derien | Day One of vacation...

I guess we got up at 4AM, Eor says. Had our showers and were out the door in a half hour, went to Becky's for breakfast and said hi to the cook (who I know from college :)) and had a lovely meal. Were at the airline counter by quarter to six. Then our trouble started. Eor couldn't get the self-check-in kiosk to work for us. It took a while to get an agent, and she had a heck of time getting the whole thing sorted out. Apparently one flight on the return leg of our trip had been canceled and they'd rescheduled us on an earlier flight (from Minneapolis to Philadelphia) without contacting us. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but it was to turn out to be rather annoying on our way back.

However, since we were good and early it didn't cause us too much grief that first day.

Let's see. That day was lots of travel and was very exhausting. We didn't have much layover in Philly, were a little late departing on the second leg, got to Minneapolis around 1PM, and found our way through the shuttle train and etc to the car rental place. They didn't have the economy car we'd asked for and gave us an upgrade to a Sebring, which was shiny and red and huge, didn't get very good gas mileage, and had electric windows (which I hate), but air conditioning and decent air circulation with the fans (which I like). Then began the looong drive to Aberdeen, South Dakota.

The landscape between Aberdeen and Minneapolis doesn't vary a lot. There are a lot of trees in the small towns around Minneapolis, but as you get further from the city the houses get farther apart and the trees are clusters around the houses - it's obvious they don't really belong there, humans brought them. Otherwise it's all rolling fields and horses, short horses (cows) and crops - which are turned fields at this time of year - and standing water. And a lot of birds: pheasant (dumb birds who run back and forth across the road trying to get hit and won't fly), turkeys (who are much smarter), geese and ducks, redwinged blackbirds. Every raccoon we saw was dead - we were up to Rocky III by the end of the trip. Which I guess is not that bad for seven hours of driving, but every time I see a road killed raccoon it makes me sad.

We stopped and had lunch someplace in Minnesota at a family restaurant. I was surprised and confused by the fact that they have smoking sections in restaurants and by the waitress, who was probably not much older than us but was wrinkled as a prune and covered with tattoos. I recall there Eor was telling me that I'm too soft-spoken for people in those states - "Look at the waitress's reaction to you. She's confused by how quiet you are. You're used to pitching your voice so you won't bother people because there are people all around where you're from. When they say hi to the neighbor over the fence, the fence is half a mile away!"

We arrived, dumped our stuff in the motel, asked the desk girl if Eor's Mom was there, yet (she and his sister were getting a room in the same motel). She was, and the girl even told us her room number (we were surprised that was so easy, but later his Mom told us she'd already told the desk girl to give us her room number if we showed up), but at the moment she was out. At his nieces pinning ceremony - we'd probably have made that if we hadn't had the delay, but we hadn't really expected to make it, so we just dumped our stuff in the room and went out to the Twisty Cone for a huge ice-cream. The girl who waited on us was like eleven years old and didn't do a great job stirring them up, but it was yummy anyhow.:) And we were back in the room, only half done with our ice-cream, when Eor's Mom showed up and asked if we wanted to go out for dinner at Perkins. Seems like all we did in South Dakota was eat.

Some things I've noted about the restaurants there, though: Cold - always have a sweater. If you want your salad at the same time as other people have their hot meals you'd better ask for that, because otherwise you'll have your salad a half hour before the hot food people. Also, re your salad - don't expect much more than iceberg lettuce and a slice or two of tomato. And the service is slow. They're in no hurry. I know they probably think I'm a typical Northeasterner, always in a hurry. :) Oh, and the servings of potatoes are on the small side. I'm a Maine girl, I want about twice as many potatoes. ;)

Oh yeah - don't be fooled by the fact that the sun is up. The restaurants are busy until 10pm because it's still light out at that time. Eor's sister said she didn't think she'd be able to live there, she'd die of exhaustion because it's so hard to realize it's time to sleep when the sun is still up. It's much closer to the arctic circle than Maine, apparently.

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention - the trees were already dark green, in full summer leaf! When we left Maine we had the first few light green leaves coming out on bold trees, but apparently because of the long days they get their trees going a lot earlier in SD/MN.

Okay, this is way too long an entry for what was basically a boring, tiring day. :) And then we went home and watched some tv and fell asleep.

Right, an ETA regarding dinner at Perkins, not that anyone will care (but this entry is really for myself): I sat at the end of the table next to Eor's new niece, Little C, who is three months, and she's really adorable. :) She's the adopted daughter of Eor's brother, K, and his wife, H - some of you may remember me agonizing over the writing of the reference for the adoption. :) So, the full attendance list: Eor's Mum, her children - (daughter) Original C, (daughter) J, (son) K, (son) Eor - and their respective spouses etc - me with Eor, H (K's wife), S (J's husband) and children - Little C (already mentioned) and Je the daughter of J and S, who was the guest of honor of the weekend (the college graduate). Also S's mother, who's name escapes me entirely, a lovely, tiny, elderly, lady from Fargo, ND.