Riding with Lisa

We got to Sand Creek Ranch on Sunday. We had dinner that night with our host Barbara and her son Jim up at the Drifter’s Cook Shack, the log cabin restaurant that produces scrumptious strawberry rhubarb pies and buffalo burgers, among other specialties, in a cozy space that might fit 30 folks if they squeeze tight on the wood benches. When things get busy, the owners Mike and Linda (maker of the exquisite pies) get some help to serve and cook. Sunday, they had help from Lisa, an elfin brown-haired woman. I woke up on Monday thinking about Lisa, who had given me a nice hug by the evening’s end. I was wondering what made her glow so.

The next day, I got a hint of the answer.

Who do we see when we are in town the next day, standing outside the Ace Hardware and admiring the mural that Jean and her student were doing but…Lisa! She drove up in her red 1973 Caprice convertible, as long as a country mile, with her paintbrushes in hand to assist with the mural. I was captivated by her beautiful land barge and snapped her photo, not realizing at first who was inside. Lisa got out and greeted us and offered me the keys. “Here, take her for a ride!” She didn’t even know my last name. At first, Dick and I declined, then we got sense and joined her for a ride through Fort Robinson, just outside the town of Crawford.

Lisa showed us the tent camping spot at Fort Rob next to the cemetery that she had found peaceful and beautiful when she returned to Crawford before taking up residence there a few years ago. Lisa took us to the museum at the Fort, drove us around the officers houses, and invited us into her lovely home in Crawford. She showed us her other car treasures, a blue 1960 Rambler in mint condition, a 1970 Mercedes, and another red convertible as long or longer as the first. She asked us to each take a rock from three large crates of rocks that belonged to her boyfriend, very sick in South Carolina with throat cancer. I reached in and picked up one at random that has turned out to be a Fairburn agate, which a beautiful stone that is highly prized and is South Dakota’s state gem. Lisa is an artist, and she had beautiful pen and ink drawings. One of a porch scene with plants and treasures, another of a Chinese man and babe in arms. Like Lisa, the art was full of detail but done with a light touch.

I hope to spend more time with Lisa. She agreed to go "tanking" with us. Tanking is where you ride on a river in a cattle watering tank, something I hope to do before we leave these parts.

Well, I’m running out of time before today’s fossiling, so I will post some photos and say goodbye for now.