Another Boring Sunday

I had a ton of fun today. After walking around campus and town yesterday, we hit the highways and visited a historical prairie, and the river before driving to the next town over to do a little shopping. What? When it's 80 out you don't expect me to stay inside do you?! Of course not! I'll be the first one out that door if given the chance!

We hiked up the hill at the historical prairie, which felt like home to me. The tall, brown brome grasses whirled around our heads in the strong southern winds. It smelled of the trails my brothers and I used to walk through when my family would camp out at the park about 10 miles from our house back in Iowa. The walk around the prairie was about 1.6 miles and we were still pumped, so I decided we would take a drive past a couple of other sites in the area. First, I took him past the winery, then since we were still in the hiking/walking mood we headed down to the river area.

When I was at the river before I stayed at the docks, but this time we chose to take the trails. When we started the trails, they were dirt. However, about 50 feet into the trails they turned into sand--and not just any sand, fine sand. As we walked along the edge of the little cliffs, we were waking up the sand crystals and whomever was walking behind would get a face full of sand, which tastes wonderful let me tell you. While he was sitting on a log, I wandered off on my own (I know, not a big surprise) and hiked up through a more wooded area. I was enjoying the view of the river, but decided I should head back. As I started the short jog back I heard a huge rustling of the grass and dead leaves, so I turned my head in the general direction of the sound and saw a large garter snake. At first I froze. Being from western Iowa, I know that prairie rattlesnakes inhabit the area I'm currently living in--South Dakota--because it's only about 100 miles away from home. The snake was on my right about 5 feet away and was slightly coiled, but I decided to just keep on walking and gawking at it--if it wanted to attack it would have already. As I went by it I looked for rattles, but saw nothing. Phew! It was just a regular garter! I figured that the pepper spray (I always carry it when hiking, because we have bobcats and mountain lions in the tri-state region) I had with me would do no good if was a rattler anyway. Nothing else as exciting as that happened, but I'm sure I'll be cleaning sand out of my ears for days...even after the shower I still feel dirty.

We then headed towards the other town and shopped at the Super Wal-Mart since the town I'm in doesn't have one. I managed to pick up a copy of Emerson Drive's first album and Purple from Cross Canadian Ragweed. I had been looking for Purple for about 2 months, but Sioux City was always out of it.

We came back, watched The Simpsons and Arrested Development then he headed home. It's always a little lonely when he first leaves.

As I was writing this post (which is being completed over 2 hours since I started writing, so the post time will be off!) M. found a bug in her room and we had to run to Hy-Vee to find a fly swatter...they don't have them. How can a place like that not carry fly swatters? It's like the biggest store in town!

Tomorrow I need to go and get my hair relightened as the blonde didn't come out the way we expected it to. Then it's on to class. Blech.