Spring Break '07 (aka This is Blue Earth) pt. 1: Humble Beginnings

I've decided to break my story into a few parts this time, because there is a bunch to say. Also, my computer finally came back (rejoice if you must), but, joke's on me, they forgot the power cord [trombone "wah wah wah" noise here]

Anyway, for spring break I was supposed to go to Mission, South Dakota on an Alternative Break Immersion at an Indian Reservation. It was going to be a great time--horse back riding, these yummy food things called Indian tacos, rocks--all that fun stuff.

We never came close.

I woke up at 4:30 AM last Saturday, grabbed my bags, and we left at 5. I decided I would be the "el Navigator" and keep Paul, the trip leader and driver at the time, awake and jolly. We drove through Illinois (I finally saw that "Medieval Times" everyone keeps yelling about) and Wisconsin. That's when we suspected something was going down. The roads were pretty decent, but every few minutes a cluster of cars would be seen that had slid off the road and into giant mounds of snow. They must've been all from last night or something, because nobody was inside and some had police tape around them. "Meh," we thought, "only idiots drive off the road." We couldn't have been more wrong (or right, if you want to be mean about it).

We crossed the giant Mississippi River, which I've never seen, and started into Minnesota. The snow was huge. It wasn't snowing, but the roads were still sort of bad from a few days before. We got about an hour into the state and were looking a place to eat. Supposedly, all ways into SD were closed. Bummer. And then it happened. We were all talking and having a gay ol' time, and then, WHOOPS!, WHAT THE??, WHOA!! We slid off the road and into the snow. Crap. We collected ourselves and then started calling insurance. They were none to helpful, but some guy driving a plow saw us and called a tow truck and the fuzz. And it was freaking cold outside. Anyway, the tow truck came and gave us a "winch" (and I learned a new word), and we were on our way after about an hour. We slowly made our way to the next town, went to Subway, and decided what we should do.

There was another group going to another part of South Dakota. They were going the same way, though, and we thought we'd give them a heads up and see if they wanted to meet us. "Nah," they said, "We're going to the border, at least. We're already ahead of y'all. Blah, blah bl--silence." One of their vans flipped. Someone on one of these trips must've had pretty bad chi...

We decided we were going to stay for the night at the town where we were eating. Where were we?

Blue Earth, Minnesota. Home of the largest Jolly Green Giant statue and the Eskimo pie.

More to come,
Barry

P.S. Never fear, reader, I'll have pictures up soon