Memorable+Place

Memorable Place The first couple of weeks leading up to my anticipated trip to Montana and Idaho were really long. My best friend Maggi and I were going on a mission trip with our church to do some sightseeing and volunteering for ten full days. At first, I wasn’t too enthused about heading out to a bunch of mountains where cell service was slim to none, but after I heard that we would be zip lining and white water rafting, I was rearing to go.

Once that early Thursday morning approached, I gathered up my many suitcases and belongings and headed to the meeting spot where the eight other kids and I would board our twelve passenger van. Saying my goodbyes to my parents, Maggi and I hopped on the van and instantly got excited. Little did we realize that we had about a twelve hour drive ahead of us to our first destination, Montana. The first couple of hours weren’t so bad, but by the third everyone in the van, except for the driver, was all asleep. Once we finally reached Montana, we explored a little in the town and did some shopping. The next day we went zip lining. Zip lining was an amazing experience and it taught me to be more adventurous with my life; do the things that scare me.

The next place we stopped was in Idaho. While in Idaho, we would volunteer for about four hours in the morning. Some of us volunteered in the nursing homes but the majority of us helped paint houses for those who physically weren’t able to. It was an awesome experience because the people were so grateful and had some great stories to share to make the time fly by. In the afternoons we would walk around downtown, go tubing down the river, or do some rock climbing. There was never a dull moment with our group. We always chose the most exotic places to dine, somewhere that you wouldn’t see in Sioux Falls. Our favorite was an Italian restaurant called the Naked Noodle. I have never had such amazing pasta before.

Towards the last few days on our trip, we headed to Wyoming where we stopped in Yellowstone. We spent about twelve hours touring the place and still didn’t get to experience it all.Old Faithful erupted within two minutes of us getting there which was very lucky for us. Most people had waited for up to a half hour- forty-five minutes just waiting. The next day, we headed back to Montana where we went white water rafting. Once again, it was an adventure that I probably wouldn’t have done, but the trip in general was so influential that I didn’t even hesitate when stepping into that raft. The last day, on the way back to Sioux Falls was sad. We all knew we had to go back to reality and our lives at home, but we just didn’t want our trip to end. We all kept in touch after returning home and immediately posted our many pictures to Facebook, commenting on all of the funny and memorable memories.

All in all, my trip to Montana and Idaho was very influential and memorable because it forced me to try new and adventurous things that I wouldn’t normally do or even get the chance to do here in Sioux Falls.