Pine Ridge mission trip, Day 7

Remember the old saying that goes something like this: "How was your vacation?" "Great! I just spent a week with people I used to like."

Although most of us aren't to that point yet, it's getting close for some and crossed the line for a couple in the van today. Everyone is ready to head home tomorrow -- especially the youth, I think. (Though Christine, Clark and I have all exceeded our tolerance threshold for loud boys. They're going to have to go outside and run laps tonight before they come back in to sleep.)

But that doesn't mean we didn't have a good time today on the "Big Monument Loop." First, though, morning devotionals featured Zach reading Scripture (pictured below) and Clark relating the story of Ed Pulaski and his unflinching dedication to his 45-member firefighting crew while they were caught in a firestorm (see http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/1910-centennial/pulaski.html and http://culture.polishsite.us/articles/art451fr.htm for the story).

First stop -- and favorite stop for everyone, it seems -- was the Crazy Horse monument north of Custer, S.D.

There was SO MUCH to see there, from Native American historical images to paintings to artwork created by local native artisans. There also was a movie about the project, a museum that told the story of the memorial and a peek inside the artist's studio (complete with Cheyenne-to-Deadwood stage and other sculptures he had carved through the years). For more, visit http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/.

After about two hours, we had lunch there at the Laughing Water Restaurant, where Sydney, Conner and I all had buffalo burgers.

Then it was on to Mount Rushmore (http://www.nps.gov/moru/index.htm):

We walked down to the amphitheater right away, then wandered in and out of exhibits and gift shops before deciding to take the Presidential Trail along the base of the mountain (where you're so close you can see if they left any "hairs" inside Jefferson's nose). In case you haven't noticed by the pictures so far, it was a far cry from Monday's 101 degrees, so it was a nice day for a hike up some stairs. (At one point after leaving Crazy Horse, in fact, it was just 57 degrees!)

Before we left, we had to get some ice cream or coffee, of course. Then we traveled east along Highway 40 back to the reservation. Just after passing the small town of Red Shirt, we got to the only Badlands overlook on the rez:

Can you tell they're all tired? The Badlands are truly amazing, though, and it was a nice last stop before returning to the Makasan center for dinner tonight. As dinner was being prepared, we had a beautiful, red sunset that was a nice symbolic end for our journey together:

Until next time! Wopila Tanka (Thank you) for reading!

Pine Ridge mission trip, Day 6

Mission trip lesson #5: Younger members of most youth groups, like those we have in our group (ranging in grade level from sixth through ninth), will really only work hard for three consecutive days (at most). So if you get any of a fourth day of work out of them, consider it a bonus.

Apparently Jimbo knew this rule from all of his prior youth group mission trip experiences. He simply failed to share it with me until this afternoon.

We finished up work at Madeline's house by around 1:30 today. Among the tasks finished up:

Robert painted the floor of the front porch with both brush and roller under the expert guidance of Clark, who also painted window trim with the same brown:

Several of the youth and I finished up the east side of the house, as well as other white painting on the north side. Meanwhile, Sydney, Erin, Jimbo and Lindy were busy inside Madeline's house cleaning up from the popcorn ceiling repair:

Final tally of work done over two days Wednesday and today at Madeline's:

• Drywall patch, repair in her living room
• Popcorn ceiling repair
• Scrape and paint four exterior walls
• Repair porch railing, including building two brand new slats
• Paint porch
• Fix roof on one side of A-frame house

From there, Jimbo, Clark and I made two more dump runs from the Makasan center to remove the remaining debris from our work there, as well as some other items Asa was looking to get rid of.

