Yet more odd things about South Dakota

1. I'll start with what happened today. I went into town this morning to take the kids to an "open gym" where they can run and play. We live 4 miles out of town, 1.5 miles of that on gravel road. For some reason the town or county or whoever rarely plows the gravel road. Literally there are two wheel tracks down the center of the road to drive on that 4x4 trucks have made. Whenever it is windy--like today--those two wheel tracks continually fill in even if other trucks drive through. It was a little scary driving in, but not too bad. While we were in town the wind really picked up. Getting back through that last mile and a half of gravel was a nightmare. At one point the car was almost perpendicular to the road, but somehow, God got us through. Let me mention one other thing. If another car is coming from the opposite direction you're in big trouble since there's only the "one lane" to drive in. Thankfully no one came from the other way. Josh was a few minutes behind me and I called him and told him not to come home for lunch (my hands were shaking as I dialed the phone because it had been so scary), he assumed I was exaggerating and came home anyway. When he got home he said "Woah! I almost didn't make it! There is no way I can get back to town for now." It's a good thing he did come home for lunch though because he never would have made it later.

I was supposed to have a doctor's appointment at 4:45 but I called and canceled since the road was so bad. At about 4:15 I was thinking I had made a mistake, in fact I saw a sedan (not a big 4x4 truck) drive by and I thought, "hmm...if they can make it then I probably could have." 20 or so minutes later there was a knock on the door. Two kids had walked half a mile back to our house from where their mom's car got stuck! Josh gave them a ride the rest of the way to their house so they could use the phone. Apparently the mom's car and someone else's car were going in opposite directions and got stuck trying to pass each other. No one else could get by. After an hour or so, someone helped the cars get unstuck. 30 minutes later the same thing happened to two more cars! We tried to call the city service that takes care of cleaning the roads...because it's a holiday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) no one was there and no one came to help.

Here we sit, trapped in the house. Josh isn't sure if he'll be able to get to work tomorrow and may walk to where the gravel road ends and have his boss pick him up!

My Observations:

-It blows my mind that a mom would send her (approximately 11 year old) kids to a complete stranger's house to ask for a ride. Absolutely incomprehendable to me. Obviously we're not in a big city anymore.

-Doesn't this city realize people need to get to work? That we need to get to town to buy groceries? What is up with not plowing?

2. There is only one famous person I know of who comes from South Dakota. Tom Brokaw. He's featured in ads and billboards everywhere. He's their only claim to fame.

3. A school teacher in this state had intercourse with a 16 year old girl. He lost his job but he is not in jail. That is because the age of consent in SD is 16! On several occassions in stores and other places I have seen what looks like an 17 or 18 year old girl with a baby and her boyfriend/husband is in his 30's! Yuck.

4. The law here is that you can't be pulled over for not wearing a seat belt. You can be ticketed for not wearing one, but only if the police pull you over for some other reason and find you are not wearing a seat belt. Therefore, in my mind, it is perfectly OK to quickly put on your seatbelt if you get pulled over because the policeperson wasn't stopping you for that anyway!



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10 years ago today.

As we were getting ready to go to church today, it occurred to me that 10 years ago today while we were in college a handsome guy asked me out and took me to Perkins. 10 years later (today), that same handsome guy took me to Perkins again, this time with our two kids! It's amazing to look back and think about how life has changed since then. It's been a fabulous ten years since we've started dating!

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