| Okay, this is going to be a long post. I have had the most incredible weekend. Good, bad, and lots in between. However, we were able to laugh all the way through it, and I'm still laughing at this weekend's events.
A little background: our family has an unofficial competition to see if we can go visit all 50 states. Up to last weekend, my map had all the western states colored in except for North and South Dakota. Since I now live in Wyoming, I'm a lot closer to those states, so together with my sister and our friend Sandy, we planned a trip just for the purpose of hitting those states. Beth and Sandy drove up to Nebraska on Thursday night to visit Sandy's grandma. At 11:15 Friday morning, they arrived at my house, and by 12:00 we were off. Our plan was to drive through South Dakota and then up into North Dakota, where we would camp at a National Park the first night. We would then return to South Dakota, visit Mt. Rushmore, stay at a hotel, and saunter home on Sunday morning. However, that's not how it worked.
Two and a half hours into the trip, we reached the WY/SD border, and stopped to take pictures.
When we got back into the car, it wouldn't start. Next action all three of us took: check for cell phone coverage. None. Of course, we're not exactly right across the street from an auto repair shop. And traffic could not exactly be described as heavy on the particular highway we were on. We raised the hood, and then had a time of prayer. Just as we finished praying, some guys slowed down and turned around, and asked what the problem was. Since we didn't know, the driver got out and looked at our car, and decided the battery had died. He tried to give us a jump from his car (thanks, Dad, for insisting I carry jumper cables in my car!), but the battery was so dead that nothing happened. The only other solution was for the three of us to hop in the back of their car and catch a ride to Lead, SD, 16 miles away. Halfway there, the driver's low gas light came on. It was very humorous to consider that after being picked up by these brothers, they would now run out of gas. Fortunately, we made it to Lead, thanked the brothers for the ride, and parked in a hotel lobby across the street. Sandy is a Triple A member, and that membership came in handy.
We finally communicated to them where the car was, where we were, and what the situation was. They sent a tow truck to our rescue, and all three of us piled back into his semi and rode back to the border where our car was. He quickly got our car started, but he offered to take us to Spearfish, SD, where there was a Wal-Mart that could replace our battery. So, with my car on the back of his truck, we all jumped back in the tow truck and headed to Spearfish. On our trip, we discovered he was a Christian, also. Actually, we had some very interesting conversations with him. I'll spare the details as this post might become way too long.
We arrived at the Spearfish WalMart just six minutes before their auto shop closed, and in no time at all, we had a new battery installed. We ate dinner there, and decided we didn't really want to stay there, even though it was 8pm by then. We got in our car and headed north again. The road had hundreds of deer on it, and I know God was protecting us from hitting any as we drove down it.
At about 10 pm, we arrived in North Dakota, and a little further down the road was a town called Bowman. We decided that we wouldn't reach the National Park anytime soon, so we pulled off the road at a small campground, set up our tent, and got ready to rest after an eventful day. About 30 minutes after we had gotten settled, the neighbors next door got their party in full swing, and went all night until 5:30 am. All night we listened to people yelling at each other and saying some not so nice things. (And people think this is a good time...?) Needless to say, sleep was not forthcoming for us. At 6 am we finally decided to get up and go since we weren't sleeping anyways.
We pulled into a gas station just outside the National Park, but a Canadian flag prompted Beth to ask how far we were from Canada. Just 3 hours...and the rest is history. Sandy hadn't been to Canada yet, so we headed north again, and made it to Saskatchewan by 1:20 pm. We spent exactly 41 minutes in Canada; it was hard to make the border guard into Canada understand what the purpose of our trip was. "Just to see it..." didn't seem like the answer he was looking for. But he let us in.
Here's a picture of the three of us in Saskatchewan; okay, so we need help using the photo timer. But it is humorous, and is a testimony of how our trip was.
Coming back, we drove all the way to Rapid City, SD, and found a hotel to stay in. Sunday we spent a little time in Rapid City and then headed home. We never did hit Mt. Rushmore, though we were minutes away. We had a hot ride home; although we had air conditioning, it's just been so hot that the sun beating down on us outdid the A/C.
I loved this trip that we took for a few reasons. Beth and I and Sandy got to spend some quality time with each other. The scenery was beautiful in its own way, and I had time to worship my Creator as I drove. I had time to spend with Him and was able to forget about all the cares I have at home. I just feel that it was a weekend well-spent and it was not wasted.
You're all invited to come on our next expedition. |
I return to my blog triumphantly, with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Nursing now under my belt. (And we wonder why I didn't write...)
