Mission: North Dakota

Once The Captain and I got to know each other pretty well, he started taking me places, and we would go on excursions. Adventures, really. The first significant trip we took together was with the Notre Dame Glee Club, with whom I had been singing since I started at ND. Now it was (and still is, to the best of my knowledge) the practice of the NDGC to schedule tours during the week-long Fall and Spring breaks to sing across the country (and world, during the summers). This particular Fall break, NDGC thought that they had scheduled a tour for the upper Midwest of the States. Well, a tour had been scheduled for this area, but it wasn't done by NDGC--it was orchestra solely by The Captain.

Now, I've never been exactly sure how The Captain is able to get so much done, and so much of such significance; I always say, "The Captain works in mysterious ways." I'll notice the little things often enough--say a shirt of mine has been ironed, or my alarm clock already set for me--but it's the big things I can't explain--events he's set in motion that defy the laws of space and time.

But anyway, as I was saying, he orchestrated the whole tour (his first), and we made stops in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota--quite a full itinerary for seven days. And he was living it up the whole time: we'd be out late (as college studens are often wont to do), but The Captain would stumble in well after we had turned in for the night, often waking us from a dead sleep. But it was clear almost from the beginning that The Captain had some sort of ultimate plan in mind...

It was one of the last days of tour when we went to Mount Rushmore. It was lightly snowing, and it was bitterly cold. We trudged up to get a glimpse of those venerable faces, wishing only to snap a picture and return to the bus as soon as possible. As we neared the site, we noticed that a fog had moved in, all but obscuring the view. Others were frustrated and took pictures out of spite, but I knew better. This was no ordinary fog.

I took The Captain out of my backpack and had a friend hold him up appropriately. I took the picture. Yes, The Captain had put together this tour for a reason. I looked down at the viewfinder of my camera, and sure enough, the presidents were extremely faint, but clear as day was The Captain. He had gotten what he had come for.