A small diversion

Heading north to Sioux City, SD along the western edge of Iowa, we realized that we would be passing very close to the town of Tabor, IA.  My fraternal great aunt Martha lived there most her life.  Her family played an important role in my father’s life during his early years, as his father died in an accident when he and his brother were very young.  My grandmother found herself having to take care of them while earning a living just as the great depression was approaching.  As a result, her sister took care of the boys most summers on their Iowa farm.  As I and my siblings grew up, we visited the Iowa farm a number of times.  I always remember these visits as being a great time. 

Flash forward to the late 80’s, my family was traveling out west in our motorhome.  We planned to stop in Tabor around my Aunt Martha’s 90^th birthday.  She was still very active and told us that she was helping out at the retirement home in town with the senior residents. We had a very nice visit and as it turned out, it was the last time we saw her.

We were certain that she would be buried in Tabor but had no idea where.  We found the town cemetery and decided just to walk around in search of the grave site.  There were some men sprucing up the grounds, so I asked if they knew where she might be buried (it is a very small town).  He smiled and said that there were a lot of Daltons buried there, but pointed us in the general direction to start our search. There are indeed a lot of Dalton’s resting here.  Luckily, we did find her and her family’s grave stones. 

We made one other stop at the Lewis and Clark State Park to see several full-size replicas of the river boats.  In the summer, they offer rides on the boats in the park lake.  They also have a campground with sites along the lake. 

Our final stop was the Sioux City south KOA.