Grand Forks Update

Hi, everyone!

This is just a quick recap of yesterday's events. Dun-dun-dunnnnnn...

First of all, the packing was a true nightmare. Silver wanted to take everything but the kitchen sink with her, but naturally we were constrained by the limitations placed on us not only by the airline, but also our own physical strength!

I had planned on our leaving the house at 3:00 AM, but true to form, we were in the car at 3:40. Luckily, the three AM scheduled time left us a big buffer (I KNOW how we are, so I planned ahead! :D)

The first snafu we encountered was checking in our two giant suitcases, one of which was truly ginormous. The lady looked at me, looked at the suitcase, checked the scale, looked at me again, and asked, "Is there any way you can remove five pounds from this bag? Otherwise I'm going to have to charge you $50.00."

YIKES!

I assured her I could most certainly get five pounds out, and immediately opened both suitcases and started frantically transferring Silver's knickers, among other various and sundry items, from the morbidly obese suitcase to the merely obese one.

It worked.

*whew*

Disaster averted. I did NOT want to shell out any more money to Allegiant Air, which charges you for everything, including snacks, beverages, and even blankets, if you need one. Which I did, because I was freezing on the flight, but I chose to decline, since again, I didn't want to spend any extra money!

We arrived in Grand Forks, ND, after an uneventful flight, to find gray skies and a steady rain. Silver was ecstatic, since she loves bad weather, me? Not so much!

Though having my hair rained on made my 'do FABULOUS. Seriously, I looked like I had just come from the salon!

Bear with me, I know this must be boring you all silly.

Rental car acquired (a Toyota RAV4, for the trunk space), we proceeded to our hotel, where we were told our room wouldn't be available until 3:00PM. This was a dilemma, because it was only noon and frankly, we were exhausted from staying up all night.

So we went to the nearest McDonald's for sustenance, which killed maybe 45 minutes, then drove around Grand Forks and did the campus drive-by tour.

Grand Forks and the campus of the University are truly gorgeous. So GREEN. I mean, not even the golf courses in Las Vegas are that green. Hell, not even the FAKE GRASS in Las Vegas is that green!

Huge, leafy trees everywhere. Beautifully maintained older homes interspersed with the brick campus buildings. Man, today I need to take my camera with me!

We drove by Silver's residence hall a few times in our meanderings, and it's so CUTE. It's very small, and apparently she'll be on the top (third) floor, where there are only four or five dorm rooms. Of course there's no elevator, so I'm NOT looking forward to moving her in tomorrow morning and having to carry all her stuff up the stairs.

We headed back to the motel at around 2:30, and they had our room ready, thank goodness. I collapsed onto the bed and had just dozed off when Silver's phone rang: It was her roommate, whom I'll call "Jane", for G.I. Jane (she's in Army ROTC), who was in town on her way to her uncle's and wanted to meet us. We were game, even exhausted!

We met Jane, who is a perfect match for Silver (likes video games, can quote "The Princess Bride"), and her Dad, and they showed us the way to the local Target, where all dorm stuff is on sale. We loaded up our cart with all of Silver's needed linens, a trash can, hangers, and a desk lamp. (My GOD, I'm even boring myself. I apologize.)

Then we headed over to the Panda Buffet, a Chinese buffet/Mongolian barbecue, where we met Jane's uncle and aunt and their kids, who live on a farm about two hours away from Grand Forks. They invited Silver to come over with Jane on the occasional weekend or holiday to help out on the farm...*lol*! My mind shuddered to a halt as I contemplated the unthinkable: MY daughter, who is complaining of sore muscles this morning because of having to lift the carry-on luggage, totin' that barge and liftin' that bale on a farm. I'm ALL for it, it could only do her good! Not to mention it will broaden her horizons a bit.

After partaking of various delicacies at the Panda, we made our farewells and headed back to our motel, one thought in our minds: SLEEP.

We didn't bother setting the alarm, since we knew we needed as much sleep as we could get after our previous sleepless night, and gratefully crashed.

Which is why I'm writing this so damn late today. We slept until nine AM!

Okay. We've got to hit the road. Many things left on our to-do list for today, including taking pictures to bore you with later.

Signing off in ND!