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/.