The Return of the Jacksons
Guess who's back ... back again. Yep, it's me. Well, me and the wife ... er the wife and I, whatever. The point is, we have safetly returned from our vacation in South Dakota. I've got several random stories about what we've seen, who we talked to, what we've done/haven't done, etc. I guess I should probably talk about all that here... it may take a while, so strap in or .... just scroll down.
Anyways, this past friday (june 30th) Sarah and I were going about our usual days. When I had woken up to go to my 10am class, sarah was already at work. After my class, I came back home and proceeded to pack things up, wash the dishes, take out the trash, play some resident evil 4, etc. That evening, after Sarah had gotten home and crashed on the couch for a little nappynap (she loves nappynaps), there was a knock at the door. She answered the door, and in streamed a bunch of my relatives; Mom, Dad, Uncle Rich (Dad's brother), Aunt Linda (Rich's wife), Shayna (their oldest daughter), Andy (their middle son), Amy (their youngest daughter), and Grandma Awanda (my father's mother). After sitting around and talking about some brief hey-how-are-yas ... we decided to go eat together in Omaha at Cheeburger Cheeburger. At Cheeburger Cheeburger, I ordered a classic with jalapeno cheese, guacamole, peanut butter, and grey poupon. It was splendid. As you may have gathered from this voice post, my cousin was interested in purchasing a t-shirt from that restaurant, only to discover that there were none available. Anyways, we went back to Blair where most folks proceeded to go to their hotel rooms at the local Super 8. My cousin Shayna stayed with Sarah and myself, we watched quite a bit of Stargate Atlantis (there was a season 2 marathon on) as well as a bunch of episodes of Scrubs season 1. After doing a lot of tv and internetting, I proceeded to crash around 5:15am and then awoke at 7 the next morning.
We departed for South Dakota. My father drove our van, where I rode along with my mother, grandmother, and wife. Everyone else was in the other van. We stopped at a scenic overlook just outside of town and I took a few pictures. Due to one of my CompactFlash cards becoming corrupt, I was unable to retrive those two or three images from the camera, otherwise you'd be graced with them right about now. http://pics.livejournal.com/tjackson/gallery/0001bc0a Anyways we got back in the car and drove quite a long ways. I think we stopped at an Arby's and a mall along the way. We also stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell as well as Wall Drug. There's several pictures my wife took at the Corn Palace and a few I took at Wall Drug which appear to have also been lost on my corrupted CompactFlash card (these pictures are included in the link above). Somewhere in the middle of our trip, my father managed to copy over the flash card, so maybe I'll get those back and be able to post em.
The travelling and the trip in general were pretty ... interesting I suppose, albeit annoying at times. My cousin Andy (probably around 14 by now) is a bit of a snotty, 'try to run the family with his whining' guy. He's a bit of a dick. Most places he's not interested in going into because its too boring, or 'i just don't wanna' ... but the favorite reason for declining to go into the Corn Palace was .... because it smells too much like corn and he doesn't like that smell. Yeah, that didn't make a lot of sense to me either .... since his family is from Georgia, and the last time I checked, there wasn't a heavy corn crop average down there. My cousin Shayna however, rules pretty hard. She's starting college soon so we got to talk about a couplah different things. In Mitchell, for some reason Dad took a picture of Shayna and myself in one of those godforsaken 'put yer head in the hole and grin like a moron' standups. At Wall Drug, I took a picture of Sarah next too some tourist-photo-trap guy that apparently she'd gotten her picture taken with some 13 years before. That should be an interesting side-by-side comparison. Obviously, since they're not included ... these pictures didn't make it through the scandisk .chk->restored file types operation. I've emailed Dad for his copies, so hopefully they'll be coming around soon enough. (these pictures are also included in the gallery link above)
We stopped off in Rapid City, South Dakota in order to hit a grocery store to procur the supplies needed for the extended stay in this sort of 'rustic home' we were anticipating. Fortunately, the grocery store we stopped at also had a Starbucks contained therein. I got my new favorite, Venti Chai Frappachino No Whipped Cream W/ 10 Shots of Chai. Woot. After we got everything and went to our place of residence (just outside Hill City, hopefully a mapscan will be coming later this week/today) we drove up this rather steep-windy-dirt road to our home. Mom, Dad, Uncle Bob (Dad's other brother who drove from MN), Sarah and myself all stayed in one house. Now ... from what I understand ... my parents/grandma/whoever were paying $160 a day for this place. I'm not sure what hotel rates were, but suffice it to say, we felt like we got fucking shafted. Dad described the place a 'fixer uper' and I think that's about accurate. Evidently the refrigerator was shitting the bed, as it began leaking all over the fucking place soon after we got there. The kitchen wasn't stocked with 'kitchen like things'. There was a bug problem ... it was just ... not up to any real 'hospitality industry standard'. With the help of family we hadn't seen in a while, as well as a few bottles of wine, and some good cooking we managed to make due. I managed to hook up the RF Modulator to the janky tv in order to watch some more Scrubs Season 1 with Shayna. Otherwise we did our best to either nap or hang out in the hot tub while we were there.
