Tuesday, January 5, 2010

A Look at the Past

I don't want to mess up Dwight's getting us to round up memories about what early mornings in Penrose were like, but I am cleaning out a major catch-all, and came across a small orange spiral notebook of Mother's, which has some interesting things in it. However, this one won't wait - sorry I didn't find it in December when we were talking about Dwight and Velna's wedding. These are the statistics from the trip from Penrose to Laramie, to Salt Lake, Provo, and back home again, as written down in the little notebook in both my handwriting and Mother's:
Mileage at home was 34,895.2
Thermopolis 35,019.7 - 6 gal. $1.82
Douglas 35,212.0 - 9 gal. $2.70
Wheatland 35,228 - 3 gal. .95
Laramie $1.50
Rawlins $2.00 (D)
Rock Springs $2.20
Evanston $2.10 (D)
Salt Lake City 35,808.3 $16.27

Provo 35,890 - $3.20
Evanston 7.7 g $2.25
Rock Springs 5.9 $1.80
Thermopolis 10.8 $3.29
Lovell 5.7 $1.70
30.1 $12.24

And, for expenses: (Obviously, we had packed food for the trip to Laramie and to Salt Lake.)
.53 - apples & ice cream
4.00 - Motel (S.L.)
1.15 - Temple
4.00 - groc. in SLC
4.50 - 1-1/2 bu apples
4.04 - 2 hats
1.10 - Nonsense

Why did we buy two hats? I can't remember - and I love the last item - So typical of Mother.

5 comments:

Judy said...

These details tell more information that lead to more questions. Why was Provo on the itinery? What was the "nonesense"? And look how cheap gas was.

These notes are a delightful gem. Mother was pretty gutsy to go trotting off without Dad, especially at the onset of winter. I do not remember one minute of hesitation on her part.

Dwight said...

I'm speechless just looking at these amounts. I knew that it was a great sacrifice for Mom to come to the wedding. I also knew that Dad could never leave home because of the cows so he didn't make it to my wedding or my graduation. How little we knew.

Ann said...

Mother's travel logs were often found in little notebooks. I don't remember going even to Riverton without her noting the mileage, the cost of gas, etc. She made little money cover an amazing amount of expenses. I suspect it was her meticulous tracking that helped in that area. What a treasure.

Elizabeth said...

Judy, Provo was there because Louise was going to school, and this was her ride home for Christmas. (In another posting about Dwight's wedding, I mentioned that she slept all the way home. I was so excited, I couldn't figure out how she could do that.) And, Dwight, I figured that the (D) initial behind two of the gas purchases meant that you had paid for those fill-ups.

Judy said...

So where did Dwight get a couple of extra bucks for the gas?