I Just Have to Say

We have a different kind of beauty out here in flyover country.

I listen to podcasts fairly often these days. There is one that I like, an accomplished woman who interviews other accomplished women. I don't want to tell you her name or the name of her podcast because if you listen to her, I don't want to color your listening pleasure. On the whole, I do enjoy what she and her guests have to say. Otherwise I wouldn't continue to listen.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Things We do in South Dakota, part 1

Sock Monkey was so impressed with Dignity

Wow! Two months since I last wrote. I've been thinking about needing to do another post soon, but you know how it goes. One thing after another after another, and next a whole season is gone.

Part of what I did in the fall was to travel, and that's what I plan to write about. I have several posts in my my mind, but let's start with this one which involves two different trips, with stop-offs in places well known in South Dakota.

The Blue Lady Thinks about the Midwest

This picture has little or nothing to do with this blog post.
But isn't it a great picture?
We had lost of fun in Brownies.

The air is bad here in SLC a lot lately. It does that in the winter. This kind of gray overcast sky always makes me feel weary and dreary. I feel a lot like just throwing some stuff in the car and taking off for points south right now.

The Blue Lady Goes Home Again

Rockford is the home of the Sock Monkey. We love them.

People say I have too many homes. This past weekend I went home to my hometown, Rockford, and when I told people in Salt Lake that I was going "home," it confused several people. I say I am going home when I mean I am leaving this place in Salt Lake & going to where
 Smokey Rose and my things are. I say I am going home as I prepare to leave for the Black Hills. I say I am going home when I go to Rockford.

Maybe I told you that a few years ago I decided to give up on going to Rockford in the summer. It's wicked hot, and I don't want to do much of anything outside. Autumn is the best time of year, so I have been going to Illinois in October for several years now. Fall break beginning weekend, or Columbus Day weekend, often works out very well.

This time I did most of the things that I really like to do in Rockford and the surrounding area. I spent a lot of the time with my dear friend Jan, someone I have known since forever because our parents went to grade school together. She has a boss who can be difficult about permitting the use of vacation time, but this time the boss gave Jan Monday off (it's not a holiday at her workplace.) That coupled with the weekend meant Jan had 3 days to do things with me.

The Blue Lady Dreams of Home

The  Guardians of the Rock River in Rockford Illinois

I'm a midwestern girl, really, but it's been awhile since I lived in the midwest. Sometime during my school years I became determined to leave my dumb home town, Rockford Illinois, the second I was able to as an adult. And I succeeded. I joined the Navy. I didn't see the world, but I did learn to live in large east coast cities. I ended up living in Manhattan for awhile even ..... 76th and Broadway on the Upper West Side just above a Korean fruit market in a renovated hotel. I would tell people I was from the midwest; I never tried to hide it. But I was pretty bound and determined to become some kind of east coast person instead, whatever that meant.