I'm not sure what exaclty happened on what days, but we wandered around Hill City once. Looking at various places, eating at a BBQ place (with some fucking HAWT sauce), buying Grandma a Moolatte at the DQ... The whole reunion bunch ate at the Alpine Inn ... which was the beginning of several exercises in futility. We had a reservation, for God knows what time. Despite having a reservation for our rather large party, we had an hour wait. At which point, everyone proceeded to file in and ... sit with their side of the family they came with. Obviously this defeats the purpose of a reunion, meeting and talking with those you haven't gotten to see in quite some time. Instead we all ate with those whom we had driven with, or seen in the recent past. The afore mentioned Jacksons who all met in Blair ended up eating together. The food wasn't too bad. My mother and I each ordered a Monte Cristo, which was fucking yumtastic. I loved it. It was actually the first time I'd ever had one of those. However ... the menu mentioned that it would be served with a 'special raspberry dipping sauce', which as I will post later ... was a Smuckers Strawberry Jam. (this image post requires me to get better pc access to my cellphone, so don't get your hopes up) Yeah ... big fuck you to the Alpine Inn on that one. Dad and I ordered a bottle of semi-dry wine which was splendid.
I discovered that I could not sleep on the bed at our 'house' without completely messing up my back, so after the first night Sarah and I started sleeping 'against the grain' of the mattress. That worked a ltitle better. The hottub was also a welcome comfort for aching bones.
We went to Mount Rushmore. It had been a few years since I had been there, and about 13 since Sarah's last visit. So we didn't mind it so much. Apparently the kids on the trip didn't see anything so remarkable about 'stuff carved into the rock' ... and honestly neither did I, however I liked walking around the Presidential Trail (about a mile) and taking pictures from various angles, etc. It was a miniature digital camera playtime. Sarah and I both had a good time. While I've included some Rushmore images behind the cut, here's my South Dakota Rushmore Gallery from this most recent trip.
Mom's lookin pretty bored eh?
this is rushmore from the road through a park after the fact (custer I think)
this is sarah taking picture of a biker group, she was positioning em for better photoness ... it was fer cute
(left to right) grandma awanda jackson, shayna jackson, tom jackson
After touring through the giftshop and purchasing a few magnets and postcards (Sarah was keeping a steady stream of correspondence open to Tuscola, IL), we went to the cafetorium and ate lunch. While the food was decent, you can see from the image to the left that it was feckin expensive. Hatchy matchy. The Mike's Hard Apple was $4.50, and although it was my first of that flavor and moderately good (like weak sour apple pucker), it was nowhere near worth that amount of money. I guess I was just expecting that my parents/grandma were going to pick up that tab. Anyways, it's all in the past now, so ... whatever.
After Rushmore, we proceeded to drive around Custer State Park ... we had a really good time, looking at the wonderful views and wildlife and such. I felt bad for Shayna though, she didn't get to see but one buffalo, whereas we got more than our fair dosage of em. Basically as we were driving along we saw a herd on one of the side roads. We drove over there and proceeded to ooh and ahh, however it seems that every stupid tourist within 2 miles had also seen the herd and they drove over there as well. A lot of cars pulled through, attempting to negoiate ownership of the dirt road with a few hundred buffalo. The herd was predominantly made up of younger buffalo and their bigass buffalo mommies and daddies. So having these load ass rude vehicles making threatening moves toward the offspring of enormously sized consequently potentially enormously destructive animals, was rather interesting to watch. Unfortunately no motorcycles or volvo sportscars were stormed by buffalo, however there was no shortage of morons. Tourists were getting out of their cars, around wild (albeit probably used to humans) animals that had the potential to cause death or significant damage to them and their cars upon any inkling of threat to them or their offspring. It was rather disturbing to see the notion of 'we're humans and we're invincible' being played out right before our eyes. Someone even picked up a Buffalo Chip (dried turds) ... as a souvenir .... weird. Dad managed to get quite a few pictures of the buffalo and other animals we saw on our drive around Custer State Park. I only got two as I was in the back seat of the van.
