I think you spend all your years dating slowly identifying and cataloguing the traits in your soulmate that will end up making up your ideal life partner. When I tell people, “You’ll know it when you see it,” it’s because you already have, you just didn’t see them all bundled up in in the persona of that one. special. person. And then you do.
I met Laura in a bar at the Hotel Alex Johnson. To me, we immediately clicked. I was attracted to her clothes, her looks, and the way she smiled, her wit. I had only been in Rapid City a week, but she was a breath of City air that connected on every level. We danced and talked most of the evening, and I knew by the time she left that I wanted to see her again.
After the Wing Dining Out, a couple nights later, I was hooked. I think I didn’t see her Sunday at all, but from Monday on, I think we were pretty much inseparable for weeks, By inseparable, I mean that I would stop by and see her during the day at the weather shop, or we would get dinner together someplace.
On President’s Day weekend, we decided to “blow this hick town!” and go to the big city. She had been at Ellsworth without a break since the previous June, including Christmas, and needed a break. I was pretty much up for anything, so we decided to jump in the car Friday after work, and go somewhere that there was shopping, culture, and things to do.
Our choices were pretty stark: Denver, about 6 hours away on a good day; or Minneapolis, about 8 hours away. Somehow I don’t think we put a lot of thought into the distance, other than it would be good for a 3 day weekend. Since Laura was a meteorologist, and worked in a weather shop all day, I let her choose. She said a big storm was coming in and Denver was going to get clobbered, so we should go to Minneapolis.
We did NOT get the earliest start after work, so probably didn’t get on the road till 5 or 6. Once we got on the highway east it was pretty much a straight shot for 6 hours on I-90. I mean straight. But… an ice storm crept up behind us, and we ended up crawling along on ice covered roads all the way to Souix Falls, where we found a very small roadside motel with a vacancy sign still lit up at 3 or 4 am. The manager woke up and reluctantly gave us a room.
The next day, the roads were still bad, so we drove a bit more to Albert Lea, MN, and knocked on my cousin Dawn Boelke’s front door, and spent the afternoon and evening there.
Finally on Sunday, we drove up to Minneapolis and found a nice empty hotel right downtown. We wandered around the closed city center, an empty Nordstroms, and got ice cream. More than anything, we just spent time together.
On Monday, we had to drive all the way back to base, Luckily the sun came out and the roads were plowed, so even though the snowbanks on the side of the highway were 7-8 feet high, the roads were clear and we pretty much just flew back. Unfortunately, Laura had caught a flu or cold bug, and was now feeling absolutely miserable. It was a long, quiet ride back, and I remember being really worried that after this trip together with so little to show for it, she would never talk to me again. Luckily, I was wrong.
But after that trip, going through all the experiences and “hardships,” I really started thinking how easy she was to be with, to work through difficult situations with, and what a future together might be like. It took another month or two to get to certainty, but by May, I had decided. 2Lt Laura Jane Griest was the one for me.
2 Jun, 1984. Lt Col McGuirk’s Going away party at the Club. I’m on Alert, and just pinned on 1st Lt. (Oh, and we’re publicly dating.)
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