January 20 in History

Twenty-eight years ago today (wow its been that long?) my now ex wife and and I along with a 2 year old daughter and a 5 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever moved from Hudson Wisconsin to Jamestown North Dakota where I was the nongame bird research ornithologist at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center for the next 6 years. The temperature was rather brisk in Hudson as we trundled out to Interstate 94 to begin the trek north. I drove a gas-guzzling U-Haul truck while Ruth brought up the rear in our Escort wagon. Seven hours later we pulled into Jamestown where the high temperature that day had climbed to a balmy -27 degrees F. A rather "typical" winter day in No Dak in those days.

We crashed at the Ramada Inn (later to become Dakota Inn and now the Quality Inn) and took up residence for 11 days until we could move into our house. That first night we took Jennifer with us to the bar before dinner where we were thrown out of the bar because Jenny was under 21! Certainly wasn't Wisconsin any more. For the next 11 days Chester took great pride in standing by the door, raising the hair on his back, baring his teeth and growling a hellacious growl any time someone walked by the door. Afterall, he had "his" baby to protect.

Twenty years ago this morning I woke up at Mark Oberle's house in Atlanta having crashed there the last two nights with a bad case of the flu. Mark and Mardie were in the Galapagos so I was fending for myself. I left Mark's house in mid morning and began the trek northwest toward Grand Island Nebraska. Thankfully John Spinks had saved me from a life of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and asked me to come to Grand Island to work on water issues on the Platte River. John Sidle came out at the same time, saving him from the Regional Office in Minneapolis.

After stopping in north Atlanta at the house of someone later to become a huge mistake I made it as far as Carbondale Illinos where I crashed for the night. Enroute to Illinois, as I entered Chattanooga Tennessee, I pulled to the side of the freeway to get out and take one farewell look at Georgia. Instead of saying goodbye I came up with the idea for a bumpersticker that should be given to all "yankees" who transplant to Georgia. The sticker would read "Happiness Is Georgia In My Rear-view Mirror."

Its funny how when we were kids the concept of 20 years (and even worse 28 years) seemed like an eternity. Now, 20 years feels and seems like yesterday.