Buffalo out the window on my side of the van
Uncle Bob's mug & buffalo through the window of the driver side
We also drove through the Needles, an area of Custer State Park that has some rather interesting rock formations, although getting to view them requires driving through the windiest, steepest stuff evar. Dad managed to pull it off without any of us fearing for our lives, which apparently is something that can't be said for my older relatives who apparently were getting 'never riding with you again ever' boycotts from their younger children (younger .... as in 40-50). Sarah and I took quite a few pictures of various overlooks and such. They're all included in my South Dakota Nature gallery. As we were at various overlooks, my Uncle Bob and I proceeded to climb all over the place and take pictures of different things (those pictures we took are in the previously linked nature gallery). We managed to climb up to a rather high area, and I was sitting there enjoying the view, and Uncle Bob farted. Yeah we're definetly related :) If you're interested in Uncle Bob/Tom shots or other people from this trip ... you can check out my South Dakota People Gallery
Later that evening we ate at the lodge with the entire family. The lodge was the main 'registration/single housing facility' closer to civilization than the family 'houses' up in the hills/trees. It was where my Grandma and one of her sisters were staying. Once again we had the godawful frustrating/annoying experience of sitting with people of our same 'pod'. Sarah and I sat together with Grandma Awanda and Shayna. We talked about our experiences throughout the day, which was good I suppose. Shayna was one of those who didn't really see the 'fun' in the Mt. Rushmore thing ... and she missed out on a bunch of buffalo, due to larger 'whiny kids want food so the whole car must forego any other plans' phenomena. But on a brighter note, Grandma and I drank some Yellowtail Merlot and Sarah and I enjoyed the hell out of our rack of lamb, which was really a few ribs thereof. Shayna was doing quite well at departing her from parent's/silbling's snooty 'can't eat _that_' way of doing things ... she tried some spinach pastry appetizer and although she didn't like it, she swallowed the bite and politely declined anymore. Definetly a step up from the previous encounters with Shayna and fam. Our waitresses during the evening had on, as Sarah put it, "their banker faces". They were smiling, but on the inside you could tell they were thinking something much less cordial. We think that this attitude of ... pay me and get off my damn porch ... was rather infectious, judging from the owner.
The lodge, and entire 'rustic housing' facility was run by a woman who was affectionately (or not so affectionately) known as Hitler/Attila.
Why was she known as such? Well, there are a variety of expectancies that members of this family reunion had of the place where we were staying.
First, it advertised itself as a B'n'B, that is Bed and Breakfast.
Second, it charged around $225 per day per 'rustic house'.
Third, it charged more than that for the single rooms at the 'lodge'.
Fourth, breakfast was not offered as it is for most places, between certain hours (like 7am to 9am), instead it was served at 8:30am no exceptions.
Fifth, when one wished to have an enjoyable gathering in the lodge area (which was the main hub, albeit a mile down the hill, from the 'rustic homes'), one had to purchase wine from Hitler/Attila and keep it down cuz she lived upstairs.
Now, when we compare these things to their equirvalent experiences by family members we come up with the following.
First, this was not a cozy bed'n'breakfast for the majority. Granted it might have functioned kind of like one for those who paid extra and stayed in the singles in the main-hub-lodge area. However, the kitchens in the rustic-houses were understocked, the ambiance was lacking, the wiring of the place was not as good as it could be. It just seemed to be very 'minimalistic'. Kind of what I would expect from buying a fixer-upper in the mountains then occasionally going camping there. Not a bed-n-breakfast.
Second, $225 would have been acceptable for a certain level of 'wow this is nice'. that level was nowhere near what we felt staying in the place. It was like you were crashing at a distant relative's, one who barely cared about presentation or ambiance.
Third, Grandma and her sister, as well as few others, paid more to stay in the single rooms at the 'lodge'. Now I'm not sure how much 'more' is, but I've been estimating around $300 per day. Since we were there for 6 days, there's a rather dismal total. I say dismal, because out of her extreme graciousness, Grandma volunteered to pay for her place, our place, and my uncle's family's place. ($225*2*6)+($300*6)=$4,500 so .. for around four and a half grand, 11 people got to stay somewhere for almost a week. Gah. Judging from the website, which barely counts as one, these were supposed to be 'resort homes' ... now I'm not one who demands to have his every need pampered, but they certianly didn't come off 'resorty'.
Fourth, breakfast, for those who eat it (not I), was only offered at the main-hub-lodge, which was as I mentioned, a mile away down a dirt windy hill. So for a 15 minute wheel-griping drive, you could get a breakfast at one time only. Yeah, we never did. Grandma did once I think. Everyone else was enjoying sleeping in or was already off to whatever tourist place by then.
