South Dakota Trip Part 2
Western Nebraska and South Dakota Part 2!
We got up early on day two to take advantage of the breakfast offered at Holiday inn Express. Ian was mesmerized by automatic the pancake baker. He even formulated plans to cobble together his own, controlled by a Raspberry Pi.
We checked out of the Holiday Inn Express and realized Ian didn’t pack any socks! There’s a Bomgaar’s across the street from the Holiday Inn Express in Alliance. They had a six-pack of ankle socks for not a lot of dough. Perfect!
We drove north to the Black Hills. The terrain was windswept prairie on the plateau giving way to hills and eventually Pine Ridge. Both Morgan and Ian were remarking on how the landscape reminded them of Red Dead Redemption! Me? I'm a bit older. I thought it looked like it was lifted right out of a Sergio Leone "Spaghetti Western".
We kept driving through to South Dakota. We didn't get out of the car until we reached Wind Cave National Park. We arrived at the park and bought tickets. We had a two-hour wait. We had lunch at the picnic tables outside. During our cave tour, we learned about how a sixteen-year-old kid had mapped out Wind Cave. We also learned about Cave Bacon, Popcorn, and Mailboxes.
After Wind Cave, we drove north to Keystone. We took the scenic route through Custer State Park. We stopped a couple of times to try to take pictures of wildlife. Kate started getting car sick. The elevation and direction changes in the park were enough to lift her stomach into her throat, so to speak. Not a good feeling when you’re the driver! This is also how we learned Kate will probably not quit her photography studio to become a race car driver.
We cut the drive short and took the “direct” route to Keystone via Black Hills Playhouse road. We skipped the patch of highway that normally has the begging burros.
When we arrived in Keystone, we were greeted by a herd of cattle at the intersection of Highway 40 and Black Hills Playhouse road. The locals were not amused with these damn tourists from Nebraska snapping pics of cows. You’re from Nebraska! You’ve seen cows! MOOOOOVE!!
We found our Airbnb at the top of a hill, next door to a church. We unpacked the car and decided to walk to town in search of food.
Google maps told us we were only 3 blocks from downtown Keystone. Not familiar with the landscape, we decided to walk! We quickly learned it’s downhill the whole way. That means it’s uphill the whole way back. Whoops.
We found some dinner in downtown Keystone at the Ruby House. We got our name on the list, and they gave us a notification puck with a half-hour wait. We didn't have to sit there, as the notification puck had a half-mile radius from the restaurant. Our intention was to wander up and down Keystone's main drag. We wanted to scope out the tourist traps in the shadow of Mount Rushmore.
We got down the stairs and across the street. Then the puck went off.
The reservation podium was surrounded by confused diners. All the little notification pucks went off at the same time! Imagine the confusion for the wait staff! We were the only party of four that responded, so we got a table on the patio right away!
While we sat there eating dinner, we had been staring at the Turtle Town ice cream and fudge shop across the street. We might have been full. We might have been stuffed. But you know what? It's summer. It's a road trip. We're eating the ice cream. And we’re going to enjoy the air conditioning.
We hiked down the Keystone Boardwalk to Professor Samuel’s. We took old-timey photos.
We found the “grocery store” in Keystone. It's down the road and around the corner from downtown. It's also downhill from our Airbnb. This country store had a gas pump on the porch and rhubarb wine for sale inside. I’m not sure if there’s anything more “mountain town” than that. They had breakfast and snack foods, so it wasn’t just entertaining.
We made the uphill hike back to the Airbnb and found we didn’t have WiFi. I mean, we had WiFi, but the system wasn’t configured properly. Trying to connect a PC to the WiFi resulted in warnings. The only device that worked was Kate’s iPhone. Morgan wanted to do some gaming. I was hoping to take some notes for this blog on my phone, but even Verizon service was spotty.
No internet service meant we had to play table games and watch cable TV for entertainment. We had to party like some 20th-century cave dwellers. It was all good, they were showing the Dog Show.
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