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| Michael April 23, 1964 - April 10, 2018 |
At the end of January we traveled to San Antonio to be with my older brother and his wife who were spending a few months with their son Michael while he was receiving treatments at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. We enjoyed our visit with everyone and as usual, the time went by too fast.
Upon returning home we discovered that we had a hot water pipe leak under our house slab, which required removing part of the wall between the bath and laundry rooms and rerouting the leaking pipe. After about a week of having the house torn up, the wall was replaced, stuccoed, and repainted -- we then discovered a second leak under the slab. However, this time the repair was going to be more extensive; so we decided to bite the bullet and have all of the plumbing replaced throughout the house, even though the house is only 21-years old. This required removing parts of the walls and ceiling drywall in 40 different locations throughout the house so that the pipes could be rerouted through the walls and ceiling. We should have just moved to a hotel for a month, but we stayed in the house and tried to live around all of the construction for what turned out to be six weeks. (The time was extended because we decided to have the entire downstairs part of the house repainted after the drywall was repaired.)
While all of the construction was in progress, we discovered that we also needed a new hot water heater and the water softener needed to be rebuilt. Since we didn't have enough expenses, we sold the Xterra that we had driven for 197,000 miles, and purchased a used one with only 21,000 miles. The replacement vehicle looks just like the old Xterra, except it has a lot less paint dings
We were still trying to get everything moved back into the house when I started having chest pains and numbness in my hands, so we made a trip to see my cardiologist. After a number of tests he told me that he had some good news and some bad news. The bad news was that the blood vessel they used from my leg to bypass my heart in 2007 had completely collapsed was not passing any blood. However, the good news was that I have been taking so many heart medicines for the past 11 years that the vessels that were originally 98% blocked had started to open up and it appeared that they could be repaired with stents -- but it would take two different surgeries. (Any number of surgeries for stents is better than open-chest surgery!)
While I was in the first surgery, Linda received a phone call that my nephew had passed away and the funeral was going to be in South Dakota. My cardiologist was not in favor of me making the trip, but finally agreed that I could make the trip if I would fly and wait until the weekend to travel. As it turned out, there was a late spring snow storm in South Dakota that closed all of the freeways and airports, so we couldn't have traveled sooner anyway.
After returning to Las Vegas, we discovered that a wild cat that had adopted us had given birth to five kittens under a bush in our backyard. Kolohe decided that the mother cat (named "Squirrel" since it likes to sit in trees.) and all of the kittens were our responsibility because Squirrel was also born in our back yard about six months earlier. Kolohe had been taming Squirrel after it was abandoned by its mother and started playing with the little kittens in hopes that they would become domesticated at a young age. I was not thrilled because I am allergic to cats. Then, Squirrel became ill and could not feed the little kittens, so we built a playpen for the kittens in the garage. (Somehow I ended up helping feeding the kittens each day.) Anyway, last weekend we found homes for all of the kittens and I was able to reclaim my garage. We also took Squirrel to the veterinarian and had her fixed so that we will not find anymore kittens under a bush in the backyard.
Then, Tuesday of this week I went back to the hospital for the second heart surgery stents and arrived back home last night. I feel well and hopefully all of our stressful situations are behind us and we can now enjoy the remainder of 2018.
While we were in South Dakota, we did find time to take a few RonnieAdventures.
Fort Pierre is located on the western side of the Missouri River and is the oldest continuous white settlement in South Dakota.
The area was first visited on March 31, 1743 by French explorer Sieur de la Verendrye. The exact date of the visit is known because Verendrye left a lead on a hill near the mouth of the Bad River and the plate was discovered in 1913 by some children playing in the area.
Joseph LaFromboise arrived at the same site in 1817 an opened the first fur post in the area and then in 1821 the Columbia Fur Company opened a fur post and built Fort Tecumseh. In 1827 Fort Tecumseh was moved because of Missouri River encroachments and renamed Fort Pierre. Soon the area around the mouth of the Bad River became one of America's most productive fur capitals. Over the years, there were ten fur post located in Fort Pierre.
I stopped by the Fort Pierre visitor centers to pick up some tourist information and ran into a niece of Casey Tibbs. We graduated from high school the same year, but she went to Fort Pierre High School and I went to Pierre High School.
Also located at the visitor center is the Sansare One-Room School that was built in 1910 and used until 1969 in rural Stanley County. The building was purchased by the Gene Stoeser Ranch in 1973 and moved to Fort Pierre to be used as an interpretive museum.
Across the street is the Casey Tibbs weather vane that is designed so that Casey and his horse are always turned into the wind; and just up the hill is the Casey Tibbs Rodeo Center and Mattie Goff-Newcombe Conference Center (See RonnieAdventure #0231 for additional Fort Pierre sites.).
The Verendrye Museum is located downtown on Deadwood Street in the old American Legion building. Thousands of authentic early-day items are on display and the museum is considered to contain one of the finest western memorabilia collections on the high plains. Unfortunately, the museum is closed during the winter months.
The Stockgrowers Bank building on Main Street is the only example of Romanesque Revival architecture in Fort Pierre. The bank was constructed in 1903 and was considered to be the most important commercial building in Fort Pierre during the 20th century because it served as the business center for much of Western South Dakota's cattle raising activities.
The Missouri River is well known for its great fishing and on the way out of town I could not help but notice a sign at one of the campgrounds!
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