Fifth, and this, for us was a biggie. It helps to know the type of people that make up my family. We're not alcoholics, but we do like our wine. We go to wineries, we taste, we purchase. Dad grows grapes in the backyard, makes his own wine in the basement. He orders grapes from other vineyards and makes his own wines with their grapes. We like to talk, we socialize well. Joking, reminescing(sp?), enjoying one another's company, all are part of our lifestyle. It's just the easy hearted way we roll. Now, we had gone to a winery during this trip, pictures in the SD Winery Gallery, and a few people had purchased some wine there. My father, knowing the type of family we are, had brought some of his own wine along (some homemade, some purchased on various winery trips in the past). Nope, we weren't allowed to drink that in the common area. Which was where we had one ofthe meals. Hitler wouldn't entertain a 'buy one bottle from her, drink our own as well' policy per table. She had a corking fee of $3 per bottle, but really ... as my Grandma put it "when I paid $23 for that bottle of wine, why would I want to pay $3 to open it?". So, we drank a Yellowtail Merlot there for dinner, and that pretty much curtailed any common snacking-drinking conversation environment. Granted we had a little of that at the cabin where Sarah/Myself, Mom/Dad, and Uncle Bob were staying ... because we'd bring Grandma back with us from the occasional tourist trip and it seemed like old times. The second part of complaint #5, was due to Attila's stomping around the lodge all pissy like, when her only patrons of the lodge were staying up to watch a slideshow of family photos. As Dad noted, "she seems to have missed the memo that she's working in the hospitality industry". Yeah, big thumbs down for her and her facility. Big thumbs of for my family for attempting to 'look on the bright side of life'.
We visted Rushmore Cave, the pictures of which (at least taken by me) are located in my SD Cave Photos Gallery. I know there's a few in there that are crappy as hell, I'm gonna try and photoshop em to see if you can tell wtf I was actually photographing. Sorry I'm such a sucky photographer. Anyways, the cave was fun. It was rather climb-oriented (up and down stairs and inclines), so it's probably a good thing that Grandma declined our offer to tag along. Our tour guide was rather fond of stupid jokes, and his vocabulary as well as physical mannerisms reminded me of John Trefzger. All in all, everything went well and the cave tour was quite enjoyable. After the cave tour, we ate at a restaurant in Keystone. After making a quick two mile run (yes tom ran two miles) for Sarah, I had a french-dip sandwich, which was actually pretty good. It was the first time I'd ever had one.
Later we went back to the house, relaxed, talked, took a ginormous nap. Afterwards we had dinner with the entire clan. Again that same fucking 'group together by car load' situation popped up, rendering any socializing quite impossible. But the view of the mountains and trees was dern pretty. Our server was a welcome relief from Attila/Hitler, she was from New Hampshire, so we had fun with her, poking fun at her accent/talking Rhode Islanduh, etc. Countrary to the meal at the Alpine Inn, we got appetizers, soups, and such in a timely manner. The wine was pretty feckin' expensive so we declined. I had beef wellington, completing my trifecta of 'new dishes'. (Monte Cristo, French Dip, Beef Wellington) ... All in all, I enjoyed the Monte Cristo the most, but all of them were good so i'm 3-0!
We met briefly at Hitler's lodge, said our goodbyes and hugged a buncha folk ... then mom/dad/sarah/uncle bob/myself headed back up to our 'rustic/resort house'. There, I finished a bottle of wine as well as the rest of the vanilla ice cream and marischino cherries. Woot!
The next morning we decided not to remake our own beds, that way assuming Hitler's minions didn't make it up the hill to do it, the next patrons would know that this place was under attended. The drive home went quite speedily and well, considering Dad didn't have to worry about maintaining a caravan of drivers. We ate Chinese takeout here in Blair with the fam, I finished off two bottles of wine (not entire bottles mind you, just about 6 glasses). Later Shayna crashed here while her family crashed at the Super 8. We watched Lord of the Rings: Return of the King extended edition. I showed Shayna/Sarah the easter-eggs. The next morning her folks picked her up ... and now Sarah and I are semi-back to normal.
So I suppose all went well, I still have to get some pictures back from Dad, assuming they are corrupted for him too ... but I saw some people I hadn't seen in a while, loved the parks and sight seeing, spent time with Sarah, enjoyed a hot tub, had some good food and good wine, and I got a few forms for Seminary applications completed. Not as steller as we at hoped, but it was good to be with family and away from Blair.
Well, I'm back.
