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August 20, 2006 &bull travel

I went back home for a few days at the beginning of August for a family reunion at Mina Lake, South Dakota. I think the last time I was back was two years ago. It’s always a shock to the system to make the transition from Southern California to North Dakota. I lived in North Dakota/Minnesota for about 25 years, which is a significant portion of my life, given the fact I’m 30 years old. Yet, it seems like a different lifetime. I’m sure most people go through this as they get older, but I have fragments of memories and other vague rememberances of how things were when I was growing up. Riding my dad’s bike around town, trying to get some kind of exercise, brought me back to the old days. Only this time I canvassed the entire town in 10 minutes and things were so much smaller and and seemed so much older.

On our way to Mina we stopped by Zion church where most of my Swanson ancestors are buried. We were able to go in the church (I guess it’s never locked, which says something about rural South Dakota) and take some pictures. I’m definitely getting older because this and the trip to my grandparents former lake cabin on Clear Lake was causing me to get all nostalgic. That’s what’s cool about going back home and seeing friends and family and all the old stuff that was right in front of your nose when you were growing up. It makes you realize that no matter how fast the world is spinning where you currently live, there will always be this place that invokes a flood of memories and emotions. And, it seems that flood gets more turbulent as the years move on.

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