A Day For Maps - Minnesota, South Dakota and a Bit of Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado

Today is going to be a VERY busy day, but at least we're not dealing with horrid weather to add to the burden. It's cold - dress in three layers plus a hat cold - but there's no snow and the roads are fine. Given that I have to drive to one of the far suburbs today for an eye doctor appointment, I'm very grateful for dry, safe roadways. 

I'll be heading from Roseville (on the upper left) to 
Woodbury (lower right) for my eye doctor appointment 
today. On dry roads, it's 20-25 minutes. I'm very 
grateful I don't have to deal with snow, ice or 
storms. That would make the trip NOT so fun. 

Unfortunately, my afternoon eye doctor appointment means I'll have to miss my weekly phone chat with Aearwen. That's disappointing, but we knew it would be a problem and discussed it last week. It's not the first time we've had to miss a week, and it probably won't be the last, but it always seems as if something important is missing from my life when I don't have a chance to sit down, relax for an hour, and chat about anything under the sun with a good friend. 

Pine Ridge Reservation takes up a good amount of land 
in the south-central part of South Dakota. The brown at 
the bottom is Nebraska, Interstate 90 from Minneapolis 
through to Rapid City, South Dakota is at the top. The 
beige on the far right is the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, 
and Pine Ridge is the orange and also parts of the 
white square at the bottom. It's beautiful, haunting in 
some places, and sparsely populated. The poverty 
level is appalling. Pine Ridge town is on the left side, 
just above White Clay, Nebraska. 

Apparently my "sister" in Pine Ridge had COVID in September. It has been running rampant through the various Indian Reservations around the nation because of hygiene problems centering around the lack of water, and the cultural common activities that bring people together into larger groups. They actually flew her to a hospital in Cheyenne, Wyoming to get better care than possible at the Indian Health Board hospital on the Reservation. She's fine now, but it was a bit of a scare, and of course, her brother Peter had to self-quarantine from work for two weeks also. 

Driving from Pine Ridge, South Dakota to Cheyenne, Wyoming 
is 3-1/2 hours. I'm quite sure the flight was much faster than that. 
Cheyenne is the capital city of Wyoming. You can see 
the lettering for Fort Collins, Colorado just below the 
Cheyenne lettering. That's the town where I went to school 
for my B.A., and my cousin lives a half-hour south of there. 

They still share the house that Grandma lived in. Apparently three of the younger nieces and nephews took it upon themselves to repaint the living room, hallway and kitchen. I suspect the last time that happened was when I did it more than two decades ago. It probably needed it badly, and was a very nice thing for them to do for their elders. They also just installed new stainless steel siding onto the house. I forget what color she said it was painted, but it's a huge improvement over the old half-cut logs that had become housing for the woodpeckers and generations of mice. 

On that note, I'm going to dive head-first into this very busy day. I hope all of you have a wonderful Wednesday. Be kind, stay safe and please wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. ALSO ... happy 250th birthday to Ludwig van Beethoven ... the BEST!!!