Finn & Reba Chronicles (formerly Adventures of Swirl's Serfs): Rapid City Weekend

This past weekend we flew out to Rapid City for a quick weekend. It was a successful trip outside of the weight gain. We had enough time to go home after work before going to the airport which was nice. We said our goodbyes to Swirl and change from our work clothes. Our flight left MSP at 9:20 and we got to RAP about 10:30. Those late flights are tough.

Rapid Creek

Our morning to sleep in and we were both up at 7am. We had breakfast and went for a 5 mile run. It was such a pleasant run along the creek. We got caught up in a Color Run/Walk so there tons of people in the park getting color thrown on them. The blue station was before we caught up to them, we saw the pink and yellow station. Thankfully we didn’t get any color on us. I did ask Eric if we could go to their finish line for some water, I was thirsty and he said no. So we pressed on to Storybook Island. We turned around and ran back. It was a nice run, it didn’t feel too difficult consider the elevation. Below are my split, the third mile is where we turned around and I was looking to see if the water fountain was turned on and looked at a display how the “Great Flood” destroyed the old Storybook Island.

Starvation and Binge

The rest of the day we hung out with family. After a shower and Eric’s hair cut we headed over to the parents. Eric forgot about lunch so I went almost 4 hours after running without eating (and I gained weight?) Eventually we stopped at Arby’s for a late lunch and took a drive up Skyline.

We came back to the parents for dinner of steak and rice and other assorted foods. I was still stuffed from Arby’s but ate anyway. Then we had angel food cake and strawberries for dessert for Eric’s brother Tim’s birthday. Yum! We were going to go cosmic bowling with Carrie but the lanes were all taken. It probably was good because I zonked out as soon as we got to the hotel. It was a tiring day!

The Wrong Side

So Sunday started out again with us waking up at 7am and going for a run. We ran into some "difficulty" with this run and only managed 2.6 miles before heading back the hotel. This time we went the other way on the running path and I now know why Eric didn’t want to go this way. I guess you could call it camp city…the park where all the homeless people live. It was really strange seeing all these people just sitting in a park. We ran into to some colorful characters and how some are drunk that early in the morning…well probably still from the night before? I’m not really sure. I also notice a lot more junk along the creek like liquor bottles and beer cans. I do not want to run on that side again!

Into the Hills and Presidents

After a quick shower and lunch…Eric remembered to feed me on Sunday. We went into the hills. Unfortunately Needles Highway was still closed. I figured it probably was but we had to try. We dropped down into Custer and up past Crazy Horse and over the hills to Mt. Rushmore and then down into Keystone. I’m sure the ½ of pound of fudge might have something to do with weight gain too. But I really didn’t eat that much of it, not even a quarter of it.

We stopped by Dan and Libby’s for a while. Dan looks good. On our way back to the hotel to change for confirmation we stopped in downtown Rapid and got pictures of all the statutes of the U.S. Presidents. It was nice until the freezing rain came and we were running from one to the next and protecting my camera! Here are a few of my favorites:

Taft and Baseball

Dewey Wins! Oops, I mean Truman.

Everybody loves a Teddy Bear.

Confirmation

It was finally time for the real reason for the visit, Judy’s confirmation. It was at the Cathedral’s 5:30 Mass. There was a lot of people there and a big class. It was over an hour and half Mass. I took some pictures…

Big Class!

Godparents, Bishop and Sponsor

After a reception in the basement we went to Dan and Libby’s for dinner. It was a nice evening. All of the Rapid City people were there. We headed back the hotel for our late night and early morning. 4:45am comes way too early! We got to the airport and got on our flight and all went well.