YOUTHWORKS MISSIONS TRIP 1

JULY 12 2009

-3 hours til the Blackfeet reservation!! we're about to head into a major storm i think. kinda scary- but Carol Harvey is an awesome driver and the lightning is pretty much touching the mountains which is wicked sweet. so...you're wondering what all we've done so rar? well it's been a lot of driving. and it feels way longer cuz we stop so dang much. i prefer the driving straight thing- no stops. although we have gotten to see some cool stuff. like Wall Drug! i did my dancing across the USA clip in front of my favorite thing: the super random dinosaur in the Wall Drug backyard. and it was way different fromt he last time i went cuz everything was all finished. i really wanted to buy a pair of moccasins but we were kind of rushed :( oh well - alyssa and i both bought "WHERE THE HECK IS WALLDRUG?!" shirts- so we win! lol. a few more hours and we hit up a sonic! and made it to our campsite in Storm Mountain. our cabins were pretty decent. all compact and cute, hidden in like a valley type place.

lucky for us we were only 20 miles away from Mount Rushmore! so we headed out there...again- very rushed. it's hard to do these kinda things in big groups cuz you have to consider everyone's wishes. but all i know is i was really excited to be back with the "dead presidents" as Martha calls them. ohhhh Martha i'm so glad i met you on this trip! you make my day every day. lol so ...right aw we walk up the steps through the arch of state flags and i'm trying to take a super artsy photo of the Minnesota Flag flying in the wind---of course with my being so unlucky all the time- the camera battery dies. I was so upset-like you dont even know. and then they said we only had like half an hour to explore so we raced down to the cave: optimum photo taking spot. then hit up the giftshop, bought a really sweet shirt. martha bought this way cool bracelet made out of pennies. kinda jealous. okay and there was supposedly this great light show once it got dark...which basically could have been recreated by me shining my flashlight up at the monument and shouting various historical facts. hahaha oh well...

so then we went back to the campsite and i passed out asap. missing the evening and morning shower times. dont worry, its not like i smelled or anything. i just love to shower. lol and then we set out for one of what seemed like the longest days of driving ever. we didnt plan very accordingly because we didnt end up eating at all until like 5pm at bdubs. oh i forgot- we hit up custer state park. little big horn. ive never been there so it was really neat. i stepped it up a notch from incense obsession and bought some white sage. watch out roomies- the whole white house is gonnna smell awesome. the plants and wildlife were way crazy. i've never seen stuff like it. so i took pictures to look up later on the internet. haha and then we piled back in the vans and trekked onward as you can probably guess- tempers were running a bit high and arguments over nothing were ensuing. kyle and i didnt speak to eachother for like the last two hours. it was stupid but i admit, completely my fault. i'd been moody and blah all day. finally remedied by some guitar playing and my hobo shower when we finally got to our place for the night. this really nice UMC in Helena, Montana.

it was kinda confusing, like split into two buildings, one with classrooms and such, the other with sanctuary and fellowship hall. also this was one of those churches built to host missionaries, so they had a shwoer house too! i ended up taking a real shower this morning. and oh...um my straightener is broken. i have no idea how but yeah. its like all snapped. probably got stepped on in the van. no good. but thankfully one of the older adults, Judi was sympathetic and let me use her hair straightener- which was actually 10,000 times better than mine anyways and i'm convinced i need ito invest in that kind. cuz right now i literally look like my hair is naturally staright. i love it... mmm and then we went to the church service . it was really ironic because the pastor showed the Dancing Across The World video that we were making an imitation of! afterwards, we were kinda dragged into the fellowship hall because everyone was really excited that we were visiting and wanted to hear more about our trip ahead of us. we sat with an old lady named Mary who was 75 years old and still going on missions trips! she told us about her most recent missions trip to Mozambique, Africa and it was really interesting. like just some stuff you wouldnt even imagine it being like. ah! i'm so excited to go to Africa on my SAS trip!

anyways- Mary rocks and we exchanged emails. yes. i have a 75 year old pen pal now! look in the photo albums for a pic of her with us! haha so ...after that, we drove to a little park and grilled soem hamburgers. i...loved...this...park! it wasnt your typical park: like the stuff to play on could have passed for a sculpture garden of sorts.. like an abandoned tractor and army tank. and the slide was just...haha i dont really know but i liked it oh and they had these gorgeous trees perfect for climbing! and i did too. lol my goal on this trip is to release my inhibitions and just have fun. and i really think i'm doing it so far. i've had inexplicable urges to explore and hike and run around. i love it. plus it was gonna be our last chance to really run amuck until we got to our final destination for the week. i'm not sure what to expect really. so i've been asking Martha for insight on Montana (she lived here for a while last year) the mountains are simply amazing. there's either too many words to describe them or not enough. i havent figured it out yet. lol but yeah. we just survived a crazy mountain storm- lightning filling up the whole sky. okay so we just stopped. no idea where we are. soem old western town- complete with a casino i'm sure. haha every town has like 5 casinos. uhhh so this rundown old motel is here and some guests staying there just let people from our group use their bathroom. ummmm weird and creepy on so many levels so i think i will hold it. --okay that didnt really work. i just ran out and they ended up being really nice christian people. haha go figure.......