The final list of work done here, mostly Monday and Tuesday:

• Replace slats on one sun shade with boards from the other one, scrape and paint
• Completely remove old wood and replace with all new lumber on the second sun shade, plus paint
• Scrape and paint metal picnic tables that go inside sun shades
• Demolish three old outhouses behind the church and remove debris to the dump
• Use weed trimmer to create fire barrier around church and multi-purpose building, plus remove other weeds on property
• Mow property with church's lawnmower
• Picket fence repair (made 10 new pickets and painted them)
• Paint bench around tree in front of church
• Deck repair (front and back of multi-purpose building)
• Kitchen sink repair in multi-purpose building
• Bathroom door lock repair in multi-purpose building
• Multiple trips to the dump to haul trash and debris

After our last trip to the dump, Jimbo, Clark and I went to the town of Pine Ridge to see if we could repair a metal roof over the porch at Madeline's sister, Christine's house. I was a good supervisor while Jimbo the roofer and Clark (who could pass as a roofer, and who I have decided is a true Renaissance man) removed the two sheets of metal, realigned them and reattached them with 16-penny nails:

After a dinner of pork chops on the grill, green beans and a fantastic pasta salad, we turned the youth all loose for free time all evening at 6:30. All except Sydney, Conner and Robert, that is, who sat and wrote postcards (made by Rev. Sandi, who included the reservation flag on the side they wrote on; thank you!) to the people who donated to allow them to participate:

All in all, another productive day, yet with enough down time this afternoon and evening to hopefully rejuvenate some very tired youth (and their adult leaders) so we can all go have fun tomorrow at Crazy Horse Monument, Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills.

Pine Ridge mission trip, Day 5

Mission trip lesson #4: When the heat is on (literally), the youth are off (doing anything but painting a wall in the direct sun).

Who can blame them, right? It was at least 96 degrees outside today, and the east wall of Madeline's house was hot by the time they all returned from lunch at the center. So ... our productivity declined considerably this afternoon before we knocked off at 2 to clean up and go to Red Cloud Indian School for a tour and presentation about the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

More on that later. But first, some images from today:

Sydney and Jimbo led us in morning devotions on the deck of the center, reminding us that we are better together as a group when we don't bicker or breed resentment, but instead work together and lift each other up through support and encouragement.

There was a lot of paint scraping to do on several walls of Madeline's house. Conner can be seen in the background working on a north wall. The result of Clark's handiwork -- new and replaced porch slats -- can be seen in the foreground.

Zack did some mudding of the ceiling inside Madeline's house in advance of Jimbo adding popcorn texture to it.

Sydney helped Lindy cover wood beams in Madeline's house with paper by sticking pieces of tape to her arm. So helpful!

Then Jimbo went to town with the air compressor and the mud, shooting it onto the ceiling. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough mud and the popcorn texture he needed, so he went to town again -- only this time to Hot Springs, S.D. (I know ... GROAN for the pun! Hey, it's hot and the end of a long day, so give me a break! ;>} )

Of course, after all that scraping, there was painting to be done, so the whole crew took up paintbrushes, rollers and pans and got busy ... for about 30 minutes, until it got unbearably hot and their enthusiasm waned.

A bit earlier, Jimbo, Robert, Gabe and Jake worked on reattaching some shingles to the west side of Madeline's roof -- another life lesson learned.

 

After everyone took showers and put on clean clothes, it was off to Red Cloud Indian School (between here and Pine Ridge, S.D.), where a community liaison gave us a tour of the Catholic chapel (including the baptismal font shown in the above photo that was rescued by a firefighter/trustee of the church who was first to arrive when the old chapel caught fire and burned to the ground on Good Friday about 15 years ago).

She also gave us a speech that covered from the beginning of the U.S. government forcing Native Americans to live in this region of the country and never wander from it to reservation life the way it is today.

It was a fascinating presentation and one that answered a lot of our questions, such as:

Why are all of the trailers in this area so rundown? The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is the second-poorest Indian reservation in the country. It has an 80 percent unemployment rate, and the average annual income is just $6,000.

Why are there so many junked cars parked right around most of the houses? To make some extra money -- since everything is so spread out here and there isn't a NAPA Auto Parts store on every corner, they sell parts from these junked vehicles to others who need them.

It seems like very few people are trying to lift themselves out of poverty and better their own situation. Is this an accurate perception? In fact, it's just the opposite, in many cases. Although the federal government promised housing to all Native Americans early on, with income levels so low, it's a major step just to be able to buy a trailer and put it on the land where their ancestors got their start. Red Cloud Indian School is one of the other major efforts under way to give the Pine Ridge children a quality, tuition-free education so they can live better lives than their parents. In fact, 92 percent of the school's graduates go on to college or some form of post-secondary education!

