South Dakota Trip - Episode I

This will probably be a 2- or 3-part entry - it was a long trip! :)


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Vacation actually started out (for me anyway) as a relaxed weekend, as we didn't leave until Sunday night. So I had all day Saturday and part of the day Sunday to get ready (Erin had to work Saturday). That was nice, because a lot of times you leave on a trip and think you're forgotten to take care of 1000 things before you leave. I had all day Saturday to think of them!

Sunday morning was a bittersweet day at church - it was the last time this school year for the youth handbell group I direct to play in church, and they did fantastic (we did one of my favorite bell songs of all time, "Awake My Soul"). It was the last time playing bells for one of guys, Erich, who has been playing since the 4th grade and has been in every bell group I've directed. He graduates in June and we're really going to miss him. I am looking forward to bells this fall though, as we've re-organized the groups and I'm taking over the adult group (and bringing the 6 remaining youth members as they are fantastic musicians).

After church, Erin and I finished packing, and at about 2:30pm, we headed out (stopping for coffee of course). It was nice to finally get going, even though our train wouldn't leave for another 8+ hours - we decided to get up there early and go to IKEA and shopping, and have dinner with cousin Chad who graciously took us to the train station (HOORAY for cousins who live in Roseville, 10 minutes from the train station and 30 minutes from the airport!) We ate at the Granite City brew pub restaurant in Roseville. I've been to one once before (somewhere further on the west side of Minneapolis) and it is really good food - both Chad and I ventured to get the Chicken-something-Ya-Ya, which looked a little spicy but was probably sufficiently Minnnesota'd down so I could handle it. We hung out with Chad and girlfriend Catlin until about 10:00pm when it was time to head over to the Amtrak station. Since I haven't ridden a train in years, I wanted to get there early to make sure there were no snags.

We arrived at the Minneapols/St. Paul Amtrak station, located in St. Paul just off of University Avenue. Since only two trains run per day (one going west, one going east) it isn't anything as busy as an airport, but there were still a lot of people, and by the time we got our luggage checked, there was a long line behind us. We found out later that an entire hockey team was on this train, which is why it was so full (sold out in fact). We got our tickets and waited in the lobby, and about 10:50 they started boarding. Fortunately they boarded in a logical manner - larger groups first, then smaller groups - so we got to board with the groups of 2 - a good thing, because it looked kind of hit-and-miss on getting two seats next to each other (luckily we did). We did get seated next to the bright glowing exit sign (the rest of the lights are dimmed at night so people can sleep) but we did manage to sleep some, even though the people behind us were watching a movie with the sound on, even after the conductor told them not to, and there was a baby crying for about an hour. Train seats are MUCH more comfortable than airplane seats - which is good since most people are on the train for many hours, possibly even over a day. Much more leg room, and you can get up and walk around any time, obviously the train is only going in one direction and doesn't make any sudden movements like planes do. There is also a dining car, lounge car, and snack car, so you can eat, drink, or just get snacks almost any time (closed from about midnight to 6am).

Erin slept a little longer than I did, and it started getting light about 6am (still cloudy). At 8am, I headed down to the snack car to get fresh coffee and not-fresh (but still pretty good) muffins. The engineer announced that the train was about 1 1/2 hours behind, so we had plenty more time to drink coffee and read while we were waiting to get to Williston, ND. In Minot, ND, we got off the train to stretch our legs. By the time we got to Williston, we were ready to get out of the train. I've never been that far west in ND before, and it was interesting to see (although not a lot different than the parts of western Nebraska I'm familiar with).

Dad, sister, and family had arrived the day before, and had taken the rented van down to Medora, ND, to go to Roosevelt National Park (south branch) and spend the day there, so he left his car for Erin and I. It was kind of hot/humid at that point, and the car didn't have air conditioning, so we did a lot of window opening, but we met up with everyone else in Bellfield, ND, just off of I-94. By then it was about 3:00pm (switch to Mountain time) and we had about 4 hours of driving left to get to Custer, SD. The rental van was nice, and dad lead the way in his car. The two nieces were really ready to be out of the car by the time we got to Custer.

I think this is going to be a 3-parter, so I'll end this one here...I'll leave you with a picture of Erin and Laynie from that night!