Day 9 (I feel like registering to vote in South Dakota)

Well today was... interesting. 

Welcome to the Pink Heals Tour, where we're kind of like Blanche ("we have always depended on the kindness of strangers.") DuBois.  Leslie has a loose belt and this fine gentleman climbed up to take a look and see if he could be of service.  Despite his best efforts, Leslie's belt is still loose, but we had no issues with it today.

We left Aberdeen around 8:30.  Saw a lot of farm land including sunflower fields, a first for me.

We made our way west and then south to Pierre (French for "holy crap it's windy here") and got into town around 11:30.  We were met by an engine from Pierre FD (side note, Pierre Fire Department is all volunteer.  Nobody stays at the station, they all come from home.  For real.  The state capitol.  Color me surprised) and (don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking volunteers.  I'm just surprised) we were escorted to a large, Arkansas based, we sell everything on the planet, store (hold the endorsement opportunities, I'll pass) and we set up in the parking lot.

Met some nice people there, did a few home visits and then went on to the local dragstrip for a quick (see what I did there?) event.

But if you know me, you know I'm not a big racing guy.  It was cool, but it wasn't well organized from our perspective and I was ready to go about 15 minutes after we got there...

So instead of rambling on about nothing of consequence, I've decided to turn the rest of this into the first installment of "meet your Pink Heals Tour driver" effort.

Meet John, he's from 

He's also a famous movie star

That's him (a younger, hairier, him) on the right (in uniform) with Helen Hunt in a scene from "Twister"  We tell people all the time he's famous.  I also tell people he's my dad, even though he's less than 10 years older than I am.  John is a genuinely nice guy, and he makes me laugh.  He's also really good at interacting with people.  He's got that Okie drawl and I'm never quite sure if he's trying to pull a fast one or not... Here's John entertaining us -

Stay tuned for more installments of "meet your Pink Heals Tour driver"

Tomorrow we head up to McLaughlin, SD then we cross in to North Dakota (no offense South Dakotarians, but THANK GOD!) and head to Bismarck (a lovely pastry) and then to Miles City, MT where we'll spend the night.  Yikes.  Lotta windshield time tomorrow.

Pink Heals!

Peace

Day 8 (still in South Dakota)

My second week on tour started with a 2 hour drive up to Aberdeen.  Not quite butt numbing, but it teetered on the brink.  The scenery was nice.  It ranged from corn to cattle with the occasional (VERY occasional) small (REALLY small.  Like, population 52) town sprinkled in.  But, I had some traveling companions, so I was fine.

Hey, don't judge me, they're delicious.  Plus they have a candy shell so they melt in your mouth, not in your hand (endorsement opportunities available, again, I'm just sayin).  

We got in to Aderdeen (famous for... OK, I was going to go all snarky here, but there's actually a lot of famous people from here, including the guy that wrote "The Wizard of Oz', a former U.S. Senator and a baseball Hall of Famer.  Who knew?) and pulled into the airport.  We got in a little early, so our escorts weren't there yet.

I climbed into the tour bus A.) to talk to Mike and Dave and B.) to sign a helmet.  

Stephen Hensley, a retired Captain from the Hampton (Va.) Fire Department, was supposed to go on tour with us last year.  He passed away suddenly in April of 2011.  In addition to his FD service he was a Vietnam vet, an Army Ranger that received numerous commendations.  I never met him, but as regulars around here know, I have some experience with sudden loss, and I had been thinking of what I wanted to write for a couple days.  Of course I didn't want to write a novel, just something brief and to the point for his family.

Rest easy Cap.  And may Peace be with You.

We moved on (via parade) to our first stop and joined in with two local fire departments, Aberdeen city and Aberdeen rural as well as the local CareFlight crew, for a "look at the trucks" kind of thing.  

I'd just like to back up a second here and note that I've never gone faster in a parade than these people up here go.  I mean like "geez wait for me" fast.  Like, if NASCAR had a "parade while on crack" fast.

Anyway.  Just like the last couple days, pretty much all the people we met up here were just awesome.  I think though, the high point today was a tshirt I saw.  It really kinda prioritizes what I assume women go through when they're fighting cancer...

Kinda sums it up, no?

Off to Pierre tomorrow (pronounced Peer)(no, really, I'm not joking)(seriously... Peer)(don't ask me why, I don't know) which is the state capitol.  As of now, we're only busy from noon to 4 tomorrow.  Of course we were supposed to be done before 7:00 tonight and we didn't get back til after 9:00.  That's ok though, like I said before, we'd rather be busy.  

Plus I've got clean laundry, so...

Pink Heals!

Peace

Day 7 (half way there for me and for the tour)

I came on tour a week ago tomorrow.  I have been here for seven days and I have seven left.  Dave is already calling me a quitter and I'm already wondering if I can fit another few days out on the road the first week of October...

We all had breakfast this morning at our hotel, with Willette and her family.  What great people they are.  The people we meet on tour are truly one of the best parts of this job.  We left Sioux Falls this morning and drove north to Watertown, a little more than an hour and a half away. 

No trucks ran out of fuel!!!

I've never been to South Dakota (state motto "we have more flies per capita than anywhere else") before, so I didn't really know what to expect as far as scenery.  But it was kind of nice.  Very rural, but heading up I-29 was nice.

We got in to Watertown and were met at our hotel by Tori, a 7 year survivior and a pretty sweet, very dynamic woman who is absolutely passionate about taking care of the women in her community. 

She worked us like dogs.

And that is a very good thing.

When we're on the road like this, we all want to be busy.  We all want to do home visits, hospital visits, work events or whatever.  We belong to the communities and people that bring us in. 

Let me take a few minutes to explain just how amazing the people up here are with an example...

As I said, I've been on the road now for seven days.  Seven very busy days.  I haven't had time to do laundry yet.  Now, mind you, I didn't have to go commando just yet (TMI for some, but hey, I want you people to understand what we do) but I was within days of that.  I asked the lady if they had laundry facilities and she said they did.  One of the other drivers, actually ALL of the other drivers, had laundry needs of varying degrees too.  The hotel has one washer and one dryer.  We have to be out and on the road in 30 minutes. 

Do you smell what I'm stepping in here?

I came outside and asked Tori and the FD's Battalion Chief if there was a laundromat close by and the Chief said there was one on the other side of town.  He then said to bag up our laundry and he'd take it to the firehouse and make sure it got done.

We did, he did and it did.

How amazing is that?  Cause, I'm not gonna lie, I wouldn't have done that.  I might have offered up the Wolf's services to do their laundry, but there's no way I would've done that.

Like I said though, we worked for it.  We did two parades, a hospital visit, two home visits and then this afternoon we set up near the Redlin Art Center and some local dignitaries spoke, including Tori

And Dave

And we sold t-shirts (that's how we keep the trucks on the road) and talked to people about how important it is to keep the money in the community where it's raised and all the other thing we do.  And as I walked around the trucks at one of the events, with people that wanted to sign, I saw this for the first time.  I think it's my favorite so far...

We leave in the morning for Aberdeen for twelve hours worth of events.  I'm not sure what exactly, but it'll be tough for them to beat what we've seen in Baltic and Watertown.

Pink Heals!

Peace