South Dakota road trip
This weekend was a long one. Sara and I left for South Dakota Friday evening after work. I left work a little early and we got on the road at about 5:30pm for our 400 mile drive to Lesterville, where her family has their farm.
Traffic was a little stop and go getting out of the city, but then it was just a 70mph drone to South Dakota where the speed limit changes to 75mph. Yea! It was rather windy, as it's apt to be in South Dakota and southern Minnesota. Snow was blowing across the road way and the reflection in the headlights made me think of ghosts or spooky movies.
We got to Yankton, which is close to Lesterville, but actually has hotels, a little after 11pm and searched for the Best Western that no longer exists. Once we were convinced that the Best Western must have been plowed under, we turned around and made our way to the Holiday Inn that looked new and shiny. It looked like they were close to full, but we were able to get a room for two nights.
We went back to the car to unload our gear, and it was at that point I asked the question "Sara, where's my bag?" Instead of giving me my bag, Sara gave me a blank stare.
Luckily hotels are prepared for such bonehead maneuvers as driving nearly 400 miles without your luggage. They were able to offer me all the things I needed to be appropriately groomed and clean and sweet smelling for when I met Sara's folks at their house. The local JCPenney was able to equip me with everything else.
Hanging out with the entire Dummer clan was nice. A couple of cousins came over, a brother from the West Coast that I had not yet met came with his wife, and we got to me a sister's boyfriend we'd never seen before. It was a very full house (small farmhouse and all).
We had a nice "Christmas" lunch, waited for the food coma to pass, and then started opening presents, which probably took more than an hour. There were a lot of people, and a lot of presents to hand out. I was shocked when I got a bunch of gifts from Sara's parents, including her grandparents. I felt bad since I hadn't gotten them anywhere near as many presents.
After all of the present openings, Sara wanted to play the game that I had gotten her, a guess-who-said-what kind of game where you read a weird question from a card (like how much would someone have to pay you to stick your hand in a polluted toilet) and then everyone writes down their answer, which are then read out loud, and one person has to guess who said what, getting a point for each correct guess. I fell asleep, much to Sara's dismay. Everyone else was laughing quite a bit, so I think they all enjoyed it.
The drive back to MN on Sunday afternoon was uneventful. The wind had lessened and there was hardly any traffic. For miles we were the only car going our direction that I could see. And in South Dakota, you can see for quite a distance.
Traffic was a little stop and go getting out of the city, but then it was just a 70mph drone to South Dakota where the speed limit changes to 75mph. Yea! It was rather windy, as it's apt to be in South Dakota and southern Minnesota. Snow was blowing across the road way and the reflection in the headlights made me think of ghosts or spooky movies.
We got to Yankton, which is close to Lesterville, but actually has hotels, a little after 11pm and searched for the Best Western that no longer exists. Once we were convinced that the Best Western must have been plowed under, we turned around and made our way to the Holiday Inn that looked new and shiny. It looked like they were close to full, but we were able to get a room for two nights.
We went back to the car to unload our gear, and it was at that point I asked the question "Sara, where's my bag?" Instead of giving me my bag, Sara gave me a blank stare.
Luckily hotels are prepared for such bonehead maneuvers as driving nearly 400 miles without your luggage. They were able to offer me all the things I needed to be appropriately groomed and clean and sweet smelling for when I met Sara's folks at their house. The local JCPenney was able to equip me with everything else.
Hanging out with the entire Dummer clan was nice. A couple of cousins came over, a brother from the West Coast that I had not yet met came with his wife, and we got to me a sister's boyfriend we'd never seen before. It was a very full house (small farmhouse and all).
We had a nice "Christmas" lunch, waited for the food coma to pass, and then started opening presents, which probably took more than an hour. There were a lot of people, and a lot of presents to hand out. I was shocked when I got a bunch of gifts from Sara's parents, including her grandparents. I felt bad since I hadn't gotten them anywhere near as many presents.
After all of the present openings, Sara wanted to play the game that I had gotten her, a guess-who-said-what kind of game where you read a weird question from a card (like how much would someone have to pay you to stick your hand in a polluted toilet) and then everyone writes down their answer, which are then read out loud, and one person has to guess who said what, getting a point for each correct guess. I fell asleep, much to Sara's dismay. Everyone else was laughing quite a bit, so I think they all enjoyed it.
The drive back to MN on Sunday afternoon was uneventful. The wind had lessened and there was hardly any traffic. For miles we were the only car going our direction that I could see. And in South Dakota, you can see for quite a distance.
posted by Mark at 11:13 AM
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