Blow By Blow

Funny -- I never really told you much about my trip to Rapid City. In the interest of not piling up several trips and then not being able to recall the pertinent details, here's the plot. (Keep in mind that this is as much for my own memory as it is for your information. It will get a little long.)

It started on Wednesday. I caught a ride to work with a coworker that happened to live about ten seconds away. Put in a whopping three hours (basically there long enough to check and answer a bunch of emails and have one short meeting) and a second coworker took me to the airport shortly before noon.

Turned out I was on the plane with our general manager and one of the awesome R&D guys. The GM disappeared into the Minneapolis airport within seconds of getting off the plane, but Awesome R&D Guy and I stopped at one of the airport bars for a drink since we both had at least an hour to kill.

Second flight was wholly uneventful. I ended up seated next to an engineer from GE. Conversation was amusing -- he was from South Carolina. He and his wife owned some land in the Hills, but before he was willing to retire there he told her they had to experience some quality winter time.

My amazing grandparents picked me up at the airport and I spent the night out on the ranch. I would have been content to stay there the whole time, but Rapid was calling. And as I mentioned before, I was addicted.

Thursday I started the trek into town right after lunch, having borrowed the pickup from my grandparents. The weather was good, the drive was relaxing, and as the Hills became more defined I was more than ready to be there.

I rolled onto campus early that afternoon and tracked down my former boss (from my days as a lab rat). We sat and chatted for an hour before I disappeared to find Darren. Mauled him briefly, then headed out again to find my old advisor. Mauled Darren one last time, then headed to Bully Blends for the first time that weekend.

Spent some quality time with Justin (who had driven up from Colorado Springs to hang out for the weekend), Matt, and Dyan at the Blends before heading back to Surbeck to start prep for Catalyst (large group) that night.

Matt had a surprise for me the day before: a photographer from the Rapid City Journal would be there that night to take pictures for an article they were doing on InterVarsity. Yeah, that was interesting news -- I was the speaker that night. Lovely.

Catalyst went off without a hitch. I think I even did a decent job speaking. (I wasn't nervous exactly -- actually, I've missed taking to crowds since I moved -- but there's always that moment of, "Is anything I've said tonight relevant in any way?") We adjourned to Applebee's, and that night I ended up crashing at Autumne & Michelle's (which, oddly enough, used to be Heidi's) after spending some time with Autumne, Matt, and Justin at the IV frat house.

Friday started with breakfast at the Blends with Justin (that would be my second appearance there). In an interesting twist, I ran into a guy that also went to high school in Lennox. He was in the class ahead of me, but we had a couple classes together and his grandparents go to Sunnycrest with my family. It was overall pretty random -- I had no idea he was in RC (and, being from a small town, those kinds of things are usually well known).

Next came the first trip to Storm so that I could catch Scott. Dyan and I made the trip and mooched some lunch. It was so wonderfully familiar that I nearly forgot about the fact that I now live in Wisconsin ...

Came back into town in time to meet up with Andi at the Blends (trip #3) -- and also ran into Andy & Kajda there. That night, we went out for sushi at Coco Palace (excellent place, by the way), then to Dublin Square (also an excellent joint). Ended up back at the frat house for a bit before heading to Kajda & Dyan's for the night.

Saturday morning I had breakfast with Dyan before making the trek back out to Storm, barely catching Steve as he and Marty disappeared to serve lunch in Piedmont. I hung out for several hours, helping with lunch and cleanup, reminiscing, and enjoying the snow that was very insistently falling.

I left rather reluctantly -- and slowly, since the roads were getting gross pretty quickly.

It didn't take long for that night's plans to change (we were going to trek out to Hill City's Alpine Inn for dinner). Instead, we ended up at the Blends for a bit (#4), did some grocery shopping, and went back to the frat house, where ... um, Nate was making lasagna for everyone.

This is awful. I just blanked on his real name. I blame Autumne.

Anyway, I baked some bread as a "Sorry we're joining you so last-minute!" gesture and we had dinner with the rest of the house. It turned into an interesting night of general merriment as the crowd grew and got more varied. Around midnight, I disappeared and headed to Katie & Joe's.

I got there pretty late, but Katie and I ended up sitting up talking until 5AM. Amazing, exhausting, thought-provoking conversation ... and then three hours of sleep.

And Sunday.

First, I went to The Well with Katie & Joe (which warrants a post of its own at some point in time). Said so long to them and dashed across town to Fountain Springs, where I met up with Matt. I was a little surprised at how many people I didn't know, but shouldn't have been -- so many people have moved away from Rapid in the last year that the only really familiar faces were Paul & Brooke. Crazy.

My time in Rapid ended with waffles at the house. Excellent, as always. Said so long to Justin (sadly), stalled a bit, and then said so long to everyone else and headed for the airport.

Sat alone on the first flight and tried to sleep (realizing very quickly that I was going to be hard to deal with since I was so sleep-deprived) but mostly just zoned out and stared out the window. I had been sad to leave, but I was sated. The trip had filled that RC craving quite well.

Unfortunately, my luck ran out in Minneapolis. It was cold enough to screw with the plane's power (basically, it's battery was dead). My last flight was delayed ... and then delayed again ... and then cancelled an hour after I was supposed to be in Wausau. Ended up on standby for a flight that was scheduled to take off at 10:25PM ... and thankfully ended up on the plane. Alas, it didn't take off until after midnight, four hours after I was expecting to be home.

Brian, bless his heart, was still willing to come pick me up, despite the fact that it was after 1AM when we finally landed. Never heard a complaint out of him, either, even though I lived on the opposite side of town and -- hello! -- it was after 1AM. I still owe him for that one.

And so my trip was over. It took several days for me to restore any form of normal sleep schedule, and I'm still thinking about some of the things that came up in conversation that week ...  It was incredible, from start to crashing finish.

Now I'll let this blog end. It's a bit on the too-long side anyway. Have a great weekend, everybody.