Which fits well with this saying found in among the tile floor of a Pine Ridge Shell station:

Unfortunately, we had to cut the tour short in order to get back to the Makasan center for a delicious dinner of BBQ hamburgers, fresh corn on the cob (transported all the way from Wyoming), chips, pork and beans, and peaches. Then we quickly cleaned up and headed back toward Pine Ridge for our next adventure.

And what an adventure it was! Asa had set up a tour of a local high-school math teacher's buffalo ranch. For $3 per person, he loads people into the back of his pickup and drives them through some goat-trail roads, up hills and along drop-offs, until he reaches his herd. When the buffalo see the truck coming, they walk right up to it so the people in the bed of the truck can feed them pellets by hand:

Although it was cool seeing the buffalo up close like that, the coolest parts were laughing along with everyone else in the back of the truck as we bounced along together, then hearing our guide tell stories about his people and their culture after showing us a mounted rare baby white buffalo that had been born there on his ranch in the mid-1990s and died from illness before it lived very long. (It was only the third white buffalo ever born in North America, that they know of, and although the odds of one being born are from 10 million-to-1 to 1 billion-to-1, a second one was born on the same ranch just three weeks later!)

A quick stop at the gas station in Pine Ridge, then back across the rough U.S. Highway 18 to the center (new term: Rez Roads, refers to torn-up roads on the reservation -- most of them, in other words) for a bowl of ice cream to cap off another great day!

Pine Ridge mission trip, Day 4

Mission trip lesson #3: Youth group mission trips are about much, much more than just getting work done.

They're about fellowship and fun with other youth (and yeah, OK, sometimes the adults aren't all that bad either).

They're about serving those who can use our help -- in a variety of ways.

And, maybe most importantly, they're about learning life skills.

At this midpoint of our trip to South Dakota, there have been countless examples of all of the above. Maybe I was just focused on the latter more today for some reason, or probably it was because it was our first full day of work, but it seemed to be filled more with examples of learning life skills.

Some examples follow in the summary of our day in photos.

Zach, Robert and I started the work day by loading old wood removed from the sun shade/picnic tables and a lot of brush into the back of Jimbo's truck and making a "dump run" (life skill learned: the small amount of debris left in the bed of the truck will blow out if you leave the tailgate down and drive 55 mph down the highway on the way back):

Back at the the church/center, crews were working on both of the sun shades, including Lindy and Sydney, who were busy painting the one with the boards we salvaged and scraped.

At the same time, Jimbo was leading a crew in putting the other one back together with new lumber.

Behind the multi-purpose center, another one of those life-skills moments was taking place, as Clark taught Erin and Conner how to use the power drill to push deck screws in and attach new boards to replace those that had come loose or warped. It's a skill he'll use all his life.

Sydney thought she was pretty funny when she took this photo of me mowing the property this afternoon. She said to post that "even in South Dakota, Dad can't get away from mowing the lawn."

Guess what, Sydney: Neither can you! ;>}

Another life skill learned, though I believe she intentionally missed some spots so she could tell me how bad she is at it and possibly avoid doing it back home! Conner and Robert got some painting time in on one of the sun shades (though Conner voluntarily spent much of the afternoon helping Christine do some housecleaning in the center like cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the fellowship hall and hanging out laundry, among other necessary tasks -- guess who will be doing more household chores when he gets home!).

And they both turned out very nice:

After a full day of work, which ended for the youth around 5:15 and the adults around 6:15, Tresita and Asa treated us to a wonderful dinner of Indian tacos and a native blueberry pudding that goes GREAT with the homemade Indian frybread.

Asa went down the buffet line to show everyone how to assemble their tacos after telling us that the tradition got started when an Indian carrying frybread and a Mexican carrying a taco bumped into each other on a road, all of the food flew up into the air, and what came down is what we enjoyed tonight. RIGHT! Sounds suspiciously like the origins of the Reese's peanut butter cup!

Here he is describing the blueberry pudding:

Here's my completed Indian taco, complete with Jimbo's homemade guacamole (both hot and mild, plus tortilla chips) on the side:

And, to no one's surprise, Jimbo really got into eating his:

Most of us came away from dinner feeling overstuffed, but grateful for such a wonderful treat! (Sydney was right. She said last year that I would love Tresita's Indian tacos. They definitely are fantastic!)

