You may wonder, many do, why Jessie and I would kick off our second year of marriage with a one-month sojourn to South Dakota to do manual labor. And, by the way, we consider this a vacation. Kathleen Norris, a prominent South Dakotan writer moved to the state from New York with her husband during her twenties to continue her writing career. All but one friend was bewildered by the decision. Norris writes in her book Dakota,

“The silence of the Plains, this great unpeopled landscape of earth and sky, is much like the silence one finds in a monastery; an unfathomable silence that has the power to re-form you.”

I think, subconsciously, Jessie and I are allured by such a silence. Jessie just completed her second year of a hyper-social job at a college ministry. And I just completed my final year of college where I lived an extravert’s life in an introvert’s body. I reached the pinnacle of sociality the year I lived in a 12-man house, led a small group and worked at a church. If Kathleen Norris’s assessment of the Plains is accurate then this feels like as good a time as ever to explore such a place.

In reality, if you asked us why we’re doing this, we would tell you it has to do with a dream Jessie and I have shared since day one of our relationship and with a personal curiosity about the geography of my heritage. I’ll explain these in a moment.

First, maybe I should explain what we’re actually doing. For a month, Jessie and I will be staying with family friends, Anna and Dean, on their cattle ranch in Clark, South Dakota. Dean has agreed to teach us the ins and outs of running a ranch by application-based learning. You want to learn how to dig a fence hole? Let’s go dig a fence hole. According to our good friend, Matt McCoy, that’s how you get your PhD (Post-hole Digging).

About the dream. Jessie and I first met so I could learn about her experience working on a guest ranch in Wyoming the former summer (we will get to visit this ranch on our road trip). We have both expressed interest in ranch-life throughout our relationship. Now we get to have a harsh kick of reality together about the logistics of this dream. And maybe we’ll love it.

About my personal curiosity. My mom and her siblings grew up in Clark. My grandpa wore many hats. He was the Justice of the Peace for Clark County, a volunteer fireman, a Clark city council member, and owner of a dry cleaners, among several other trades. My grandma was a nurse for 20 years before she became head nurse at Clark Nursing Home. She was responsible for bringing hospice to Clark. And they raised eight children amidst all that. My grandparents died before I was born so I met them and miss them through stories told. A part of me comes from Clark, that town of 1,000.

We’ll soon get our boots dirty and explore our family history. Before that, we have some exciting checkpoints on the trek eastward (to the “West”). First stop is Angel Lake in eastern Nevada at an elevation of 8,378 feet. Forecasted lows in the mid-20s. We’re going to camp for the first time ever. Pray for us.