South Dakota Road Trip - Day 6 - The Rest

This is part 3 of a 3-part post about the 6th day of our trip.  See part 1 here and part 2 here.


Let's see...where did we leave off?  Oh yes: it was 1pm and Todd and I had just returned to the cabin after our hike up Harney Peak (now known as Black Elk Peak.

We got out the sandwich stuff and Mom, Todd, Shirley and I sat down for lunch.  After our sandwiches and chips we cleaned up and got in the car - the plan was to spend our last day in Custer driving around the park.

A map of the park

South Dakota Road Trip - Day 4

This was the day we migrated from Rapid City to Custer State Park.  After a leisurely morning spent having breakfast and coffee at Alternative Fuel Coffee House then walking around downtown one last time, we packed up the car and checked out.

Gardener's quiche and vanilla latte at Alternative Fuel.  Yummy!  On a scale of 1 to 10, I gave it a 12.

A great little coffee shop/eatery in downtown Rapid City

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 4

What a night.  So far in Rapid City it's been cool enough to sleep with the windows open, but last night...

Woke up at 12:45am.  Woke up again at 1:45am when the garbage truck was rolling through the alley and lifting every single goddamned waste container and dumping them into the back of the truck.  The truck engine, the beep beep beep of the truck backing up, the grinding noise of the lifting arms, and the loud bang! of the lid of each container lid slamming as it was emptied, then the other bang! as the truck slammed the container back onto the pavement woke me up fully.  By that time it was muggy in the room and the city noises continued.  I was wide awake then, so it didn't matter if the window was open or closed.  I was up until 3:30am, then I was able to go back to sleep.

Around 7:30-8:00am we got up and went down to the lobby where a Seattle's Best Coffee is attached to the hotel.  I had never had their coffee before.  As guests of the hotel we have a daily buy one get one free discount.  I ordered a large decaf vanilla latte, and Todd ordered an iced tea.  We both got cinnamon rolls.  Everything tasted ok, but I still prefer Starbucks.

We went back to the room to get cleaned up, then got on the road.  Today's destination: Mount Rushmore.

Just around the bend

Entry Plaza