I'm a genealogy buff. I've been working on my family genealogy since prior to 2000. Researching my father and mother's family has become a labor of love to me as it's enlightened me to what my family roots are. I continue to compile information, and photos, whenever possible and add them to my genealogy software program in the hopes that I will leave a living history for my children and grandchildren.

I've been on many journeys to find information, including trips to OK, TN, & MO to check court house documents and try to find cemeteries where my grandparents and great-grandparents and more are buried. However, the one place I had never been was to western Kansas ~ Dodge City specifically - where my paternal grandmother and grandfather raised my father and his siblings and where my grandmother is buried. A cousin to my father was born, raised and continues to live in Dodge City and he promised me that if I made the trip, he'd share with me old family photographs and be able to fill in some family history/stories for me.

So at the end of September 2005, my sister Sherry and I headed off to Dodge City from Tucson. It was a short journey - only lasting about 5 days, but one full of many memories that I have now, history that I learned, photographs that I brought home, and a visit to my grandmother's gravesite that I will never forget.

In conjuction with this trip, I mentioned to my dear friend GrammyJ that I was going to be headed for western Kansas and she immediately replied that she was in western Kansas and that we should have a get-together. It sounded so wonderful and we both looked so forward to it.

Sherry and I arrived on Thursday, October 29th in Dodge City and spent the remainder of Thursday and Friday with my Dad's cousin and his sweet wife who showed us all the sites we'd come to see. I have a photograph taken in 1916 of the family farm when my Dad was just 2 years old - we were taken to that property and got to stand and take it in. There wasn't much left of the family farm - but an old barn that remains was made with wood from my grandfather's barn which is in the picture. It was really neat. We made it to the Maple Grove Cemetery in Dodge City where I visited my grandmother's grave along with those of all her siblings, and her parents - my great-grandparents. One of my Dad's brothers died as a 7 yr old and he is buried along side my grandmother.

I was anxiously awaiting Saturday, Oct 1st because that is the day that GrammyJ was coming to Dodge City to meet up with me and Sherry. After quelling the intial fears of her family that I might be an internet serial killer (I offered my background check and security clearance from the Tucson Police Dept as proof that I was trustworthy), we agreed that GrammyJ would meet us at our hotel about 10:30 am - and after that we would head out to have lunch.... Sherry and I were up bright and early and even showered in honor of her visit! LOL GrammyJ and I knew each other from Garden of Friendship so we knew what each other looked like and she took the risk and knocked on the hotel room door! LOL

In she came like the whirlwind she is! It was hugs and laughs from the first moment! We ended up sitting in the hotel room, drinking our diet pepsi and diet coke for a good hour before even thinking to stop long enough to go to lunch! It was as if 3 old friends who just hadn't seen each other in awhile were getting together and I don't know about her, but Sherry and I were comfortable from moment one!

Did I mention she's short? Well of course, everyone is short compared to me at 5'10"... I reminded her that Sherry was my 8 years older sister so we had that straight from the beginning! LOL Sherry's also short... LOL GrammyJ is 8 years younger than me so we are stairsteps in age! We all have families that we love, including lots of grandchildren that we adore. :)

Off to the local Applebee's where we set up camp at a table and proceeded to eat (which all 3 of us LOVE to do!) and it was non-stop talk for well over 2 hours; All the while, finding more and more things that we have in common. If they expected us to vacate our table after we ate, they were really in for a surprise! We kept ordering sodas and continuing on with our banter! What a great time!

Finally we got ourselves back to the hotel room where we proceeded to spend another several hours girl talking! The room was full of laughter and friendship and many memories were made. We finally had to end our afternoon and it was so hard to say goodbye. We just didn't want our visit to end! We managed to have Sherry take a few pictures on my camera and GrammyJ's and then we had to call it a day. We all walked out to the parking lot together and gave our last hugs and said our last goodbyes - but it wasn't really goodbye because we plan many more (and much longer) visits together soon!

Apparently Sherry and I didn't overwhelm her with our chat - she swears she's ready for more! Whew!