road trip

I don't even know where to start.

Too much has happened. 

So I'll see what I can get out onto the keyboard.

My parents showed up on Sunday and we packed up the apartment, which ended up looking like a very empty shell. Above is Ben grading his finals.

We spent Monday running errands and CLEANING EVERYTHING in sight.

Had a great little send-off supper with my Life Story Group.

Going to miss them so much.

We took off around 9 am on Tuesday morning. 

The drive through Alabama and Mississippi was BEAUTIFUL. 

Lots of trees and hills.

Frank recommended Rendezvous for some good Memphis BBQ.

We arrived in Memphis right around supper time so we could not resist battling Memphis rush hour traffic for good food.

It was AMAZING and absolutely worth it. 

Memphis itself looked like a pretty cool city that I would not mind revisiting. 

We made our way into Arkansas and ended up staying in Jonesboro.

I think we spent around 9.5 hours driving that day (not including the supper detour).

Driving through Montgomery, Birmingham and Memphis traffic was a little mentally exhausting for myself. 

We only drove about 6-7 hours to Kansas City on Wednesday. 

I'm glad we had already planned on making that our stopping point.

My back was still hurting from the first day.

We stayed with friends, Justine and Kyle. Lawrence friends even drove up to KC and we went out for supper at Arthur Bryant's BBQ and then out for drinks in Westport.

SO GOOD.

You can tell we have a thing for BBQ.

On Thursday we made the familiar trek from KC to Hurley, SD. I've completed that route a couple times, so it was pretty relaxing. Despite both of us suffering from sinus issues. 

We were home by about 3:30 pm. 

By this point Ben was officially coming down with a cold. 

And as I write this I myself feel the fatigue and sore throat characteristic of a good old fashioned summer cold/allergies/and whatever else. 

I am not surprised, seeing as we just completed finals and then moved ourselves halfway across the country. 

We're finally getting the wedding ball rolling. 

We'll be meeting with our photographer on Wednesday to discuss plans. 

Need to go get Ben a ring. 

Looks like I'm starting to take planning a little more seriously. 

Already Ben and I have been spending more time outside doing odd jobs wherever needed. 

Cleaning, mowing, chainsawing and cleaning up fallen branches from the winter storms that finally ended 2 weeks ago, etc. etc.  

It turns out that I am quite handy with a pitchfork so I also get to feed the cows. 

It's a little strange to be back in South Dakota.

It's been a long time since I've "lived" here and not just "visited". 

If we ever tire of living in the city, it would be a nice option.