Another whirlwind weekend!

The Deer

After work we drove down to DJ’s house and packed our stuff into her car for the trip out to Rapid City. DJ, Abbie, Eric and I got on the road for Sioux Falls. We were stopping at Byron and Paula’s for the night. The drive was going well until just before exit 402…we hit a deer. DJ did an amazing job of not losing control. I knew it was bad when I saw pieces of the headlight and black pieces of the car flying past as I looked out the back window. We were less than 2 miles from our exit to Byron and Paula’s house. It happened right before the exit ramp so we drove off the ramp and took a look at the car. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either. There was no way we could drive this across the state. We called 911 and got a trooper out to look at it. He was cracking jokes about it and was giving us a hard time (in good fun). When he left he said “Don’t take out any more of my wildlife!” Byron and Paula met us and we drove the backroads back to their house. The rest of the evening was consumed with taking to the insurance company.

The Drive West

Thankfully, DJ was able to get the car to the collusion shop Saturday morning. She called a couple different places and finally one was actually open this holiday weekend! They drove the car there and they gave her a loaner to drive back to Mankato but we couldn’t take it Rapid City. Byron and Paula lent us their car which was so nice! We put all our luggage in DJs car and headed down the road to Rapid City a little later than planned but that was ok.  We stopped in Mitchell for lunch at DQ and stopped a few more times but eventually we got to Rapid City.

The Party

The first stop in Rapid was Judy’s Party. She had a nice turn out. A lot of family was there. I got to see Aunt Jill since she lost all the weight…she looks amazing! The theme of the party was balls. They had meatballs, melon balls, cheese balls, cake pops. It was nice.  After the party we went to Mass with Eric’s parents and eventually found our way to their house for dinner. It was a nice weekend but we stayed pretty late.

The Run

I was feeling pretty lousy. I hadn’t run in over a week and really needed to. It was pouring rain though and I mean pouring! Eric said let’s do a run around the Mall and back to the hotel. So we ran up the hill to the mall, around the mall and back to the hotel. It was 2 miles. We were soaked when we got back. My feet stayed pretty dry until we ran a lap around the hotel parking lot to get to 2 miles. It was one giant puddle.  That was it for my shoes and socks. Thank God we were done. We took a quick shower and headed to Libby’s to see Matt and Amy before they left for Colorado. Matt had to work on Monday.

The Lunch, Kohl’s, Graduation & Dinner

We had lunch at Pauly’s which was pretty good pizza. After lunch the girls (DJ, Abbie, me and Eric’s mom) went to Kohl’s and the boys (Eric and Eric’s dad) went home. Eric’s mom had never been to Kohl’s. I think she liked it. I bought a new pair of shoes and Abbie and DJ bought swimsuits for our hotel pool. We got back to the house and I picked up Eric and we went back to the hotel so he could shave and get ready for graduation.

Graduation wasn’t too bad. I saw the whole “agenda” and thought we will be here a while. There were 5 speeches, a Lakota Honor Song (that was cool!) and other random events. But they read through the names really fast and ignored middle names. They also went two different directions on the stage and did pictures after the left the stage so it was well managed!

We meet Judy on the floor (they also don’t have a recessional) and took some pictures. We went to Olive Garden for dinner…all of us. Of course we had an hour wait at Olive Garden but when you are trying to feed 22 people you would expect that. We got seated at 8:15 so it was a late dinner. We didn’t get out of there until almost 10pm. We headed back to the hotel for a swim and hot tub. It was so nice to sit in the hot tub! It was a long day.

The Drive East

DJ picked us up at the hotel and we went to say our good byes to Eric’s parents. We didn’t get out of there until 10 or so. Eric brought home a box of medals and ribbons…most of which are not his but he doesn’t care he wants them. He is a weird boy. We went to Libby’s house to say good bye to them as well…another hour or so. This family loves the long goodbyes. We finally got out of Rapid at around 11:30. The drive back to Sioux Falls was uneventful (thank GOD!) but long. We didn’t get there until after 5. We moved stuff out of Paula’s car into DJ’s rental, a Suzuki (they aren’t sold here anymore).  It was a very nice car. There was a little drama when Beth called and asked if we were going to pick her up from work. We were just getting to Worthington, over an hour away. Ethan wasn’t answering his phone and he had our car. The boy was sleeping and didn’t wake up to go pick up Beth. For a while there, we weren’t sure where our car was…I was a little annoyed thinking that we would have to wait to go home because our car was MIA. But it was at DJ’s house when we got there so we quickly threw our luggage into our car and did a short goodbye and was on our way home. We didn’t get home until after 10pm…a long day of driving.

The Pictures

   

A Non-Water Ride

This past weekend was busy! Friday after work, we had to pick up our race packets in Eden Prairie and rush home. Eric was refereeing games at the Shakopee Cup. We got home and quickly changed clothes and I dropped him off at the field on my way to the Spring Lake Regional Park for a run. It wasn’t my best run but I was suffering from a tight chest…I think I suffered bronchitis again. I managed 4 miles on the hilly course before I headed home. Around 10:30 I picked Eric up from his third soccer game of the night.