For personal notice, these are the pictures I need to recover from other sources:
-special raspberry dipping sauce
-wall drug pics
-pre-driving pics
-need to upload - any LSJ pictures
Anyways, this past friday (june 30th) Sarah and I were going about our usual days. When I had woken up to go to my 10am class, sarah was already at work. After my class, I came back home and proceeded to pack things up, wash the dishes, take out the trash, play some resident evil 4, etc. That evening, after Sarah had gotten home and crashed on the couch for a little nappynap (she loves nappynaps), there was a knock at the door. She answered the door, and in streamed a bunch of my relatives; Mom, Dad, Uncle Rich (Dad's brother), Aunt Linda (Rich's wife), Shayna (their oldest daughter), Andy (their middle son), Amy (their youngest daughter), and Grandma Awanda (my father's mother). After sitting around and talking about some brief hey-how-are-yas ... we decided to go eat together in Omaha at Cheeburger Cheeburger. At Cheeburger Cheeburger, I ordered a classic with jalapeno cheese, guacamole, peanut butter, and grey poupon. It was splendid. As you may have gathered from this voice post, my cousin was interested in purchasing a t-shirt from that restaurant, only to discover that there were none available. Anyways, we went back to Blair where most folks proceeded to go to their hotel rooms at the local Super 8. My cousin Shayna stayed with Sarah and myself, we watched quite a bit of Stargate Atlantis (there was a season 2 marathon on) as well as a bunch of episodes of Scrubs season 1. After doing a lot of tv and internetting, I proceeded to crash around 5:15am and then awoke at 7 the next morning.
We departed for South Dakota. My father drove our van, where I rode along with my mother, grandmother, and wife. Everyone else was in the other van. We stopped at a scenic overlook just outside of town and I took a few pictures. Due to one of my CompactFlash cards becoming corrupt, I was unable to retrive those two or three images from the camera, otherwise you'd be graced with them right about now. http://pics.livejournal.com/tjackson/gallery/0001bc0a Anyways we got back in the car and drove quite a long ways. I think we stopped at an Arby's and a mall along the way. We also stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell as well as Wall Drug. There's several pictures my wife took at the Corn Palace and a few I took at Wall Drug which appear to have also been lost on my corrupted CompactFlash card (these pictures are included in the link above). Somewhere in the middle of our trip, my father managed to copy over the flash card, so maybe I'll get those back and be able to post em.
The travelling and the trip in general were pretty ... interesting I suppose, albeit annoying at times. My cousin Andy (probably around 14 by now) is a bit of a snotty, 'try to run the family with his whining' guy. He's a bit of a dick. Most places he's not interested in going into because its too boring, or 'i just don't wanna' ... but the favorite reason for declining to go into the Corn Palace was .... because it smells too much like corn and he doesn't like that smell. Yeah, that didn't make a lot of sense to me either .... since his family is from Georgia, and the last time I checked, there wasn't a heavy corn crop average down there. My cousin Shayna however, rules pretty hard. She's starting college soon so we got to talk about a couplah different things. In Mitchell, for some reason Dad took a picture of Shayna and myself in one of those godforsaken 'put yer head in the hole and grin like a moron' standups. At Wall Drug, I took a picture of Sarah next too some tourist-photo-trap guy that apparently she'd gotten her picture taken with some 13 years before. That should be an interesting side-by-side comparison. Obviously, since they're not included ... these pictures didn't make it through the scandisk .chk->restored file types operation. I've emailed Dad for his copies, so hopefully they'll be coming around soon enough. (these pictures are also included in the gallery link above)
We stopped off in Rapid City, South Dakota in order to hit a grocery store to procur the supplies needed for the extended stay in this sort of 'rustic home' we were anticipating. Fortunately, the grocery store we stopped at also had a Starbucks contained therein. I got my new favorite, Venti Chai Frappachino No Whipped Cream W/ 10 Shots of Chai. Woot. After we got everything and went to our place of residence (just outside Hill City, hopefully a mapscan will be coming later this week/today) we drove up this rather steep-windy-dirt road to our home. Mom, Dad, Uncle Bob (Dad's other brother who drove from MN), Sarah and myself all stayed in one house. Now ... from what I understand ... my parents/grandma/whoever were paying $160 a day for this place. I'm not sure what hotel rates were, but suffice it to say, we felt like we got fucking shafted. Dad described the place a 'fixer uper' and I think that's about accurate. Evidently the refrigerator was shitting the bed, as it began leaking all over the fucking place soon after we got there. The kitchen wasn't stocked with 'kitchen like things'. There was a bug problem ... it was just ... not up to any real 'hospitality industry standard'. With the help of family we hadn't seen in a while, as well as a few bottles of wine, and some good cooking we managed to make due. I managed to hook up the RF Modulator to the janky tv in order to watch some more Scrubs Season 1 with Shayna. Otherwise we did our best to either nap or hang out in the hot tub while we were there.