It was a great day, capped by some fantastic food, plus Tresita and Asa invited some Native American artisans over from Red Shirt to display, talk about and sell their wares, so we had a nice time with them here too.

Yet, for me at least, the neatest part of the day still is seeing my son get into learning a new skill (even if it wasn't from his dad -- which isn't surprising, since anyone who knows me knows that I'm limited when it comes to those types of skills) and other youth in our group learning other skills like safely operating a SkillSaw or marking and cutting 1x4 slats for a picket fence.

Tomorrow we head to Madeline's house to make more memories ... and maybe learn some more life skills along the way.

Pine Ridge mission trip, Day 3

Mission trip lesson # 1: Make a plan for each day of the week, but don't expect to stick to that plan. It will change about a million times from the moment it's typed into the computer until the end of the trip.

Mission trip lesson #2: BE FLEXIBLE and learn to go with the flow. It will save you and the rest of the members of your team a lot of stress (See lesson #1).

Thankfully, I pledged from the moment we left Cheyenne Saturday afternoon to have a relaxing, stress-free vacation/mission trip with our youth group (including my own two children, who I don't get to spend enough time with). With the exception of a trip to Walmart in Chadron, Nebraska tonight, I have pretty much succeeded so far.

Day 3 started this morning with breakfast at 7:30 (scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, fresh peaches and strawberries and, of course, coffee), followed by a devotion led by Lindy, Robert and Conner at 8. A group prayer standing in a circle, lots of sunscreen and some work gloves, and our mission work was under way!

Sydney, Zack and I got busy scraping one sun shade and picnic table near the Makasan Presbyterian Church ...

... while Conner and Lindy painted this new bench around the adjacent tree ...

... Jimbo, Jake and Gabe worked on removing all of the wood from the other sun shade (which was in much worse shape) ...

... and Clark, Erin and Robert did yard work (thank goodness Clark just bought this new weed whacker! He was a weed-cutting MACHINE, despite the heat!) ...

The rest of the morning was filled with destruction (of two old outhouses behind the church), exertion (as Gabe nearly single-handedly broke up big pieces of said outhouses with a sledgehammer and axe; those summer days in the weight room for football really paid off!), and buckets of sweat.

After a lunch of sandwiches (including egg salad made from the leftover scrambled eggs -- YUM!), Pico de Gallo and tortilla chips and more fresh peaches and apples, the consensus was that no one wanted to go on the hike planned to the Crazy Horse burial site. Jimbo and I took a pickup load of lumber to the dump, scoped out the work we need to do at Madeline's house (where we will work Wednesday and Thursday) and came back to load a second dump load in the truck.

After making apologies to Pastor Asa about changing the plans and not taking the hike in the heat, we decided to instead travel to Hot Springs, S.D., which is about 45 minutes northwest of here, and go to Evan's Plunge (see http://www.evansplunge.com/). One the way, my van's thermostat said 101 degrees, and Jimbo's truck said 100. Either way, it just confirmed what we already knew from working outside earlier -- it was HOT!

And although we went to a hot springs-fed indoor/outdoor pool and water park, the water was cool and refreshing by comparison. What a great two-and-a-half hours of fun we had sliding down slides (this is Jimbo hitting the water at the bottom of a steep indoor slide) ...

... swinging on rings across the water that hung from the ceiling, and even playing a game of "King of the hill ... er, gator ...

Because Clark went to Newcastle, Wyo., on Forest Service business tonight, Jimbo and I took two youth to Chadron with us to get a few more grocery items, as well as some paint, drill bits, etc. for this week's work projects. After pulling into the Walmart parking lot, Jimbo listened to his voicemail messages (cell phone reception on the reservation is horrible, to put it mildly -- or at least for we Verizon users; "Can you hear me now?" "Nope, sure can't.") and heard from Asa that he was in Chadron too. Sure enough, Christine called me a few minutes later to say the van crew was back at the center and locked out.

