Winter Quarters Marriage

On August 21st my nephew Riley Keller was sealed to Jenny Pinkerton in the Winter Quarters Temple.  Jenny is from Omaha and a delightful person.  We made the road trip of 950 miles so that we could share in the great experience.  I am always up for a road trip especially to a place that I have not spent much time.  In fact the last time I was in Omaha was when we moved from Philadelphia to Seattle in 1988.  


We decided to take a couple extra days prior to the sealing and see devils tower Wyoming and Mount Rushmore in the black hills of South Dakota.  Two places that I have not been to since I was 7 or 8.  I only remember vague details at that age so I looked forward to the trip.  

Looking for Cary Grant hanging form the nose

I have accumulate an enormous number of points with Hertz that gives you the opportunity for free or greatly reduced rate car rentals.  We took advantage of the points and rented a very fine Volvo S80.  Truly one of the most comfortable cars I have ever driven.  In the vast hills of Wyoming I appreciated its ability to pass long lines of slower vehicles.  This required me to press the car to 118mph.  No one else in the car was aware of this fact.

The climb was a piece of cake

Devils Tower and the black hills are delightful and more spectacular than I had imagined. Devils tower has one of the few remaining prairie dog towns left in the great plains.  The town was one of those vague memories I had a child.  We loved it.   In the recent past the Mount Rushmore Memorial has received a new visitors center, plaza and amphitheater  Kudos to the designer it was well crafted and nicely complimented the memorial.

From the black hills you drive into the rolling green farms of the Midwest.  They are beautiful but they seem to go on forever with little differentiation for hundreds of miles.  Omaha sits in the midst of this vast plane but it does benefit from the broken landscape provided by the Missouri River.


We met the Keller's at the Omaha Zoo prior to the event for a little tomfoolery.  Lions and, tigers, and bears oh my!