We returned to South Dakota for another week, as we still had things to do and see! Our first night was spent at another HH spot, The Sick & Twisted Winery (formerly known as the Naked Winery) in Hill City. We parked our dirty and still dripping mud (see pics as proof!) trailer up against a brook that flows behind the property and I had a delicious dinner of pizza and a flight of beer. The winery/brewery was very dog friendly as they had a black labradoodle named Oliver who welcomed all the guests! Penny enjoyed the cold floor and the attention she got from some of the other patrons. I've included a picture of one of the 4 legged patrons who totally cracked me up letting his folks know that their empty wine glasses were a sad state of affairs!!!Karl behaved with his dietary restrictions and had some leftover chicken when we went back to the trailer.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Please don't be concerned when you see beer pictures, thinking that I am getting snookered! A "flight" of beer consists of 4 or 5 small glasses, (usually about 4oz/5oz each), of different drafts that you pick from their menu so that you can sample their various brews without having a 16/20oz glass of each. Also, my hubs reminded me that I did not get a chance to try the peanut butter beer because I was too full from my pizza! The ladies next to us were raving about it and my nephew Andy had told me about it a few years back…(I commit to trying it the next time I see it on the menu, sweet Andy!)
The next day we were due back at Rush-No-More-Campground in Sturgis. We had changed our itinerary to return here instead of another previously scheduled campground that didn't have water hook-ups or electricity. Although we knew we had the ability to survive on our solar, propane and generator power, we didn't want to have to do that for 2 weeks straight (as our previous campsite was without hook-ups as well). But before we returned to Sturgis we detoured back to Rapid City where we could get our babies washed (i.e., our truck, our trailer and our puppy)! Karl and his most excellent detective skills had found a car wash that had the capacity to do all three! Everybody was VERY brave (i.e., Penny) and tolerant of the undertakings and it was a fun way to spend Father's Day!
We settled into our campsite at Rush-No-More in time to walk down to the "Beer Garden" for the Sunday afternoon "jam session". A bunch of the locals come to the campground regularly on Sundays and Wednesdays to play and it is indeed a treat! There were some wonderful talents on guitar, banjo etc...and some great voices as well. And for the few non professional quality musicians, they were enthusiastic and a joy to watch and listen to. I have included a clip of the banjo player doing his thing because he was amazing. PLUS his 86yo mother is the one playing keyboard (although not in this particular clip) and she was just plain adorable - especially when she air-strums with him!
One of my South Dakota must-do's was the Badlands. However, that amazing National Park merits a page unto itself. So, you will get to see some pics and hear about that in my next post... We went on some nice walks in the neighborhood of the campground and drove to some nearby parks with trails. We enjoyed seeing people horseback riding in the area because if just felt so natural in this setting. We set up a rendezvous on Tuesday night with our camping buds, Mark & Judy from Minnesota (who were now staying in Belle Fourche). We met for dinner in Spearfish - since it was a good meeting point between our campgrounds. We had a wonderful dinner with easy conversation and laughter. It was a great night, and we were glad that we had another date planned on Friday for yet another concert at our campground. We also had an exclamation point to our evening with a wonderful sunset in our sideview mirrors on the way home.
On Friday evening Rush-No-More hosted yet another big-time concert, the 40th Annual Black Hills Blue Grass Festival. Unfortunately, there was some threatening weather early in the day, so they made the decision (a little too early in the day in my opinion) to hold the event INSIDE of the Entertainment Pavilion. When we walked down to the concert area Mark had made the brilliant decision to sit outside so that we wouldn’t be claustrophobic all jammed in together. We then decided we should sit outside directly behind the stage on the grassy area so that we could at least view the bands in their entirety (even if it WAS their backsides!!!) Well, lots of other people apparently thought we were pretty damn brilliant and followed suit - so much so that the sound guy set up a speaker facing our way so that we could accurately hear the music. I think the bands actually enjoyed the comic relief that the “you’re seeing our better side” comments pulled for. There were some amazing talents. The bluegrass music included a lot of fiddle, stand-up base and banjo music - and there were definitely some upper echelon musicians and vocals! It was foot stomping and fun. Although I loved every second of it, I learned that I actually prefer Blues to Bluegrass. Thank you Rush-No-More Campground for this musical education!
Our last night in South Dakota was spent in Hot Springs at Cottonwood Springs Campground. It was our first Army Corps of Engineers Campground and it was off the beaten path and quite scenic. We had a wonderful walk in the morning down to a lake and both (all) agreed that it was the perfect place to end our stay in South Dakota.
Commenti