break though.

We made it to the college grounds where the events are taking place in time for the Sunday morning worship service. Quite a few different people spoke before one of my late grandmother's brothers spoke for a while. Most of the family is deeply rooted in the Christian faith, as is the case with my mom's side of the family back home. It was encouraging to hear the stories of what God has done in his life, and through him as well. 

After the service a delicious lunch was served, and it also started an almost full day of meeting new people related to me in some way. Some of the names I've heard over the years growing up, Mom would mention her uncles and cousins occasionally when telling stories. I met and talked with so many people that by the time we left at 9:45pm they were all starting to blur together. I really enjoyed the day of meet and greet, even though most are complete strangers the family connection is somewhat evident still. They were also a friendly group, which makes it easy to converse. I don't know how many people asked about my trip, I felt like a broken record as I would share a little with many of them. 

In the afternoon Mom, Dad, aunt Mary, uncle Andrew, and myself spent a few hours touring the area that both Mom and Mary spent some of their childhood in. That was a big part of the reason for me stopping here in the first place, as I've always been curious to see where her first 8 years were spent. Having her here to explain things makes it much more interesting as well. I saw the grave sites of both sets of her grandparents, some of the roots that remain planted here for her and to a degree myself as well. 

All in all it was a nice day, relaxing yet busy at the same time. The weather doesn't look that great for tomorrow so for now the plan is to stay another day here. I need to do some laundry yet at some point tomorrow and the forecast for Tuesday looks really good so I might as well since I have the time. 

When I leave Tuesday I plan to take the Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park, something I wanted to do last year but the road wasn't open yet. That's some new country again, and there should hopefully be some great pictures there to make up for the lack of pictures the last couple days (for those of you that don't enjoy all the words as much lol).

Great grandmother's grave is unmarked beside me as I took this picture