Wade-in on the World to Change
Well..Rachel and I are currently in Rapid City, SD. We got here around..well, im not even sure. The times change and i cant keep up with that. Anyways, we got here and it was raining pretty heavily. We arrived at our hosts house. His name is Arik and he is super nice. He has a woman from Austrailia named Gae that has also been staying with him for 10 weeks now. When we arrived she was mixing up some sort of stew in the kitchen. She was throwing in herbs and spices i’ve never seen before, but it all worked well together and the meal was great! We sat outside and we all ate together. There was another woman here named Debbie. She works at the co-op with Arik and Gae. Everyone and everything is great. The house is small but all the windows and doors are open and it’s pretty freeing. We were welcomed with open arms and had great conversation with Arik. We will be leaving here pretty early tomorrow morning because we have about a 10 hour drive ahead of us. Next stop: Yellowstone National Park.
I don’t want to undershadow any of the time we spent in Sioux Falls, SD because it was awesome too. If you allow me to back track I will. We arrived in Sioux Falls about an hour and a half to two hours later than we originally thought we would, however our first host, Wade, didnt seem to mind. The whole drive to his house we were asking each other if we were crazy for doing this. Have we lost our minds? At the same time of question and doubt we were very excited for what was to come. Every song that had the words “wait” or “way” we changed to Wade. He was very apparent in our 9.5 hour drive. Anyways, Wade welcomed us into his apartment while he was cutting up mushrooms and listening to “I’m on a Boat”. Now, anyone who cuts mushrooms and listens to the Lonely Island is an instafriend. After we acknowledge the fact that Wade was very real and everything was going to be fine, we started right in on our conversations and wisecracks. Wade also cooked for us. He made lentils with chicken and all sorts of things all thrown together. We ate with our hands and used bread to pick up all the other good stuff. It was very cool. Just as we were finishing up our meal, Wade’s room mate Evan decided to show up. I officially dubbed him Ev, just as he had decided to call us Rach and Abe. As you all know, I’d normally be opposed to this type of name calling. But, we were in Sioux Falls and anything goes. After we ate, they took us down town. Their downtown is small but super cozy and nice. There were sculptures everywhere and pianos you could play right outside. We ended up at a place called Paramount, which is a piano bar. There was a man in a plaid cut off shirt that gave Rachel, I mean Rach, a lot of attention due to the piano tattoo she has on her arm. He offered to give her a hundo for a song on the piano, but she declined. Paramount was pretty upscale, sassy, elegant, and any other adjective you want to use. We were all pretty tired at this point so we went back home and settled in. I slept on a sturdy, reliable, dependable, cream couch. That couch was there for me all night.
When we woke up in Sioux Falls this morning, we hung out with Evan while Wade did some work. When we all met up again they took us to the Falls. So beautiful! We also got to see a huge statue of some David dude. Whatevs! Wade and Evan were awesome. They both had a great sense of humor and we all immediately started taking stabs at each other in a fun loving manner. Before we met them, Rachel and I were talking about how we felt so far away from home. When we left this morning, home didnt seem so far away. Wade and Evan were just how we imagined them to be and we are so thankful for that. Our first hosts and our best hosts, right?
The last day of Chicago seems pretty far away but it was a relatively good day. We walked around a lot more, saw the bean in Millenium Park, laid about in the green grasses, ate Chicago style pizza, went to an art museum..and and and…that is all i can remember.
Everything is going so well thus far. It’s really hard to believe that it’s happening and will continue to happen. We are so grateful for all the hosts that have decided to take us in with open arms. I am even more grateful to find honest people that just want to share and talk to you about anything and everything. It is eye opening to see how differently people live. We have it all wrong sometimes!
It is now time for bed. Rachel and I will be sleeping side by side tonight. Mama Katt will also be joining us. Until tomorrow…I love you all! Especially my family who I know is checking this everyday in anticipation. <3
