South Dakota Mission Trip--Days 1 & 2

Let me just start by saying, you've never lived until you have spent 31 straight hours in a 15 passenger van with 10 other people! Yes, I did say 31 hours! =) We left at 4:30pm on Friday, June 20th and arrived in Pierre, South Dakota on Saturday night at 10:30 p.m. their time, which was 11:30 our time. We only stopped for gas and a bathroom break every 3-4 hours and for one quick meal at Subway on Saturday. My husband and Bro. Eric did a great job driving....thanks to both of you!

The van ride was long and tedious, but it was so much fun! We all have a lot of wacky memories to keep us laughing. ("Wanna apple? It's good!") =P One of our teen guys named Brian had me laughing so hard one time that I couldn't breathe. He's crazy! We all slept, ate, talked, ate, slept, acted crazy, played games, etc. We even had choir practice on the van! A few days before we left, Steven recorded me playing all the songs so we were able to make wise use out of a few of those 31 hours. =)

When we arrived in Pierre we followed Bro. Hailey and Bro. Jeff Valmer to Bro. Valmer's old home. He and his wife offered for our team to stay there and it was such a blessing! It was a very large doublewide home with three bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a huge kitchen and living room. We were going to have to stay at the church and take showers at a park bathroom that was fifteen minutes away. Like I said, it was a huge blessing!

Well, about the time we got into Iowa, this was all we saw until we arrived in Pierre. The land is extremely beautiful but it is very flat. We saw tons of cows!

The sky was so gorgeous! Because the land is so flat you can see the clouds casting shadows on pastures and it will look like a huge black spot. It was really amazing!

This was the typical scenery......farms, farms, and more farms. =)

Here's Taylor and Holly looking bright-eyed and somewhat perky! By Saturday afternoon we were all ready to be there, but everyone still had great attitudes.

Well, this is Saturday night and by then, well, we all started getting a little zany after being cramped in a van for so long! =)

As we were driving through South Dakota on our way to Pierre, we kept hearing what sounded like rain on the windshield. To our surprise, it was NOT rain, it was mosquitos! Literally, every five minutes my husband had to clean the windshield with the wipers because you could not see through it. By the time we arrived in Pierre, the front of our van was just coated in dead mosquitos. I assure you it is not mud, it really is bugs!

Yuuuuuck!!!!