Sydney, Gabe, Jimbo and I spent more than an hour trying to find everything on our shopping list, but since it was a small, grossly understaffed "regular" Walmart and not a Supercenter like we have in Cheyenne, that was more than a bit challenging and frustrating at times (for a poor college student named Melissa who helped us in the paint department, too; she was the only floor associate working three or more departments covering about half the store -- gotta love this economy we're living with right now). I had to constantly remind myself of lesson #2 during this little errand.

All the way back to the reservation, we wondered whether the rest of our group was still stuck outside the center or had been let in by Asa and Tresita. Thankfully, when we crested the hill, we saw the center ablaze with lights in the windows, reassuring us they were no longer "stranded" in a minivan with nothing to keep them entertained. Our hosts had arrived within 30 minutes of their return "home." We just couldn't reach anyone's cell to learn that fact before we got back ourselves.

Since no one had eaten yet, we finished the day with a 10 p.m. dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, salad and snickerdoodles. Plus, Asa and Tresita had this late dinner with us, so we got to enjoy their company.

All in all, it was a pretty productive, definitely fun and at times patience-challenging day. But it's definitely one none of us will soon forget! We're looking forward to a full day of work here at the center tomorrow without traveling anywhere -- plus, Tresita is treating us all to Indian tacos for dinner! Until then ...

Pine Ridge mission trip, Day 2

Day 2 is done, and although we didn't do any physical labor on this Sabbath, we're all exhausted -- from the travel, the activities, but most of all the heat and humidity. (More on that later.)

But we're also excited by the opportunity to do some work here at the Makasan Presbyterian Church and Multi-Purpose Center tomorrow. We have a variety of projects lined up, from basic yard work to rebuilding two sun shades over picnic tables to staining benches.

Today started around 7:15 a.m. for the seven boys and men, plus Christine, who already had cereal and cantaloupe out and coffee made when I got out of the shower. The girls wandered out a bit later, but since church didn't start until 10:30, it was a nice, relaxing start to a day of rest.

One of the most popular times of the morning was around 9:15, when hot cinnamon rolls came out of the oven. Conner really got into his, as you can tell from the photo at left.

The church service was a special one led by two interns from a seminary in Minnesota who are returning to classes this week. Since it was their last Sunday here, they led the service -- even preaching the sermon together. It was a spirit-filled service with a theme of having deep faith in Jesus that he can work miracles, just as he did for the Canaanite woman, who persisted in her request that Jesus heal her demon-possessed daughter (Matthew 15:10-28).

There also was lots of great music, including this moment with the church choir (our hosts are pictured here -- Pastor Asa on the far left and his wife, Tresita, in the center):

After church, there was a special potluck lunch in the Multi-Purpose Center to thank James (to Asa's left) and Ruth (to Tresita's left) for their service to the small congregation. James has been here a year, and Ruth has been here for two stints during the past six months, including all summer.

Although Jimbo, Clark and I were scheduled to go look at work projects after lunch and before we went to Wounded Knee, I quickly learned today that best-laid plans are pretty much meaningless once you are on "reservation time." The main mistake I made was in thinking we would arrive at Wounded Knee on time at 3 p.m., so I directed Shelli and Kelly to bring Zack from Rapid City via Highway 44 and meet us there. Of course, by the time the potluck ended and we packed our dinner for the trip (cold-cut sandwiches on hoagies, chips, string cheese and an apple -- Christine ROCKS!), it was already nearly 3. Then, just as we thought we were headed out, Asa decided he needed to drive his pickup away and get a tire inflated. (Everyone back out of the vehicles. So much for that rushed lunch packing ... though I think we're as efficient as the Kiwanis Club putting on the pancake breakfast already!)

Finally, after a rough ride along a very torn-up, under construction Highway 18 to Pine Ridge, we arrived at the Wounded Knee massacre site, met up with Shelli, Kelly and Zack and learned all about the history of the massacre from Asa (see http://www.lastoftheindependents.com/wounded.htm and http://www.hanksville.org/daniel/lakota/Wounded_Knee.html for the full story), including the fact that this mass grave likely contains around 320 Native American men, women, children and babies. What a horrible -- but, unfortunately, only small -- part of our history!

