Milestones

Mileage/music math:  (2000 Miles by The Pretenders + 500 Miles by The Proclaimers)x2 = 5000 miles by Veloster 

Thank You

Just Curious

Just curious if there's anyone besides bots, friends and family that are looking at/reading this blog.  Please feel free to leave a comment or email to say hi if so and if you like what you see so far - this is my first somewhat consistent blog, and while I write mainly just for myself, I'm open to suggestions, opinions, etc.

At least I am right now at this moment in time.  I reserve the right to change my mind later.  Thanks.

Tuesday

A lot of drama today, which I won't go into here, but nothing that some spaghetti, asiago parmesan garlic bread (and an entire bottle of wine) won't help. Mostly the entire bottle of wine. Yes, I'm sure that's it. Wine can heal all wounds for a time. My God, the trailer for R. I. P. D. looks hilarious right now - not just like the MIB rip-off it usually looks like. Go wine! Yay!

Broiled steaks tonight - a couple of 12oz strips, seasoned with salt, worcestershire pepper, and garlic.  Fresh-shucked corn on the cob and baked potatoes with butter and sour cream for the sides, and a loaf of onion rye bread.  Pretty good if I say so myself.

When I stopped at the store on the way home from work I saw the new Redd's Apple Ale, which I had wanted to try since I had the more-than-unbelievably-excellent Apple Cider Ale at Firehouse Brewing Company in Rapid City, SD.  See the previous post here.

Sad to say Redd's is not very good.  Even as a light ale it's got a very weak, watery flavor with a bit of a sour bile after-kick to the apple taste.  Not something I would purchase again.  For a full (and I think, fair) writeup, follow this link to the Chicago Reader blog and a review by Philip Montoro.

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 7

Breakfast at the hotel this morning at 8am.  Cheese omelette, biscuit, sausage patty, banana, raisin bran, 2% milk, orange juice, coffee.

Today it's a straight shot down I-135 which becomes I-35.  Not much to tell.  We listened to Tina Fey narrate her book Bossypants.  We stopped for gas in Guthrie, OK and ate lunch there at long John silvers at 12:30pm.  I had a 2-piece fish basket, with a piece of chicken with hushpuppies, onion rings and root beer.  So gross.

At 2:45pm we stopped at a rest stop and as I pre-flushed the urinal it splashed out onto my leg.  So gross.

We made it through the Moore, OK area with little delay, much like when we came through the first time.  What I really noticed from there to the end of the journey was how much traffic had increased.  Driving in South Dakota, Nebraska or Kansas is a dream compared to the number of cars that are on the road down south.  Combined with the temperature there compared to the heat here, that's 2 marks in favor of moving north.

We got home just after 5pm.  Unlike our normal post-trip routine, I went ahead and emptied the luggage, started the laundry, and put everything away.  I wanted to be able to relax and enjoy the next day before having to go back to work on Monday.  I don't really remember, but I think we went to Panera Bread for dinner.  If we did, I got my usual 1/2 ham and swiss on rye (no tomato or mayo), with a cup of chicken noodle soup and a black cherry smoothie.

It was a fantastic trip, and I'd recommend it to anyone.  We will probably go back in the future, to spend more time at Custer State Park and take a side trip to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.  Thanks for following along on this adventure.

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 7

Goodbye South Dakota - time to depart.

6:30am. Georgy Girl by The Seekers is blaring through the speakers in the city square as we walk past with our luggage to the parking garage.  The fountains are going and there is no one around.

Our hotel reservation for tonight is in Salina, KS.  We decide to go a different route than the drive up and strike out south down highway 79 to 385, then to 26, then I-80,

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 6

Breakfast at Tally's again.  Thought about splurging and getting a country fried steak breakfast (something I have never done), but then thought better of it and had a 2 egg breakfast with scrambled eggs, toast, sausage, hash browns.

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 5

Up at 6am this morning (thought it was 7am).  Slept much better with the windows closed and the air on.  Laid in bed until 9:45am updating my journal.  Ate the orange-cranberry muffin I brought back from Perkins the night before.  Tried the in-room coffee maker, but the coffee was swill so I poured it out.

Today's destination:

Saturday Morning at the Keyboard

Blockhead

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

Now With 100% More Photos

Just finished adding photos to yesterday's post.  Take a short trip back in time and check them out.

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 3

Some rain overnight.  Small hail in the early morning hours.  Up early, but didn't get going until around 10:00am (nice).  Thunderstorms by that time.  Walked across the street to Tally's Silver Spoon for breakfast.

Rainy morning.  Statue.

Hotel Alex Johnson as seen from Tally's

After waiting about 20 min, 2 places at the bar opened up.  I had decaf coffee and beignet breakfast sliders, which were bacon, egg and cheddar on three sliced beignets, served on top of a little maple cream.  They were so good; cooked perfectly, the beignets were crisp and hot, not greasy or oily.  By the time we finished the rain had stopped, so we headed out toward Wind Cave National Park.

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 2

Hotel room feels damp.  Tossed and turned a little because of it.  Up at 5:45am, back to sleep then up at 6:15am.  Watched a couple of episodes of Arrested Development on Netflix on the iPad, then got going.

Them!

Thought it was just due to the rain, but they're all over both bathrooms and in the kitchen now.  Have people coming to spray tomorrow.

Love this movie though, have ever since I was a kid - Them!

South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 1

On the road at 9:20am, later than I thought, but no prob.  Panera Bread for breakfast.  Had a spinach-bacon quiche and water, and got a blueberry bagel to go.  I drove the first shift.

Saturday

Good morning.  Just farting around this morning - got coffee, went to the store, syncing the phone, doing laundry, saying good morning to you, that sort of thing.

Plates

Got my new license plates today and to celebrate had dinner at Sonny Bryan's.  Horrible day at work; but at least it's been a good evening.

Say Hello To My Little Friend

My 2013 Hyundai Veloster

Very excited to have a new car.  Now, what to name it?

Thursday Night

The auto show then IHOP - what could be better?

Clown. It's what's for dinner.

There's a small, upscale market by where I work that has a rotating variety of entrees and side dishes you can get to go as a hot dinner plate.  I called Todd as I was leaving work one day this week to ask him if he wanted a plate for dinner.  He said he just wanted all veggies unless they had a "fun meat".  I jokingly asked "A fun meat?  What, you mean like clown meat?"  We had a little laugh over that.

I got the dinners and as I was waiting in line to check out I pulled out my phone thinking I would see if there were any funny photos I could send to him to continue the joke.  Little did I know that if you search the web for "clown meat", here is what you will find:

Amazing. Truly amazing.

The larger black sunspot is approximately the size of 6 planet Earths
Just under one million planet Earths could fit inside the sun

Valentine's Day

I love (get it? nyuk, nyuk) the Valentine's Day card I received this year.  It really picked me up when I was feeling low.

The octopus of love

I Think I'm Ready

On February 4th my grandmother Ila Mae passed away.  She was a couple of weeks shy of her 84th birthday.  I won't dwell on it here other than to say that she was a great lady and I miss her very much.
I love you Grandma.

1929 - 2013

Ila Mae

Labelmaker

Up at 4:18am this morning.  Couldn't go back to sleep.  Spent the morning adding labels to all my old posts.  It's almost 8:00am now and I've finally finished.  Think I'll reward myself for a job that didn't need doing with a little Starbucks.