Eagle Butte - Habitat

DAY TWO - Saturday, March 26
Jen woke us up at 6:30 a.m. in the kindest way possible: she blasted “Friday” by Rebecca Black from her phone. It didn’t take us long to get up after that. We were on a strict timeline for the day, so we all rolled up our sleeping bags and tossed our stuff back into the van. We made a pit stop for coffee on our way out of town (and took a few wrong turns) and set off for the day. The events in the car were much like yesterday: talk, sleep, repeat.
We were scheduled to arrive in Eagle Butte around 3:00 that day, but things didn’t go quite as planned. A few of our stops took a bit longer than expected, particularly our stop for lunch in Guadalajara, which is the 4th most popular restaurant in Pierre, SD, according to Jessica’s Google search. After we stuffed our faces with Mexican food, we embarked on the last hour and a half leg of our trip, which would take us to Eagle Butte. The weather worsened at that point. Out our windows, we could make out rolling brown hills through the snow and wind. We reached the bridge that crosses Lake Oahe. The lake was half-frozen, patched with chunks of ice, and there was a white snowy mist hanging over the water. We were surrounded in white.
When we finally made it to Eagle Butte, it was about 5:00. We met John, the former acting director for Habitat for Humanity, at a gas station, and he took us to the house we would be staying in for the week. The house is small but there’s more than enough room for everyone, with around 10 bunk beds lined up among the three sleeping quarters. We have a screened-in porch (The Porch of Solitude) that would be perfect to hang out in during warmer weather, but is less than ideal during a snowstorm. Our favorite parts about the house are the decorations. Past volunteers for Habitat have covered three walls in torn-out coloring book pages written with funny captions. We’re planning on adding a few coloring pages of or own to the collection.
After we settled in, we went to the grocery store, Lakota Thrifty Mart, and gathered up some sustenance for the week. For dinner we cooked up some frozen pizzas in the oven, despite the fact that as we were putting them in a billow of smoke came out. They were quite tasty. After that we went to bed and dreamed sweet dreams in our sleeping bags.