Family reunion in At the foot of the hill

We took a road trip to Wyoming over the weekend. Bob’s cousins were having their annual picnic Sunday. We went up on Friday, stopping along the way to have lunch with my niece, Debby. Got to our destination about 4:30, checked into our hotel and called Brother Tom from Idaho who, along with his wife Linda, was staying about 35 miles up the road with her mother. We had planned to get together with them and the two sisters for dinner but Tom said the one sister was in the hospital. T & L decided to drive down for dinner anyhow and he called the other sister to join us.
We had a mediocre “bar food” dinner in a sports bar and visited for a couple of hours, but Sister #2 was having a high blood pressure incident and needed to go home and go to bed, so we called it a night.
We had planned on spending Saturday with T & L and the sisters, but Sis #1 was still in the hospital and Sis #2 was still having high blood pressure and T & L were back up at her mom’s. So we sat in the hotel room until mid afternoon. Then we decided we had to get out of there so went a gassed up the car and drove around town a bit. Decided to drive up to our old home town, just for something to do. (We no longer have any family there except for those in the cemetery.) But before we got out of town, T called and said Sis #1 had been released from the hospital and wanted us to come out to her place. We lollygagged for awhile, giving bro time to drive down before going out. The 5 of us had a real nice visit and didn’t want it to be over. Sis (just out of the hospital, remember) started worrying about feeding us.... I suggested that we send the boys to town and gather up Sis #2 and some fast food. No cooking, no dishes, no stress. Surprisingly, everybody agreed and that’s what we did. And we visited and laughed and cried for a few more hours.
Sunday was the picnic. We’re 450 miles from home, so we didn’t bring any food with us. We went to the store and picked up some supplies (plates, silverware, napkins, bottled water, etc.) Bob had bought a couple of deli salads the night before and there was lots of that left…enough to count as our contribution to the potluck. Sis #1 came to the park with her son and dil. We picked up Sis #2. T & L beat us to the park.
The cousins all started arriving about the same time we did… dozens of them and their kids and grandkids…even a few great grandkids. Some mothers-in-law. A couple of friends of cousins… They came from Utah, Idaho, Virginia, Colorado and all over Wyoming. We were about the last to leave.
Sis #2 still wasn’t feeling very good, and T & L thought they should get back to her mom’s and spend some time with her since they were leaving Monday morning, so we called it a day, went back to the hotel and watched a ballgame and read our books. Went to bed early.
Monday we all gathered at a local greasy spoon for breakfast, hit the road about 10:30 and buzzed right on down the road…
Good visit. Good to be home.