I'm not sure what exaclty happened on what days, but we wandered around Hill City once. Looking at various places, eating at a BBQ place (with some fucking HAWT sauce), buying Grandma a Moolatte at the DQ... The whole reunion bunch ate at the Alpine Inn ... which was the beginning of several exercises in futility. We had a reservation, for God knows what time. Despite having a reservation for our rather large party, we had an hour wait. At which point, everyone proceeded to file in and ... sit with their side of the family they came with. Obviously this defeats the purpose of a reunion, meeting and talking with those you haven't gotten to see in quite some time. Instead we all ate with those whom we had driven with, or seen in the recent past. The afore mentioned Jacksons who all met in Blair ended up eating together. The food wasn't too bad. My mother and I each ordered a Monte Cristo, which was fucking yumtastic. I loved it. It was actually the first time I'd ever had one of those. However ... the menu mentioned that it would be served with a 'special raspberry dipping sauce', which as I will post later ... was a Smuckers Strawberry Jam. (this image post requires me to get better pc access to my cellphone, so don't get your hopes up) Yeah ... big fuck you to the Alpine Inn on that one. Dad and I ordered a bottle of semi-dry wine which was splendid.
I discovered that I could not sleep on the bed at our 'house' without completely messing up my back, so after the first night Sarah and I started sleeping 'against the grain' of the mattress. That worked a ltitle better. The hottub was also a welcome comfort for aching bones.
We went to Mount Rushmore. It had been a few years since I had been there, and about 13 since Sarah's last visit. So we didn't mind it so much. Apparently the kids on the trip didn't see anything so remarkable about 'stuff carved into the rock' ... and honestly neither did I, however I liked walking around the Presidential Trail (about a mile) and taking pictures from various angles, etc. It was a miniature digital camera playtime. Sarah and I both had a good time. While I've included some Rushmore images behind the cut, here's my South Dakota Rushmore Gallery from this most recent trip.
Mom's lookin pretty bored eh?
this is rushmore from the road through a park after the fact (custer I think)
this is sarah taking picture of a biker group, she was positioning em for better photoness ... it was fer cute
(left to right) grandma awanda jackson, shayna jackson, tom jackson
After touring through the giftshop and purchasing a few magnets and postcards (Sarah was keeping a steady stream of correspondence open to Tuscola, IL), we went to the cafetorium and ate lunch. While the food was decent, you can see from the image to the left that it was feckin expensive. Hatchy matchy. The Mike's Hard Apple was $4.50, and although it was my first of that flavor and moderately good (like weak sour apple pucker), it was nowhere near worth that amount of money. I guess I was just expecting that my parents/grandma were going to pick up that tab. Anyways, it's all in the past now, so ... whatever.
After Rushmore, we proceeded to drive around Custer State Park ... we had a really good time, looking at the wonderful views and wildlife and such. I felt bad for Shayna though, she didn't get to see but one buffalo, whereas we got more than our fair dosage of em. Basically as we were driving along we saw a herd on one of the side roads. We drove over there and proceeded to ooh and ahh, however it seems that every stupid tourist within 2 miles had also seen the herd and they drove over there as well. A lot of cars pulled through, attempting to negoiate ownership of the dirt road with a few hundred buffalo. The herd was predominantly made up of younger buffalo and their bigass buffalo mommies and daddies. So having these load ass rude vehicles making threatening moves toward the offspring of enormously sized consequently potentially enormously destructive animals, was rather interesting to watch. Unfortunately no motorcycles or volvo sportscars were stormed by buffalo, however there was no shortage of morons. Tourists were getting out of their cars, around wild (albeit probably used to humans) animals that had the potential to cause death or significant damage to them and their cars upon any inkling of threat to them or their offspring. It was rather disturbing to see the notion of 'we're humans and we're invincible' being played out right before our eyes. Someone even picked up a Buffalo Chip (dried turds) ... as a souvenir .... weird. Dad managed to get quite a few pictures of the buffalo and other animals we saw on our drive around Custer State Park. I only got two as I was in the back seat of the van.
