The Adventures of Rybo

 70 degrees and a little windy = perfect day to walk around and explore downtown Rapid City!
Ryan and I had a blast exploring this quaint little downtown area. There are TONS of neat shops, restaurants, pubs and of course...coffee shops!
Our new favorite coffee shop is Alternative Fuel Coffee House. This place has a huge selection of coffee drinks (including Ryan's favorite: french press coffee) smoothies, fresh roasted coffee on location, as well as various desserts and brunch items. We give this place 4 stars! If anyone visits Rapid City, this place is a must to try!
Even John Adams likes their coffee:
























As we walked down the streets, we met a friendly local lady that showed us this area called 'Art Alley'. Apparently, the city has encouraged street artists to display their talents up and down this long stretch of alley in the downtown area. Check out these cool pics!



























































After checking out Art Alley, we stumbled upon this ridiculously cute celtic store. The lady that owns this store has a thick Irish accent, awesome sense of humor and talked with us for a long time about all of the cool places to check out, here in Rapid City. Her store is called Celtic Connection





















We have had a ball checking out this amazing town!
We plan on checking out Deadwood soon (pics to follow)

I shall now leave you with a pic of Ryan proof reading the declaration of independence:

After work today, Ryan and I drove 20 minutes to check out Mount Rushmore!!
Everything from the ride all the way to the site was absolutely beautiful!
It's so cool to be able to visit a place that I've only ever seen in U.S. geography books.

Needless to say, Ryan and I had a great time. We only stayed for 30 minutes or so today but we are definitely going back to check out the various hiking trails around the park.




Check out some of the pics from our visit today!!!

Downtown Rapid City

Yesterday was our first day at the new job and it was awesome!
We have met SO many nice people, here in SD.
The staff at the hospital is fantastic. I have yet to meet an O.R. staff that I haven't loved working with.
One thing I love about working in any O.R., is that it is one big family. (some more dysfunctional than others) lol
Most people that work in the O.R. take so much call that it feels like a second home.
I'm happy to be doing neuro surgeries again. Ryan is still doing CVOR/Vascular.



Exploring the Town

After work yesterday, Ryan and I went exploring some of the local shops/restaurants. This city is full of cool little coffee shops, micro-breweries, clothing stores and many MANY more places to shop.

Ryan excited to try out the restaurant

The restaurant we ate at last-night was absolutely incredible: Firehouse Brewing Co.
Check out their website: Firehouse Brewing Co.
Incredible food, great service and relaxed atmosphere!





















Tonight, we will be checking out the local mall: Mount Rushmore Mall
We are hoping to visit Mount Rushmore and/or Custer State Park by this weekend. (pics to follow!!!)



















Ryan and I are still not caught up on sleep (daylight savings plus crossing two time zones has messed with our sleeping schedules a bit)

One things is for sure, we are having a blast exploring this beautiful part of the country!!!

Badlands National Park

After 4 days of traveling through 6 states and driving over 1800 miles...we have finally  made it to South Dakota!! Our original plan was to travel a different route around 1400 miles, however due to both winter storm Thor and lots of construction, we ended up adding an additional 400 miles to our trip.
We are both relieved and in shock that we are finally here! I think part of us thought this was a dream and we were going to wake up at any moment.
I have to say that the last 100 miles were the toughest because we were SO ready to be at our destination. It's kind of like the last mile of a 5K, you know you only have one mile left to go, so you keep psyching yourself up to keep going (because it's almost over)
We arrived around 2:30pm mountain time (4:30pm eastern time)
After getting our apartment paperwork squared away, we got some much needed things accomplished. i.e.: wash our nasty salt covered cars, drove around the city to find the hospital we will be working at, ate dinner and made a necessary Walmart run for groceries and misc. items.
After unpacking most of our things and organizing, we are ready for bed!
We start work at 7:30am tomorrow, mostly just H.R./orientation stuff for a good portion of the day.
Anyhow, thank you, EVERYONE for the amazing prayers and words of encouragement throughout this process. We couldn't have made it out here without your support and love.


Today's travel map: *7 hours 53 minutes*




There is a part of us that thought this day would never get here!!