Day 5: 10hr Drive & Near Death Experience

We try to write during the drive so we can post when we get to where we’re going, but since I was driving today, I have to bang out a little hypothesis now at 12:30am so I can hit the sack. We have to be up super early tomorrow…I’m really excited about tomorrow! I won’t write about our plans now to save on time – I’ll just reflect afterwards. Anyhow, along the drive today….I got to control the iPod for a solid 10 hours. I threw on a mix of everything but we had a pretty solid worship sesh which I thoroughly enjoyed. The sun was setting across the wiiide open spaces of South Dakota which allowed me to just bask in the big guy’s glory. He’s quite the artist. Aside from the beauties of nature, I was also smitten with the beauty in the far back seat of the Durango – Tricia Arline Poore…waving her arms and singing her little heart out. We smiled at each other for a solid hour via the rear view mirror as we killed every song with our horrible voices…but I’m sure it sounded angelic to JC. Cobra joined in throughout while Kris kept her earplugs in and Billy clapped along.

We had one very memorable detour within our 11 hour trip. We swung by the Badlands. It was a race against the sun...We pulled up about 40 minutes after it disappeared from our sight but the sky still held just enough light for us to FREAK OUUUUT when we finally pulled up (we WOULD’VE been there with time to spare if Kris didn’t HAVE to see the CORN PALACE.) Anyhow, we finally parked and explored a bit. Just as we were about to get back in the Durango, another car pulled up to us. I guess that doesn’t seem that weird, but we were just pulled off to the side of the road (not in a designated parking area) and we had only seen 2 other cars back there the whole time. Three people emerged from the car. A Native American dude with shoulder length hair, an older woman who seemed to be his mother, and a white chick who didn’t smile or respond to any of my friendly attempts. The guy started walking towards our car as we were getting in so of course we started up conversation and I remember nervously fidgeting for my buckle. We were all kinda saying “Let’s go” and “Get in the car” under our breath as we continued to chat with him, closed the doors and started up. He said, “Your tire’s goin’ round and round” as he pointed at our tire like something was wrong with it. I thanked him and stumbled over my words as a I drove off and we all kinda freaked out for a while after that. Since it took us a good 45 minutes to get back to a main road, we all kept talking about what was going through our minds and exaggerated every scenario to the max. Kris thought he was going to “get a bow and arrow out and shoot all our tires” (this was said with GENUINE SERIOUSNESS). Billy still has YET to let it go…He just said, “Who wants to go to the Badlands tomorrow??” and while we were driving he pulled out his iPhone and said, “BREAKING NEWS! FUGATIVE ON THE LOSE!!!”

We didn’t get a photo at the entrance sign in hopes of getting decent sunlight for the

actual badlands, so we planned to get one on our way out. As we pulled up to the sign, Kris started freaking out and refused to get out of the car insisting that a drive-by pic of the sign would do just fine. We all ignored her initial attempts but as she got more frantic, Tricia started freaking out too and jumped back in the car. I grabbed the camera and snapped the shot of the boys while Kris continued to scream from the car. When we all finally got back in she said, “He gained 3 minutes on us.” (Again…..COMPLETE SERIOUSNESS). Well, the entire trip back was laced with jokes in reference to our Native American friend and the fact that we narrowly escaped death.

Random Snippets:

*We recognize that most/some of these will have absolutely not relevance to you or make sense to you but enjoy what you can make sense of.

-Tric: “I haven’t had a cold soda in months. Mmm this is DAMN good.

-Kristina: “Tric, what are you wearing today?” Tric (with a completely straight face): “……….Apple bottom jeans. Boots with the fur.”

-Me updating Sethy on our travels: “We’re in Minnesota, Missouri right??”

-Billy looking at Kyle buying a beer: “I thought this was supposed to be a DRY trip???”

-Me: “Wait, #13’s important too right?” Tric: “THAT’S A-ROD.” Me: “Hey guys! A-ROD’s HERE!!”

-Tric: “Peeling PEGGY.” Me: “Tric, were simply talking about exfoliation.” Tric: “Ohh, I thought we were talking about ALLITERATION”

-Me: “How many miles are we goin again?...Like 24,000 right??” (apparently it’s only about 9/10,000 – I don’t have very good comprehension for numbers – hence the finance major.

Much love

a.hendricks