Greetings from South Dakota (Mission Trip Day 1)

So, after a week of intense party prep, non-stop storms, no power, and perishing perishables..... I left PJ to deal with unloading all the party decorations, throwing away all of the food in our refrigerator, and repairing all that the storms damaged....while I headed to South Dakota for the Church of the Good Shepherd mission team trip to Rosebud Reservation. 

 Our group gathered at the airport to fly across the country in our matching red shirts.

 We ended our day in Rapids City, South Dakota.  Tomorrow we will sight see our way to the reservation, stopping at Mount Rushmore (I am SO excited) and several other locations along the way.  Tonight, we just wanted warm food and a clean bed.

 Our hotel suggested heading downtown, where we discovered cute older buildings and a FUN firehouse  themed restaurant that doubled as a brew house. PERFECT!

 They had beer bread, bear cheese soup, even beer floats and beer shakes.  Everything, including the non-beer infused food was really good.

 So was the view.......

 So was the conversation........

 And then, as if to remind us of our wet, stormy, point of departure, the sky grew dark and we were faced with severe thunder, lightening, and hail storms.  Our group made it back to the hotel fine and it looks like the worst is over, but several of us will have small bruises from the marble to ping pong sized hail that pelted us as we ran to our cars.  Hopefully we don't loose power out here too!!!

We will almost certainly loose our wireless Internet after tonight.  I may be able to post something, but it will probably come from my phone, so please forgive the numerous errors as my large fingers fight with the small buttons and the often incorrect auto correct to get something posted on the blog.