South Dakota Trip

Now I have the task of writing about a trip that happened almost three weeks ago. It was a great trip, but seems forever ago because of everything that has happened since then which I will post later. I would love to post pictures, but I don't have a digital camera or a scanner, but some others in the group probably do, so hopefully I can post a little later. Anyways, this basically what we did.

We worked with the Walker family, which our congregation along with a few others support. He is the minister at the Huron Church of Christ, which is a very small congregation and the only church of Christ in probably 75 miles. Huron is the 4th or 5th largest city in South Dakota with about 11,000 residents. Our task was to go to surrounding towns and put on the puppet shows in the local parks. In between the 6 skits, we would sing fun VBS songs. The purpose was to make connections in these communities and hopefully set up some Bible studies. In the morning, we would go all around the town (which were less than 2 square miles) handing out flyers telling about that evening's performance. The afternoon was usually free time. We would then have a fantastic dinner (Mrs. Walker is a fantastic cook, and host), then we would go in the evening and put on the show. Fortunately, the week we were there was the coolest one in the last couple of months. The Saturday before we got there it was 117 in Sioux Falls. The week we were there I don't think it got much above 90, and that was usually in the early afternoon. Here is the day by day rundown.

Sunday, July 16-We left after church, loaded up the U-Haul trailer, then drove the 15 passenger van to St. Joseph, Missouri and stayed the night at a hotel. Good uneventful travel day.

Monday July 17-We got on the road early. About an hour down the road a passing car got our attention and told us the trailer door was open. We pulled over and I went to the back and it was all the way open. On a quick glance it appeared nothing was missing, since my luggage was at the back, and it was still there. The trailer had been locked, but not latched and had slowly opened as we went over bumps (of which there are many on Missouri highways). On closer inspection, all that fell out was a pair of not expensive shoes and an air mattress. Everyone was much relieved, including the ones that lost the shoes and mattress, realizing that nobody's luggage was thrown across I-29 and what was lost was easily replaceable. We made good time so we stopped at Sioux Falls, South Dakota and went to the falls downtown. They were pretty, but with it being a beef industry town, didn't smell too nice. We pulled into the Walker's house in Huron, SD at around 6:00 PM, had a great supper with the congregation, than had skit practice till it got dark. Always an amusing, fun time, especially since this was the first time most of them had been through it. I wish I had some sound bites.

Tuesday, July 18-We went to De Smet, SD- "The Little Town on the Prairie" about 30 miles east of Huron. It's population is 1,164, and it is best known for being the South Dakota hometown of Laura Ingalls Wilder, writer of the Little House on the Prairie books. Luckily, most of the local kids were at the park, so we got to tell many of them that morning. After canvassing the town, we went back to Huron and continued our practicing on the Walker's front lawn. Then after a dinner of excellent brisket (one that would make Texans proud) we headed back to De Smet for the puppet show. We did the show for about 23 kids and the college kids did outstanding, especially since they had had only one practice. You would not have known it.

Wednesday, July 19-We went to Woonsocket- "The Town with the Beautiful Lake", about 15 miles south of Huron. It's population is 720. We did the skits right by the "beautiful lake", which is much more like a large pond. There we had about 15 kids, and one parent who laughed at all our jokes :). During the afternoon of this day we went and took the Laura Ingalls Wilder town tour, which goes through their first South Dakota home, Laura's first schoolhouse, and then goes to the last home of her parents. Then we went to the Wilder homestead, which is where their farm was. I had gone last year, and it was a lot of fun, but I loved being able to take my mom who loves her books. Much of it reminded her of her childhood. Oh yea, supper: we had nachos (which is a word not recognized by Blogger's spell checker), which since there was left over brisket, I had brisket nachos. On the way back from Woonsocket, I rode in an original 1952 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 (original everything, except one mirror) which one of the members had. He showed it off by going about 100 mph on the way back to Huron. I was impressed but not amused. It was cool for about 1 mile, but my lack of seat belt and reckless nature made the rest of it not so much fun. But it was surprisingly smooth. Honestly, I would have enjoyed it if I was the one driving. Yes, I am a driving control freak.

Thursday, July 20-We went to Wessington Springs- "Pride of the South Dakota Prairie", a town of 1,011 about 45 miles southeast of Huron. This is a beautiful town up on a hill (one of about 3 in the state till you reach the Badlands.) There was had about 28 kids and had a local newspaper man show up. He really enjoyed it, and complimented Brian and my writing. He ended up staying for the whole show and apparently we made the front page of their local paper. The Walker's are supposed to send one to us. I couldn't find the paper online. Out of this town we got a Bible study, and one of the families came to church at Huron the following Sunday. Also, a couple of the guys came up with a really cool "The Christian's Life for Me" song which they surprised us with at the beginning of the sketch. That afternoon I just rested, got a call from Harding to talk about fall classes (which I still haven't signed up for), and then ate homemade buffalo wings. There was other stuff, but I just ignored it, the wings were some of the best I have ever had.

Friday, July 21-We went to the Badlands, well almost, it was more than we were expecting which shocked us. We thought it was going to be $15 for the van, but it was $7 per person, which is worth it, but having been surprised by the price change, we didn't drive through the park. You could see them from where we were, and I had gone last year, but we still felt stupid for not going after having just a little bit of time to think about it. Lesson learned. Then we went to Wall Drug and had lunch. It is an uninteresting shopping tourist trap. Maybe go once, than don't bother. Then we went to Bear City, USA (I hope Steven Colbert doesn't read this) which is a drive through wild life park in Rapid City, SD. We saw elk, reindeer, mountain goats, black bears, wolves, mountain lions, and buffalo. Luckily, they keep the animals well feed, because the bears could smell some honey in the trailer that was given to us by a family from Huron that runs a bee farm. After that we went to Rushmore, which we got to at night. The presidents are more impressive under the lights. We then drove to Newcastle, Wyoming for the night, and on the way, I almost had a run in with a giant elk. It was right on the side of the road as we came around a corner and it was HUGE. Fortunately, it decided not to attack the van with it's massive antlers and it ran the other way. Brian could have reached his hand out the window and picked its nose if he wanted to. This was just after rounding a previous corner and seeing a mountain lion run into the woods, a rare sight.

Saturday, July 22-Travel day, where we passed a lot of antelope at play. We went to my uncle's house in Davenport, Nebraska. He and another member of the congregation there hosted us.

Sunday, July 23-We went to church at the Davenport Church of Christ and did the puppet show for class time. Then the college students lead the worship service, and once again, did an excellent job. They fed us lunch, then we hit the road at about 12:30 and got home at about 2:00 AM.

I cannot compliment the puppeteers enough for their excellent acting skill and mostly for just having a blast doing this. But most of all, it has opened up some doors for the church there.

--written to Caedmon's Call-"Long Line of Leavers" and Chris Isaak-"Always Got Tonight". Proofread to Crowded House-"Afterglow"