We made it! Our adventure begins...

Well, we made it!  We flew into Sioux Falls and were off to our first destination;... Slayton, Minnesota! Running on about 2 hours of sleep from the night before, I was determined to not let that slow me down on this journey.  Sleep?  Who needs sleep when there are places to see and genealogical treasures to find? Not me! My sons slept well the night before, but they weren't stressing out like I was about making sure they were as organized and prepared as they could be in order to make the most of this trip.
Nope... They were snoozing away while I checked off lists, made new lists, packed and repacked when it seemed I packed too much and put our itinerary and research notes into a binder,
It was not easy to turn off my "am I forgetting anything?" brain for a few hours of sleep!  I finally did and am thankful for those few precious hours that I did get.

  WHEW... and yes... we made it!










After we landed, I picked up our rental car with Nebraska license plates. ( The boys thought that was cool. They love seeing different state's plates and my oldest son actually collects old license plates).
We then sat in the car and figured out how everything worked and finally got our GPS and map apps working on the car and on our phones.  Finally we left the rental car parking lot after about 20 min... ok... 30 but that little blue dot was NOT going where it was supposed to be going on our first try leaving the lot, or the second... ok, or the third but hey, I did just get a new phone right before the trip and the map app is way different this time!   I would have been very happy if I had been able to just use a paper map, a compass or look at the stars and have Sacagawea lead the way at that point!

On the road... FINALLY!

Some highlights on our drive to Slayton...

*I saw my first 80 MPH sign and the boys were beyond thrilled that mom got to put the pedal to the metal...

*When my oldest son says that we should play a game of "Eye Spy" and then declares "Eye Spy something GREEN" as we pass corn field after corn field after corn field after soybean field after meadow after corn field...   Yes, Laughter took over.

We were having a great time driving to Slayton!

We arrived at the Murray County Museum where I got to research to my hearts content and the boys studied all of the awesome displays... This museum is wonderful and the staff was incredibly helpful!  I found some new information and anything that I find while researching is a most welcome  discovery! One of the discoveries was a news clipping that said my Great Grandparents had their marriage ceremony in my Great Great  Grandparent's (the bride's parent's) home.

We then traveled to the Slayton cemetery after the museum closed to look for the gravestones of my great uncles and my great aunt.  We know my Great Great Grandfather is buried there as well but there is no marker apparently.  His second wife Marit/ Marie is also buried there.

I was able to clean the grave stones up a bit and take some photos.  It was a very special moment for me to be able to be there and see them.  I gave thanks for the family that I was born into and said prayers for them.  I don't know a lot about their deaths.  What I do know is that they all suffered in some way and that is hard to think about.  I have been trying to learn more about how they died and hopefully this trip will help me piece together that puzzle.

God Bless and Rest In Peace Gjermund, Bergit Marie, Harald, Knudt and Marie Haraldson.

Beautiful Cemetery

The Haraldson plot from the side

Bergit Marie

Harald 

Knudt 

Knudt's headstone had fallen and I cleaned up around it to reveal his name. It was difficult to stand it up again so it remains down but is beautifully surrounded by clover.

Marit/Marie... Gjermund's 2nd wife