Buffalo out the window on my side of the van
Uncle Bob's mug & buffalo through the window of the driver side
We also drove through the Needles, an area of Custer State Park that has some rather interesting rock formations, although getting to view them requires driving through the windiest, steepest stuff evar. Dad managed to pull it off without any of us fearing for our lives, which apparently is something that can't be said for my older relatives who apparently were getting 'never riding with you again ever' boycotts from their younger children (younger .... as in 40-50). Sarah and I took quite a few pictures of various overlooks and such. They're all included in my South Dakota Nature gallery. As we were at various overlooks, my Uncle Bob and I proceeded to climb all over the place and take pictures of different things (those pictures we took are in the previously linked nature gallery). We managed to climb up to a rather high area, and I was sitting there enjoying the view, and Uncle Bob farted. Yeah we're definetly related :) If you're interested in Uncle Bob/Tom shots or other people from this trip ... you can check out my South Dakota People Gallery
Later that evening we ate at the lodge with the entire family. The lodge was the main 'registration/single housing facility' closer to civilization than the family 'houses' up in the hills/trees. It was where my Grandma and one of her sisters were staying. Once again we had the godawful frustrating/annoying experience of sitting with people of our same 'pod'. Sarah and I sat together with Grandma Awanda and Shayna. We talked about our experiences throughout the day, which was good I suppose. Shayna was one of those who didn't really see the 'fun' in the Mt. Rushmore thing ... and she missed out on a bunch of buffalo, due to larger 'whiny kids want food so the whole car must forego any other plans' phenomena. But on a brighter note, Grandma and I drank some Yellowtail Merlot and Sarah and I enjoyed the hell out of our rack of lamb, which was really a few ribs thereof. Shayna was doing quite well at departing her from parent's/silbling's snooty 'can't eat _that_' way of doing things ... she tried some spinach pastry appetizer and although she didn't like it, she swallowed the bite and politely declined anymore. Definetly a step up from the previous encounters with Shayna and fam. Our waitresses during the evening had on, as Sarah put it, "their banker faces". They were smiling, but on the inside you could tell they were thinking something much less cordial. We think that this attitude of ... pay me and get off my damn porch ... was rather infectious, judging from the owner.
The lodge, and entire 'rustic housing' facility was run by a woman who was affectionately (or not so affectionately) known as Hitler/Attila.
Why was she known as such? Well, there are a variety of expectancies that members of this family reunion had of the place where we were staying.
First, it advertised itself as a B'n'B, that is Bed and Breakfast.
Second, it charged around $225 per day per 'rustic house'.
Third, it charged more than that for the single rooms at the 'lodge'.
Fourth, breakfast was not offered as it is for most places, between certain hours (like 7am to 9am), instead it was served at 8:30am no exceptions.
Fifth, when one wished to have an enjoyable gathering in the lodge area (which was the main hub, albeit a mile down the hill, from the 'rustic homes'), one had to purchase wine from Hitler/Attila and keep it down cuz she lived upstairs.
Now, when we compare these things to their equirvalent experiences by family members we come up with the following.
First, this was not a cozy bed'n'breakfast for the majority. Granted it might have functioned kind of like one for those who paid extra and stayed in the singles in the main-hub-lodge area. However, the kitchens in the rustic-houses were understocked, the ambiance was lacking, the wiring of the place was not as good as it could be. It just seemed to be very 'minimalistic'. Kind of what I would expect from buying a fixer-upper in the mountains then occasionally going camping there. Not a bed-n-breakfast.
Second, $225 would have been acceptable for a certain level of 'wow this is nice'. that level was nowhere near what we felt staying in the place. It was like you were crashing at a distant relative's, one who barely cared about presentation or ambiance.
Third, Grandma and her sister, as well as few others, paid more to stay in the single rooms at the 'lodge'. Now I'm not sure how much 'more' is, but I've been estimating around $300 per day. Since we were there for 6 days, there's a rather dismal total. I say dismal, because out of her extreme graciousness, Grandma volunteered to pay for her place, our place, and my uncle's family's place. ($225*2*6)+($300*6)=$4,500 so .. for around four and a half grand, 11 people got to stay somewhere for almost a week. Gah. Judging from the website, which barely counts as one, these were supposed to be 'resort homes' ... now I'm not one who demands to have his every need pampered, but they certianly didn't come off 'resorty'.
Fourth, breakfast, for those who eat it (not I), was only offered at the main-hub-lodge, which was as I mentioned, a mile away down a dirt windy hill. So for a 15 minute wheel-griping drive, you could get a breakfast at one time only. Yeah, we never did. Grandma did once I think. Everyone else was enjoying sleeping in or was already off to whatever tourist place by then.
