St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while! I haven't had much access to the internet over the past couple of weeks. Let's see where did I leave off....we were in Ashland, MT last time I blogged. Man, I've already been through all of South Dakota since then!
Soon after Ashland we crossed into South Dakota by way of Highway 212. Our first weekend there was so much fun. We stayed with some really great host families in Rapid City who were so exited to hang out and talk with us about our adventures. The family that fed us all weekend was just the best- we had Indian tacos again the first night and yummy kielbasa and doggies the next. They had a nice house with a sweet pool table, which I was pretty psyched about and took full advantage of : ) We ate and hung out in their backyard, where Chad, the dad (amazing guy who is very knowledgeable about JP2's Theology of the Body and actually gave me a copy of the book!), showed us a game his family plays that consists of simply throwing a small ax at a tree stump that's been turned on it's side (with the flat face of the stump facing the thrower) and lifted up onto a little pedestal.
On Saturday we got to go see Mt. Rushmore! Wooty woot! That was a real treat for us because we often don't get to really explore the cities in which we stay on the weekends. It was very cool to see such a national treasure, although it wasn't quite impressive as I was expecting. It was a little smaller, and Roosevelt's face was kind of receding into a grove because of years of re-constructive surgery on his face : p It was still a cool experience though and the grounds around the mountain were beautiful and nice to walk around in. That night we had to go into the towns of Deadwood and Lead because there were no parishes for us to speak at in Rapid City. Deadwood was so cool! Many of you may know the story of Wild Bill Hickock? I didn't....but apparently he was a pretty notorious guy back in the Old West who was shot and killed in Deadwood during a game of poker. We had mass in Lead (only about a 5 minute drive away) and another in Deadwood; after the last mass we went down the street into town and there was a big concert going on. There was a cool country band and people lining the streets...they had chairs set up everywhere and people were dancing and singing and just having a blast. We joined in the festivities for a bit but had to head back to Rapid City shortly after. We all loved Deadwood!
I have to go now but I'll try to get online this week to finish catching up on all of the fun times we've had since then. We were in Sioux Falls last weekend and are in the Twin Cities now, but heading out soon to get ready to walk tonight! That's right....I'm on night shift this week. It's about time though I was on day for 3 weeks in a row. I've got some really attractive tan lines to show off : )

xoxoxo