 

While helping Conner fight a headache from being dehydrated, we proceeded on to the Mandersen District's powwow site. Although it was only around 5 p.m. (we thought the powwow started at 6 ... turns out it was actually 7 ... or 7:15 ... reservation time again), there was a military flag ceremony and a variety of horse races going on (including this one, where a rider faces backward down an open field, they go around a pole and race back -- the first team to return wins a horse!).

But it also was more than 90 degrees with 90+ percent humidity. Let the complaining begin! I must have been asked at least a dozen times by at least three of the youth (one of which was my first-born) when we were going to leave. Of course, Sydney was here last summer and wasn't that interested in seeing a second powwow. (I also think the Indian Village at Cheyenne Frontier Days took some of the luster off this activity for some members of our group, though I have to say once it began it was cool to experience in an authentic setting!)

Loved these guys hitting the big drum during the opening grand entry! Very cool chanting that went along with it too!

After about an hour, we headed out, made a quick milk-and-eggs stop at a Shell station in Pine Ridge, then (in what seemed like a good idea initially) went south, then west to avoid the Highway 18 construction. Although the paved road was a roller coaster ride that occasionally would have given Elitch's Mind Eraser a run for its money, it actually could -- and did -- get worse. After turning north, we ran into a "road closed" sign (not literally, thank goodness!) and had to detour onto a very long section of gravel road. And since we were a caravan of three vehicles, two of us ate dust and had a hard time seeing the roadway, while the inside of Jimbo's truck got to wear a 64-ounce soda spilled right after the gravel journey began. (I definitely know who had it worse, and it wasn't me!)

Despite these detours, though, we made it back to the Makasan Center around 9:15 p.m., and Jimbo led the group in a devotional and reminder of the rules. What a great mission trip leader he is!

Some initial thoughts about the experience here on the reservation so far:

Lindy and I talked during the van ride together yesterday and today about how not only did the United States government force the native people onto these sections of land, it seems like they didn't give them the best land in the country on which to make a living, plus they've done little to help them be successful or give them any kind of amenities (like even decent roads).

The Lakota people are a mixture of both warm, welcoming folks who are glad we are here and wished us well during our stay this week, and those who never said two words to us -- just like us white people!

We're not looking forward to it being 96 degrees here tomorrow, but it should make us appreciate Wednesday's 78-degree high that much more!

Pine Ridge mission trip, Day 1

Our travel day began around 1:40 p.m. from Grace United Methodist Church. After unpacking and repacking vehicles, and loading all of the food Christine and Clark had bought, we headed out. Our van had me, Lindy, Sydney, Erin, Jake and Conner together, while Robert and Gabe rode with Jimbo in his truck, with Clark and Christine in their SUV.

Our caravan made its way up U.S. Highway 85, but since I hadn't studied the map well enough in advance, we went all the way to Torrington, Wyo., rather than cutting off halfway there and heading directly to Scottsbluff, Neb. After regrouping in Torrington, we traveled through several small towns, and then southeast of Scottsbluff we turned east toward Alliance.

 
We arrived at Carhenge around 4:30 p.m. Everyone had a great time trying to identify the makes and models of vehicles used to recreate Stonehenge in the middle of the Nebraska prairie (for more about this unique tourist attraction, see http://www.carhenge.com/). A trail east of the "monument" took us past a steel fish and dinosaur, plus plenty of other old cars in unique configurations. A quick trip to the gift shop yielded several postcards and some souvenir flattened pennies.

Then we were off to Chadron for dinner (note to self: Chadron State Park looks like a fun place, with paddleboats on the small lake amid pine trees that seemed to just pop up out of nowhere), a refuel stop and on to the Makasan Presbyterian Church and Multi-Purpose Center here outside of Ogalala, S.D. Despite the detours, we arrived around 8 p.m., as planned. After unloading food and personal items, we settled in for a meeting with our hosts and discussed our schedule for the week.

