I’m back!!! Man, it feels so weird to get back into the swing of having to go to work and wake up early in the morning and all, but I knew I had to come back sometime. My vacation to Rapid City, South Dakota was a very relaxing and fun time. I think since my everyday life here in Minnesota is so boring I’ll take the next few posts to tell you about my vacation. There will soon be pictures to accompany these daily rememberings, but I have to format all of the photos first (and do a bunch of scanning of some of my mom’s photos).
I left for vacation on July 24th to first go to St. Cloud to pick up Kristin. I am very thankful that my family (and her family) were nice enough to let her come on vacation with the family. I don’t think it would have been as wacky without her. Ryan came with to pick up Kristin as well so I took him to the mall, watched some tv with him, visited Kristin at work, and ordered some Gary’s pizza while we waited for Kristin to get done with work (she wasn’t finished until 11 pm). It was a fun time, just me and Ryan hanging out in someone else’s house.
Friday consisted of a lot of driving. Kristin, Ryan, and I had to drive to meet my parents in Chamberlain, SD. The way we took, however short we thought it would be, took a long time to traverse because most of the roads were under construction. At least half of the way from St. Cloud to the MN border was under construction. It was absurd that a trek that should have taken us 5 hours to do ended up taking up almost 7. It was simply frustrating, but at least the company in the vehicle was good.
The rest of Friday was spent eating at Pizza Hut, tooling around at the campground, and perusing the local fireworks megashop. Also of note should be the temperature in Chamberlain for the day—112 degrees. It was a new record high. Driving there my car seemed to be running a little hotter than usual, but I thought it might have been from the extra stuff and people it was carrying. I found out how wrong I truly was when I got out of the car at the campground. It was like I was stepping into an industrial strength blast furnace. Even the wind made you feel hot instead of easing our overheated bodies. The only saving grace about this hot weather was that the humidity was very low.
The next day, Saturday, we had to finish our driving journey to Rapid City. We got going relatively early and made it to Rapid City in pretty good time, although we had to make a short stop at Wall Drug. We always stop here even though it’s such a joke of a tourist attraction. The only reason I enjoy the place is the sheer irony of the store. For all of the signs advertising it throughout the world and for all of its fame, Wall Drug is simply a tiny mini-mall that you’d find in any local town that’s decently sized. Any little strip mall could have been Wall Drug, but they weren’t. For some odd reason, this little strip mall became famous instead of the local five and dime down the road in backwatersville. The upside of visiting is that I had a few fun pictures taken with the junk in their backyard, much like I did two years ago.
The rest of Saturday was spent setting up the camper and tent and then lounging around being lazy. I managed to get a good amount of comics read, play a bunch of cribbage, and be king lazy. Really, that’s what vacation is all about—being lazy. Sure, you can be lazy all the time, but then how can you truly enjoy it? Speaking of lazy, I think I’m done for the day. For more about my vacation, tune in tomorrow.
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