Fifth, and this, for us was a biggie. It helps to know the type of people that make up my family. We're not alcoholics, but we do like our wine. We go to wineries, we taste, we purchase. Dad grows grapes in the backyard, makes his own wine in the basement. He orders grapes from other vineyards and makes his own wines with their grapes. We like to talk, we socialize well. Joking, reminescing(sp?), enjoying one another's company, all are part of our lifestyle. It's just the easy hearted way we roll. Now, we had gone to a winery during this trip, pictures in the SD Winery Gallery, and a few people had purchased some wine there. My father, knowing the type of family we are, had brought some of his own wine along (some homemade, some purchased on various winery trips in the past). Nope, we weren't allowed to drink that in the common area. Which was where we had one ofthe meals. Hitler wouldn't entertain a 'buy one bottle from her, drink our own as well' policy per table. She had a corking fee of $3 per bottle, but really ... as my Grandma put it "when I paid $23 for that bottle of wine, why would I want to pay $3 to open it?". So, we drank a Yellowtail Merlot there for dinner, and that pretty much curtailed any common snacking-drinking conversation environment. Granted we had a little of that at the cabin where Sarah/Myself, Mom/Dad, and Uncle Bob were staying ... because we'd bring Grandma back with us from the occasional tourist trip and it seemed like old times. The second part of complaint #5, was due to Attila's stomping around the lodge all pissy like, when her only patrons of the lodge were staying up to watch a slideshow of family photos. As Dad noted, "she seems to have missed the memo that she's working in the hospitality industry". Yeah, big thumbs down for her and her facility. Big thumbs of for my family for attempting to 'look on the bright side of life'.
We visted Rushmore Cave, the pictures of which (at least taken by me) are located in my SD Cave Photos Gallery. I know there's a few in there that are crappy as hell, I'm gonna try and photoshop em to see if you can tell wtf I was actually photographing. Sorry I'm such a sucky photographer. Anyways, the cave was fun. It was rather climb-oriented (up and down stairs and inclines), so it's probably a good thing that Grandma declined our offer to tag along. Our tour guide was rather fond of stupid jokes, and his vocabulary as well as physical mannerisms reminded me of John Trefzger. All in all, everything went well and the cave tour was quite enjoyable. After the cave tour, we ate at a restaurant in Keystone. After making a quick two mile run (yes tom ran two miles) for Sarah, I had a french-dip sandwich, which was actually pretty good. It was the first time I'd ever had one.
Later we went back to the house, relaxed, talked, took a ginormous nap. Afterwards we had dinner with the entire clan. Again that same fucking 'group together by car load' situation popped up, rendering any socializing quite impossible. But the view of the mountains and trees was dern pretty. Our server was a welcome relief from Attila/Hitler, she was from New Hampshire, so we had fun with her, poking fun at her accent/talking Rhode Islanduh, etc. Countrary to the meal at the Alpine Inn, we got appetizers, soups, and such in a timely manner. The wine was pretty feckin' expensive so we declined. I had beef wellington, completing my trifecta of 'new dishes'. (Monte Cristo, French Dip, Beef Wellington) ... All in all, I enjoyed the Monte Cristo the most, but all of them were good so i'm 3-0!
We met briefly at Hitler's lodge, said our goodbyes and hugged a buncha folk ... then mom/dad/sarah/uncle bob/myself headed back up to our 'rustic/resort house'. There, I finished a bottle of wine as well as the rest of the vanilla ice cream and marischino cherries. Woot!
The next morning we decided not to remake our own beds, that way assuming Hitler's minions didn't make it up the hill to do it, the next patrons would know that this place was under attended. The drive home went quite speedily and well, considering Dad didn't have to worry about maintaining a caravan of drivers. We ate Chinese takeout here in Blair with the fam, I finished off two bottles of wine (not entire bottles mind you, just about 6 glasses). Later Shayna crashed here while her family crashed at the Super 8. We watched Lord of the Rings: Return of the King extended edition. I showed Shayna/Sarah the easter-eggs. The next morning her folks picked her up ... and now Sarah and I are semi-back to normal.
So I suppose all went well, I still have to get some pictures back from Dad, assuming they are corrupted for him too ... but I saw some people I hadn't seen in a while, loved the parks and sight seeing, spent time with Sarah, enjoyed a hot tub, had some good food and good wine, and I got a few forms for Seminary applications completed. Not as steller as we at hoped, but it was good to be with family and away from Blair.
Well, I'm back.
For personal notice, these are the pictures I need to recover from other sources:
-special raspberry dipping sauce
-wall drug pics
-pre-driving pics
-need to upload - any LSJ pictures