Weekend in the Hills

I have discovered that the landscape here is open enough to be malleable to one's mood. When we got out of school on Friday, I drove through overcast skies to Kyle to watch our football team play; I was happy to be freed for a long weekend, and as I walked out of the building and into 50-degree weather, the chill and the clouds struck me as perfect football weather, like we were deep into October instead of just beginning September. It reminded me of cross country in years gone past, only now I was lost in this wide-open, spectacular landscape, that, for the moment, only fueled my excitement for the weekend.

The football game was a lot of fun. It was wet and muddy, with fumbles just about every other play. Most of the spectators pulled their cars up to the field and honked whenever there was an exciting play. I felt an old thrill watching the boys play, remembering what it was like to compete in high school sports--how important the game (or meet) is for that passing moment. We have a joint team with the school in Kyle, with only 4 of the players coming from my school; but that's not bad when you consider we only have 45 or so students total at the moment. We put a hurting on Hill City, 33-10, and one of the players had a couple of very good runs. I'm excited for more football.

After the game was over, I drove to Mission where I watched another football game, this time Todd County v. Bennett County. By this point the temperature had dropped down into the forties and it was raining pretty good, so it was less pleasant, and less exciting since it wasn't my team. I stuck around for a couple quarters and then headed out to get dry. I should've taken some pictures when I was at Kyle, because the field there really illustrates rural high school football as well. Netha was taking pictures for the Todd County yearbook, though, so eventually I should have some pictures of the second game.

On Saturday afternoon I drove out to Rapid City. A bunch of TFA'ers met at a restaurant downtown before heading down towards Custer to go camping for the night. It ended up being fairly ridiculous; quiet hours began at 10, which is when we left the restaurant, and we had to drive an hour and a half to get to the site, dropping off most of the cars in Custer because we were illegally packing extra campers into our campsite. I rode in from Custer with the ladies from Kyle, and it was fun to see them again. They inadvertantly took the scenic route, though, which was less effective at night; what I could see was fairly spooky though, as we drove through some moonscape rock formations and then drove through one-lane tunnels drilled through the Hills. At one point we passed a buffalo hanging out right next to the road, and a couple of the girls flipped; I think they were paying too much attention to the signs that recommended caution around the buffalo. Seemed pretty harmless to me, but then again, I have it on good authority that I should go walking with the buffalo. If it doesn't kill me, it's supposed to be a spectacular experience. I finally made it to the campsite a little after 11:30. A bunch of us packed into one of the tent and very quietly enjoyed the half-gallon jugs of beer we purchased at the brewery in Rapid. Then we settled in for the night, trying to keep warm now that temperatures had dropped into the 30s (keep in mind that just a week and a half ago it was 105 out this way; even today it's already back in the 80s).

In the morning I finally got to see the beauty of the Hills by daylight, although I didn't do much sightseeing as I wanted to get back to Rapid and do some shopping. I was pretty bad about taking pictures again; hopefully Netha will be able to give me some good pictures from the Black Hills, too.

Our campsite in the morning.

When I got back from Rapid City on Saturday night, my feelings about the landscape had come full circle. I've never been a fan of returning from trips, and to return from hanging with everyone to an empty house was really tough--especially for someone who's used to having people around all the time. With Luke home for the weekend I felt pretty isolated, and rather than the same grandeur I saw on Friday afternoon, everything struck me as barren. When you are down it is hard to put out of mind all of the poverty, suffering, and negativity that can reign in these parts, until those thoughts and images start to block out whatever beauty exists. Feeling a little lonesome, I went for a soul-cleansing 10-mile run and spent a while talking with people from back home--so thanks to everyone who got me through a lonely night.