Great Plains Zoo

Went to the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls today, since I'm here for the weekend but I don't have to be working.  Pretty neat zoo for such a small city, including some animals I don't get to see at the Denver Zoo, such as wallabies and guanacos (which are the non-domesticated versions of llamas).  They're also connected with the Delbridge Natural History Museum, which is "a one-in-the-world collection of 150 mounted animals including 36 vanishing species" (from http://www.gpzoo.org/).  It was originally the private collection of an avid hunter through the 1940s-1970s, and after his death it was purchased by a zoo supporter and donated to the zoo.


Some highlights from the visit below, and all the pictures are up on my Picasa page.

Can I keep him?

Guanacos

Wallaby

Road Trippin

Howdy from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  As I pulled into the hotel parking lot I rolled the rental car odometer over 5129 miles, and I picked it up on Monday at 4128 miles.  Yeesh.  1001 miles already.

Thankfully I'm here a week plus two weekends -- until Halloween.  I was in the black hills and then the center of the state for a gravel roads research project this past week, and I have a project here in Sioux Falls next week.  Then I have one more gravel roads site to inspect at the beginning of November and I get to go home!  Of course, at that point, there will be a 12-13 hour drive standing between me and Denver, but Stefano will be home waiting for me so it'll totally be worth it.  Yep, we're both going to be home.  At the same time.  It's like magic.  Molly might just die from happiness.

What's worse than driving through extremely rural South Dakota where the only good radio is NPR?  Driving through that area during NPR pledge month.  Gah.  Thankfully I had my iPod and the cable to hook it to the stereo, but I really prefer cruising radio stations and listening to NPR stuff while I'm driving.

The test site I was at near Custer was pretty close to where they're carving Crazy Horse monument so I snagged a picture of it on my way out of town.

Oh, and for those of you who don't stalk/follow me on Google+, I took a detour through the South Dakota badlands on my way from Custer to Miller.  Pretty awesome; I'll need to come back with Stefano some day. Pics after the break.

IKEA!

Finally went to our new IKEA tonight. Awesomeness.

Busy but Happy

I rocked my race on Sunday -- 2 hours, 16 minutes, 37 seconds.  That's about 45 minutes faster than my race back in June!

Stefano got a picture of me right before the finish line:

That expression on my face?  Joy and agony.  My legs were cramping up really badly and I was exhausted, but I knew I was doing great and the finish line was in sight!

In other news...

I'm remembering how much I love fall in Colorado -- the trees are starting to change here, the tallest mountains have a beautiful coat of fresh white snow, and the weather is in the 40s-50s at night and 60s-70s during the day.

On Saturday, Stefano and I finally had time and motivation to do some much-needed shopping.  Came home with a bunch of new work shirts for him (he doesn't have much left that fits him well), a dress for me to wear to a wedding in a month, shoes for me for a wedding in January, new running jackets (it was cold for the race), and we finally got a rug for the living room!

Oh, and I ran and made two batches of soup tonight.  Tired!

Nutrition info:

Winter Vegetable Soup (without the cream or half and half) makes 5 one-cup servings at 106 calories per serving.  

Grandpa Varga's Stew makes 14 one-cup servings at 223 calories per serving.

Running Update

I'm going to be racing in a half marathon on Sunday starting at about 7am mountain time, and you can track my progress online at http://runkeeper.com/user/ctruschke/.

MADNESS

Mary is leafblowing in the middle of a crazy windstorm.  The leaves are just going to keep falling you crazy old woman!  Not to mention that you don't actually pick them up, you just blow them into your neighbors' lawns, so they're going to blow right back into your lawn!

Madness, I say.  Madness.

One Green Leaf

We decided to make salad for dinner since Mom and Grandma had lots of big lunches and dinners on their trip here. Mmm tasty salad with avocado and grilled chicken. Mom had to pose of course.

USA Pro Cycling Race

So the USA Pro Cycling event went right by our house a few weeks back, and I completely forgot that I had photos on my camera until I plugged it in after the national park today...

Police escort. 

Rocky Mountain National Park

Went to Rocky Mountain National Park for the first time today, along with Stefano, my mom, and my grandma.  Overall, beautiful scenery, wonderful fall colors, and lots and lots of tourists!  Glad we got there as early as we did, since the lines of cars when we were leaving at about 2:30 stretched for miles!  Of course, it's elk rutting season and people were trying to go in the evenings when they're most active, but still, seemed a little crazy to be going so late in the day!

Pictures after the break...