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!