Little Motel on the Prairie

Once upon a time, well, almost two weeks ago now, I had a meeting in Sioux Falls on a Friday.  Seeing just some flurries in the forecast for Saturday I decided to stay overnight and hang out with my good friend Liz and her boyfriend Ryan.  Dinner, a night out and shopping the next day - what a great time!  And then, it started snowing.  A lot.

Now one thing you need to know about me, I have an extreme phobia of driving in inclement weather, and I drive an itty bitty car.  Can you see where this is going?  So I head up Interstate 29 and everything slows down.  Eventually through one lane roads at 35 miles per hour, I make it to Watertown.  Now an intelligent person would have stayed there.  Where there is a Hampton, Holiday, or Ramada Inn at least, a mall, and a Minerva's.  But having my new found bravery, I decided to try the highway going West, hoping the snow would be lessening and the roads would get better.  Well, I was wrong.  Very, very wrong.  I was able to reach Clark, SD and then there was absolutely no view of the road.  Now I don't know much about Clark, but I do know that there is a very nice lady that works at the convenient store that put up with my devastation and recommended one of the two motels (note the 'm' not the 'h') in town.

So I made my way to the Pheasant Inn where I met the very nice proprietors and their sweet little boy who definitely made me laugh when I needed it most!!  (I was about 90 minutes from home).  I got a room - bad weather rate and all - and settled in for the evening.  After some yummy convenient store pizza and candy, I watched some TV, read a book I luckily had with me, and got some much needed rest after a stressful day.  I found out later that the state had actually put out a no travel advised notice on the road I was trying to travel on so it was a fantastic decision to stop.  The next morning I was able to slowly make my way after the plows went through finally.  Here are a few snapshots from the room:

Loving me some wood paneling...

The ceramic heater....in case you're wondering it says 59 degrees, and that was after I'd been there for a couple hours.  Brr.  

Now I'm not trying to talk down the Pheasant Inn - it was a blessing that it was there and those sweet people were able to rent me a room for the night.  I had a lot of time to think and reflect and recognize that this was meant to teach me a thing or two.  Never under estimate His power to bring us right where we need to be at any one moment in time.

I promised in my New Years post that I would have more adventures to share.  In the words of my best friend who commented on my facebook when I posted my location for the night...."you lead such an interesting life." Tell me about it.  ;)