KoKo's Return

Kristie and I left for Bismarck by five on Friday. We decided to head south on 32 until he hit highway 10 and take that to Fargo and then hop on to I 94 and take that all the way to Bismarck. Thanks to a little navigational snafu on my part -- as I told Kristie, there has never been a trip I've taken where I have NOT gotten lost -- I missed the turn on to highway 10 (they have totally changed that junction since I was on it last) and then I missed the turn to connect with I 94, so we had to brave Fargo. I had a bright idea: I'd head north on 75 and hop on that little road north on Fargo Moorhead that runs past the airport and west over to the interstate. Well, either I was on the wrong road (highly unlikely) or they have done some major renovations to it since I was on it last (2003) because there was a toll bridge on it! That meant turning back around and braving 10 through Fargo, which worked out in the end, though we lost about half an hour.

We pulled into Bismarck around 10:00. However, our hotel was a dive! We stayed in adjoining rooms at the same place when we drove to Custer, SD for our wedding. But our room this time was a glorified dorm room. Plus, the rate was outrageous.

Seeing KoKo's face at 11:30 in Dickenson made it all worth it.

Of course, she and Taylor brought so much stuff back that the back of our poor Trailblazer was nearly overflowing.

We had lunch with Ed and Lori and then headed home, which was a nice drive.

Now that KoKo is back, I have someone to balance things out around here. While Casey is no where near the type A personality Kristie is, he still tends to be more concrete sequential than me.

KoKo, on the other hand, is a total type B personality like me, so order has been restored.

Or so I thought. After helping her reorganize her room (she is her mother's daughter after all - last count I think Kristie has tried our room a minimum of four different ways) and clean it, she asked me to help her hang her pictures. I ran downstairs to get the hammer and some nails.

When I came back up, I handed her the nails and looked into my other hand only to realize that I had forgotten the hammer!

KoKo said, "Kurt! What's wrong with you?"

"Thank you, KoKo!" Kristie said from the bedroom.

Apparently, even the queen of the random abstractedness thought I was a ditz.

(Never mind that there was a hammer in the paint tray right outside KoKo's door that she didn't notice).

I had my revenge an hour later, though, when KoKo was downstairs trying to locate the remote. She swore that she had tossed it onto the couch. We looked under the couch, through the cushions, behind the couch, but to no avail. Since we have DirecTV, it's rather useless to watch TV without a remote control. Then, knowing KoKo, I decided to look around the house for the remote. Sure enough, there it was on the kitchen counter.

"KoKo, what's wrong with you?" I asked as I handed her the remote and headed to bed.

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In typical KoKo fashion, she had to buy gifts for everyone. And I mean everyone. Not only did she get her immediate family gifts - Casey got a t-shirt, Kenzie got a quilt KoKo made for her, Kristie got a little rock heart, a candle that read "Moms are like buttons they hold things together" and a little buffalo hot plate, I got a prairie dog stuffed animal and a coffee cup from Custer State Park (which is being used right now as I type), and she got her dad a little gold motorcycle that sits atop a snow globe filled with gold flakes inside. But KoKo didn't stop there - she also got something from Gail, Tammy (her father's fiance) and her three sons! Leave it to KoKo not to leave anyone out.

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Here's one of the old time photos that KoKo and Taylor took while in Custer.