Vacation Trip to Thunder Bay, Ontario with Arliss, Bob and Sybil Moreland: There, and Back Again

[Bob Moreland, my stepfather, writes a column ('Friends and Fancies') that is published in a number of newspapers in South Dakota and Nebraska.  His September 2011 columns described the vacation trip I took with Bob, my mother Arliss, and Bob's daughter Sybil at the end of August.  We had a great time and I wanted to share Bob's viewpoint (with his permission) as well as my own photos and images. I have also added some additional information and weblinks where I think it will add to the story (my comments are in italics). - DeAnn]

#412 Friends and Fancies
By  Bob Moreland
September 1, 2011

Bob Moreland, photo by Steve Moreland

This has been an eventful week.  Last Sunday we packed our suitcases and headed to the Fairground in Valentine.   We arrived just as the Sand Painters and other exhibitors were about ready to take their paintings from the walls.  They had entered some very professional paintings and photography.   Dave Dorsey had the “best of show” ribbon with a painting making the use of color in an abstract painting of an outdoor scene.

Green Valley Ranch, near Merriman, Nebraska, to Valentine, Nebraska

The occasion was a surprise party for Pat Schemmer [Schemmer Studios, Valentine, Nebraska]  who was given the Rose of the Sandhills Award in recognition of the many honors and awards that she has received for her skills in many forms in the art world and her continual unselfish aid and assistance  in promoting art among beginners and longer term artists.   In the invitation to the party we were asked to bring an original work 5X7 or smaller for Pat.   A day or two before I found a picture I had taken of Pat and penciled a drawing of  it  on a 5X7 canvas and  got out my oil paints that hadn’t been used for many seasons.  The caps were all dried on.  In the past when that happened I never found any other way to open them other than lighting a match and holding it until the cap twisted off, usually burning my fingers and littering the place with burned matches.  I got the innovative idea this time to light a candle and rotating each tube that I planned to use  over the flame.

I got Pat’s likeness fairly well captured but thought she was too dark and started experimenting.  By the use of pastel chalk I did get it lightened but lost the details.  Realizing that I needed to present it within a period of 24 hours I wiped it out with a rag approximately 6 or 7 times trying every medium at my disposal with the hope that I could get it to look even close to resembling Pat as I had it before all the wipeouts.   Knowing that I would have no other time to write this week’s Friends and Fancies I spent the whole time from supper to breakfast trying to complete both projects.  I blamed near decided to scrap my portrait of Pat but it was too late for any other plan so took it and received a hug and a thank you!  Had anyone asked about the media  that I used I would have told them,  “A combination of lead pencil, magic marker, chalk, water color, oil paints, erasers, sandpaper, ball-point pen, crayola, my jack knife and spit.”

*****

I told Arliss at the time we got married, just a month short of four years ago, several places that I wanted to take her and people that I wanted her to meet. 

Bob and Arliss on their sunny wedding day, October 2, 2007

Merriman to Valentine to Pierre

We accomplished another one of those goals after leaving Valentine last Sunday.   We are now in Albert Lea, MN on the way home from Thunder Bay, Ontario, winding up a wonderful week.   

We drove from Valentine to Pierre, to the home of Merlyn and Arliss’ daughter, DeAnn Hilmoe.   They were expecting us!  Merlyn had an outdoor cooker with deep fat at the boiling stage and was just ready to put in his last catch of Walleyes.  Added to that pleasant scene were our long-time friends, Dan and Myrna Buckles, formerly from Martin, now living in Pierre, their mouths watering, witnessing.

In a short time we were enjoying Walleye, and Zucchini Stir-fry, a meal to be remembered. 



 

After a good night’s sleep, DeAnn, Sybil, Arliss and I left for Benson, MN for a noon lunch with Arley Anderson.  Arley was Elaine’s late brother Bruce’s wife [Elaine was Bob's first wife, who passed away about seven years ago. Arley is Elaine's sister-in-law.] Arley's son Rob and his wife Pam joined us briefly.

[On our way to Benson, we stopped in Redfield, SD to get some gas - "coincidentally," my cousin Evey DeKay was just arriving at work at the next convenience store, so we got to greet her and catch up on her life. 'Next time' maybe we'll get to see her sister Marleen as well!]

Pierre to Benson, Minnesota





 

Benson, MN to Foley, MN to Duluth later that night



After catching up on happenings since the last time we had been together we headed for Duluth, MN where DeAnn’s brother-in-law Dick Hilmoe and wife Judie live. 

However, our next stop was in Foley, MN to see Randy and Donna Schaefer who worked for us a number of years ago.  [To Be Continued...]