Day 5: Welcome to Rolla, North Dakota. It is where my mother's mother is from, precious Nana, who has now gone on to be with the Lord. I have always wanted to see her home town! 
In Rolla there are no stoplights, two grocery stores, and you are allowed to camp in the city park. (Can you imagine doing this in LA?!!)
My Nana grew up here with her six siblings, several of whom still reside in the town. My great Aunt Norene welcomed us with warm embraces, and I immediately knew the family resemblance. She has even has an owl collection!
Her son Kevin runs the family farm and took us out for a tour. He has 1200 acres that go right up to the Canadian border, and farms wheat, canola, and a bunch of other stuff that I might get wrong if I try to list off. AND--- he has really cool toys.
He showed us how the farming works and the process from seeding, to storing, to selling the grain to local elevators. Here he is showing us canola seed, which is sold to companies that make Canola oil.
After the tour he actually let us play in the grain....
(the North Dakota hard red spring wheat!) So if your bread tastes funny in a few weeks maybe this is why.....Later we took a scenic drive out for a BBQ on the lake.
This lake is the summer home for many Rolla residents, it's about 15 miles out of town. We apparently made it on the second day of sunshine here. My cousins (and the dogs) were gracious in hosting a barbeque and letting the kids run havoc at the lake!!
The kids were very excited for the chance to swim. The lake at the previous campground had been flooded and had too much debris in it to swim, so this opportunity was met with many smiles!!!
The kids loved playing in the kayaks while the adults visited up at the house. It was great to get to meet this side of the family... where I learned farming and teaching "goes way back" and I definately come from good stock!!
We ended the evening with a ride in the pontoon, where we went two miles up and down the lake and enjoyed the cool North Dakota breeze. What an amazing time!!
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3 comments:
Wow how fortunate to have such welcoming family in Rolla. I have to say I'm surprised the kids didn't rolla their kayaks. Looks like everyone had fun!
Laura... apparently the girls did rolla their kayak.... they were able to right it and had a good time teamworking the water out. They were soaked at that point, I really only saw the end of it when they ran up to the house dripping wet with huge grins, quite proud of themselves!!
We were very happy to have had you join us in Rolla! Thanks for stopping and seeing Grandma Norene, I know she enjoyed meeting you and the kids. I think dad was itching to get Greg out golfing which means you better come back soon so you can see the golf course too!
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