Prelude to a birthday-Dan's-8

Dan, the subject of this story ,is shown in the arms of his Mother, Donna.The picture was developed in December of 1958 so he was under 6 months of age.Pictured with him are Angela, Randy and yours truly and a very special lady friend of my Mother, Caroline Leeland.
She was a friend of my parents when they lived in the Porter, Minnesota area.
I had been teaching at Worthington Senior High school when we decided to move to California. Donna was severa months pregnant with Dan and Caroline offered to go along to California in order to help Donna with the children and to visit some of her relatives. We paid her expenses and a bus ticket back to Minnesota. She was like one of the family, so now, seven years later as we left Southern Minnesota we journeyed North to Fargo where we could touch base one again with our dear friend.

We then went North to Winnipeg, Canada where we picked up the trans Canadian highway and turned West.
Near Calgary we visited a farm where they were actually threshing wheat with a great big old 1903 steam engine tractor where we observed big chains from the from wheels to a drum like device on the tractor.It was then that we discovered that power steering wasn't a new invention on our Chrsyler but was needed in 1903 to steer a monster tractor.
Near Baniff we stayed at a roadside park and the children were most amused when the bears enjoyed Greg's disposable diapers that we had deposited in the trash can.
We took the ferry boat to Victoria, British Columbia where we visited the Boutchard Gardens and where we came upon a bus driver who was the spitting image of our Riverside IBM friend, Owen Craig. At I campground site I bumped into a fellow camper who taught in the Riveside Schools when I did.

We then saw the space needle in Seattle and traveled down the coast to our home in Riverside, California.

We were gone from our home for most of June and most of July.

ON THE 12TH OF JULY WE FORGOT TO CELBRATE THE BIRTHDAY OF
DANIEL GENE RYE.

So we won't forget this year and Dan, Brigid and Summer are up in the area we explored so many years ago.They left Victoria, B.C. on their power boat, Sunshine, earlier this month. Summer's friend, Claire, has been with her last week.
On Saturday, July 12th, the picture of the birthday boy and his family will be published on this site.

Stay tuned-news clips at ten