After a few revisions, this is the plan:

Sunday, Aug. 14
10:30 a.m. -- Worship at Makasan Presbyterian Church
After worship -- Potluck with church members, who will be saying goodbye to two interns they have had with them from Minnesota
1 p.m. -- Jimbo, Clark and I will go check out work sites on the reservation
2:30 p.m. -- Leave for Wounded Knee massacre site, followed by powwow outside of Pine Ridge until sleep time

Monday, Aug, 15
8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. -- Work projects at or near Makasan Center
2:30 p.m. -- Leave for Kacelchek Ranch for hike to Crazy Horse burial grounds
Evening activity TBA, depending on length of time at ranch

Tuesday, Aug. 16
8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. -- Work projects
6 p.m. -- Local artisan shows us bead work and other items that also will be available for purchase
7 p.m. -- Our hosts graciously provide us a dinner of Indian tacos (which Sydney says from experience here last year are the best!)

Wednesday, Aug. 17
8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. -- Work projects
2:30 or 3 p.m. -- Leave for Red Cloud School/museum tour
5 p.m. -- Dinner at Makasan Center
6:30-8:30 p.m. -- Buffalo ranch tour (where we will ride out to the buffalo herd in the back of pickup trucks and get to feed the bison by hand!)

Thursday, Aug. 18
8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. -- Work projects
5 p.m. -- Dinner
6 p.m. -- Leave for Evans Plunge, an indoor pool/hot springs in Hot Springs, S.D., about 45 minutes away

Friday, Aug. 19
8:30 a.m. -- Leave for day of touring Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Rapid City and western portion of the Black Hills
7-8 p.m. -- Return to Makasan Center

Saturday, Aug. 20
Return to Cheyenne by around 3 p.m.

Everyone is looking forward to a fun and productive week together as we serve those who can use our help, get to know each other better and have a blast! Thanks to all of the members of Grace UMC who helped make this trip possible, and for those praying for us during our trip!

To NASA, with gratitude

Many thanks, NASA, for one last adrenaline kick and a few edge-of-your-seat moments this morning.

I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Even after watching more than 100 of the 135 space shuttle launches as they happened on TV over the past 29 years, this morning's final send-off of Atlantis got my heart racing and caused me to hold my breath a bit.

It's a familiar feeling -- one that I still remember getting the first time as I opened my hometown newspaper following the third space shuttle flight. There on the page were beautiful full-color images of a vehicle that never failed to be awe-inspiring to this small-town Oregon boy with dreams of someday making his own journey into space.

Here's another one from NASA's website this morning:

What a gorgeous vehicle. What an amazing piece of technology. What a ride it must be!

Since the day my middle-school-aged eyes feasted on those newspaper photos, the shuttle program and I have been on a journey together. That journey included: clipping and saving articles about those early flights (one file folder for each mission); writing to NASA and receiving high-quality lithographs of autographed crew photos; getting up very early to watch launch and landing coverage when I grumbled about doing the same to do farm work (My dad often said I needed to get my head out of the clouds and get busy, which is advice I still need from time to time.); being encouraged by my high-school physics teacher to pursue a career as an astronaut; and even getting college media staff to videotape NASA-TV coverage for me well after it became clear I wasn't cut out to be a physicist and decided to focus on journalism instead.

It also included two horrific moments as I watched Challenger explode in front of my eyes as I sat it my living room, home from school and nursing a bad case of the flu, but still watching the launch, and, many years later, learning that Columbia had broken apart on reentry over Texas and overseeing our special front-page presentation of the tragedy here in Cheyenne's newspaper.

I even feel blessed to say the journey included three trips to Florida's Kennedy Space Center and one to Edwards Air Force Base in California through the years. Although I never got to see a launch (or even a shuttle) in person, I did make a couple of trips to Launch Complex 39 and thrilled at showing my two children some of the things that excited me when I was a kid. I plan to make that journey again once Atlantis is on permanent display at the KSC Visitor Complex.

Yet even as the adrenaline kicked in once again when this morning's countdown briefly stopped at T-31 seconds, and, once liftoff happened, as I sat holding my breath until the solid rocket boosters separated (something we all have done since the loss of Challenger), I couldn't help but be sad that this was the last time I would experience a shuttle launch.

Oh, I know there probably will be other space missions somewhere down the line that may bring their own emotions, but I can't help but think that, somehow, they won't be the same.

Many thanks to NASA and all of the shuttle program workers for the special moments you have shared with me through the years. This program -- with all of its spectacular images and accomplishments -- will be missed.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Godspeed, Atlantis!