Valleyfair            

Eric left early Saturday morning for one soccer game. DJ, Beth and Abbie came up and we went to Valleyfair. Our race packet included 2 tickets to Valleyfair. Since I have a season pass, I gave the two tickets to DJ and Abbie and we bought on for Beth. I managed to get on 3 rides (Monster, Corkscrew and Tilt-a-Whirl) before Eric called that he was on his way to pick me up.

Twins Game

It was Dairy Queen Hat Day at the Twins Game. It isn’t a bad looking hat. 

The irony is the hat colors match the Tampa Bay Rays team colors which is who we were playing. Oops! We watch most of the Twins game. It was a beautiful day for a game. Not too hot, not too cold, a little breeze. We left after the 7th inning stretch so we could relax at home a bit before I went back to Valleyfair and Eric went back to the soccer fields. We listened to crowd roar as we walked to our car…we missed it…the Twins won!

A Non-Water Ride

DJ, Abbie and I went back to Valleyfair…Beth sat this time out. DJ decided to get season passes…it was a nightmare to get it all figured out because the woman in the ticket booth didn’t know what she was doing. And then her printer ran out of paper and we had to go visit guest services and almost an hour later, they had their season passes. We went into the park and hit a few rides. I had my first Cheese on a Stick. I have one each year so I can remind myself why I don’t by them all year long but this one was actually very good! Darn…I want another one! Just before 9pm we jumped on the Monster again. There was lightning sighted so all tall rides had to stop. DJ and Abbie got on right before me. But we were on the same “ride.” Well it started to sprinkle a bit. The let the first group off, then the second group…the one with DJ and Abbie and then as they were loading for the next one the downpour hit. All the people who were just loaded were getting taken off. The other 4 of us stuck on top were like what the heck. Then we waited. By this time it was pouring and DJ and Abbie had sprinted for cover. I was stuck on the top of Monster with nothing to cover me. My “car” was facing up so the rain started to collect where I sat. It was cold and miserable. They left us there for maybe a couple minutes. Before Anthony, the life guard by day, saved us. He said your ride just became a water ride but don’t work I’m a life guard, I’ll save you. Apparently the policy is not to move a ride when it is raining and lightning…smart right? So we were stuck. But as soon as the supervisor left, Anthony brought us down…he rushed us off, I’m sure because he didn’t want to get in trouble. I was soaked. Thankfully DJ had a sleeping bag in her car that I could wrap around myself to stay warm.  I was so glad to get home!

Sunday

After the 10K race (previous post) we took a quick shower and headed down to Amboy for Danielle and Bradley’s wedding shower in the church basement. It was nice to see the family again met some of the people who to the church. It was a nice brunch. We went to Bradley’s parents’ house afterwards and chatted for a while before we headed back home. It was a long busy weekend.

What a beautiful race day, 68 degrees, raining and wind…yep, beautiful. ARGH! I guess I was happy it was raining because 88% humidity without rain would have made it worse.

The Start

We started the race in the parking lot by Wild Thing. We rain down the parking lot towards the river and ran along the river. Most of the first mile was in the parking lot. We came into the park somewhere around the High Roller and rain past the Wave ride. There was a water stop right around the Wave. We continued to run through the new (old) area called Route 76.  We ran under Wild Thing and past the Steel Venom and back to the parking lot where we cut up to the new bike path along Hwy 101. Here we ran a very long straight path to The Landing Park. I have run along a portion of this before so I knew what to expect.

The Middle

We had another water stop at mile 2.5 and then before long we were turning into the Landing Park. I had never been to the Landing but I always wondered what it looked like behind the fence. It is actually pretty cool back there. It is an old 1800s city with a main street and a church, stores and houses. It was really a nice change of scenery from the dreary highway!!  Just before mile 4 was another water stop. They definitely had plenty of water stops…it was such a nice difference from the last race we did where there was only 4.

The End

After the Landing we came back out onto the trail by the highway. It was around Mile 5 and another water stop! It was really awesome. It was such a humid icky day that water was definitely needed that often. It was at this point I told Eric to take off on me. Mile 5 was very slow. I was struggling at this point. It didn’t help that I have a stuffed up noise and was coughing up the junk in my chest…I think I have bronchitis again.  My chest felt heavy the whole run and I knew Mile 6 was going to be bad. :( Before long we turned back into the Valleyfair and ran along the service road under Wild Thing, ran through the new picnic area (where the mini golf used to be) and back out to the parking lot to finish. My time was 1:17.29. Not bad for this cold suffering heavy chested woman! I was hoping for 1:15 but considering the conditions, I’m not upset with my time. We also got a really cool medal.

Pictures, Maps and Splits