Road Trip Post #5K - Rapid City

Thursday, June 18th

We started the day by sleeping in as late as possible. My mom and dad went on a lovely drive on US 14A - Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway instead of sleeping in. They highly recommend this drive with its wildflowers, waterfalls and beautiful nature.

Part of the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. Photo by Karen Rasmussen.

We took advantage of the hotel's pool and spa. We checked out at 11 am at the last possible minute.

The girls enjoyed as much of the spa as we'd let them get into the super hot water.

We all met up at Taste of Chicago on Lacrosse Street in Rapid City for lunch. My parents had been here two years ago, but the location and management had changed. From the manager, he stated that Rapid City wanted more authentic Chicago food and this new place was the answer to that call. The decor was all Chicago sports teams. Every wall hosted a different team. Side note: they had not updated that the Blackhawks just won the Stanley Cup.

My mom, sister, niece, Six and Eight waiting for our lunch.

The food offerings were authentic Chicago fare, according to the manager. I was surprised to see that there wasn't a pizza, deep dish or otherwise, offered on the menu. The menu mostly consisted of hot dogs, bratwurst, chili, and nachos. There were also tamales. The special of the day was tamales with chili on top, served with an individual bag of chips and a fountain soda for $5. However when I walked in, the one man/manager working the lunch shift stated that there was no soup and no chili. I had wanted a chili cheese dog, but that wasn't possible without chili.

A view of the other direction with Six, my dad, sister and mom. There was one other family and one single person in the restaurant. Maybe that should have been my first clue at noon on a Thursday.

I ordered a kid's hot dog meal of a plain hot dog, bag of chips and a fountain soda for Six. Eight wanted a tamale. I settled on a bratwurst and ordered us both drinks. All of this was only $12. Because there was only one man working, the food took forever. He kept saying that we needed to have patience and he'd get to us in order, giving each order the attention it required. Which would have been fine, except everything was premade and just reheated, and still a bit chilled. The rest of my family ordered the special - tamales with chili. Amazingly chili appeared. Turns out it was frozen and he was reheating it slowly, but in time to get to my family's order.

To say I was not impressed is an understatement. The service was slow, even with his assurance of quality, the food was only warm, and I'm not a Chicago sports fan for any of their many teams. I also do not associate Chicago with tamales, but I do associate Chicago with deep dish pizza.

Somehow I knew that even though we got to Taste of Chicago at noon, we would not make it across town to take a tour of the Black Hills gold Mount Rushmore Jewelry factory by 1 pm. We got our tickets for the 2 pm tour, and just made it with little time to look around before the tour started. Unfortunately they did not allow us to take pictures inside the jewelry store and factory.

I'm sporting my new Black Hills gold necklace with a Montana sapphire just outside the factory.

The factory is a fascinating place! Traditionally Black Hills Gold was only made from gold mined in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Now that the mines are starting to run dry, the term Black Hills Gold only legally applies to pieces made in the Black Hills. The designs including grapes and grape leaves came from a French jewelry designer who decided to try his luck at becoming a miner. He got lost looking for gold in the Black Hills. While lost he had a dream that he was back home in the vineyard and when he awoke, he was saved from starvation by finding grapes. He showed his gratitude by giving up mining, and only dealing with designing gold pieces and he used the grapes, leaves and vines in his designs, calling it "Good Luck" jewelry.

A few things not mentioned in the video attached to the link above: this is their second location. There were so many gold shavings trapped in the carpet of their old location that they sent the carpet to the gold refinery and received enough money to completely pay the mortgage of their new location. They also vacuum every day and send their vacuum bags to the refinery to reclaim the gold shavings.

Image taken from a Bing image search. This is Miss Rodeo America 2014 with the beautiful Black Hills Gold tiara.

We enjoyed looking at all the jewelry the factory had to offer. The tiara made for Miss Rodeo America was on display and is absolutely gorgeous. I think it's even more beautiful seeing it for myself. I couldn't decide between two necklaces, so I got both since they were 30% off. I also got the girls necklaces for their birthdays, so don't tell them if you read this before them!

We left the factory and headed downtown to see the City of Presidents. There are life size statues for every US president on a city block corner, except for Barack Obama. His statue will be added after his term in office is complete. The girls were still full of energy and decided to take pictures with most of the presidents and climbed on a few to get better pictures and burn energy. Here are a few of our favorites (yes, a few, I think we took pictures with all 43 statues):

My dad and girls with Teddy Roosevelt.

My niece and girls with Abraham Lincoln.

I'm way taller than James Madison.

The girls with Lyndon B. Johnson. We toured his ranch near Fredericksburg, TX in March.

We enjoyed pretending to feed the birds with Benjamin Harrison.

Howdy! with Calvin Coolidge

Grover Cleveland looked like he just wanted to sit and chat, kind of like Santa.

George W. Bush was president when both girls were born.

George Washington gets a hug.

Thomas Jefferson was the last president in our loop.

We decided to have an early dinner before we left Rapid City to drive 4 1/2 hours to the family reunion in North Dakota. We went to Perkins, which is yet another chain, but a favorite from my college days. I decided we had to go there because they had peach muffins! Other than that, dinner was what you would expect in terms of food, service, cleanliness, etc.

The peach muffins sang their siren's song and I had to eat at Perkins.

We left Rapid City and started heading north. We got to Belle Fourche, SD, the geographical center of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. Two years ago we stopped to eat lunch here, not realizing its significance nor the cool monument. So we had to stop for the photo op this time.

My dad and mom looking at the large compass monument depicting the geographical center of the United States.

The girls decided to roll down the hill after being cooped up in the minivan.

My monument selfie.

Smile like you like each other! I'm trying for a Christmas card photo here!

Monument angels.

We got back in the minivan and continued our caravan to the family reunion at the Assumption Abbey in Richardton, ND. We arrived at 11:30 pm and collapsed into our dorm room beds.

Round Rock Day

Today is Memorial Day. I always get a bit weepy this time of year because way back in 2004 I was in Iraq in the Army with the 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Infantry Division and my battalion lost 10 heros. I considered two of the guys good friends. I miss my Army Brothers. So while this weekend no longer just means the unofficial kick-off to summer to me as it did before 2004, I do believe they would like us to take a moment to remember them, the good times we shared, and then get on with it.

Visiting my Army Brother's final resting place in Arlington, Memorial Day 2013, pictured with my oldest daughter. 

This morning I had to get my 2007 minivan it's 100,000 mile service! Yes, this military life has moved us coast to coast and now in the middle. My mom-van has served me well and is still going strong. As a reward for having to get up early on a no-school/work day, we decided to play tourist and head to Round Rock Donuts.

Round Rock Donuts neon sign by the registers.

I first heard about Round Rock Donuts when I attended a taping of the Jimmy Kimmel Live show in Austin this March. Then my spin instructor brought up that she got a "Texas Sized" donut from Round Rock Donuts for her birthday and she made us burn the calories for her. So today was the day to try these world famous donuts.

We drove up and were a bit surprised that the road was a weird left turn that kinda looked like a fork in the road, the road less traveled because just beyond the shop the road was blocked due to road construction. It didn't slow the traffic down at all. The parking lot is miniscule, with maybe 20 parking spaces. There is a drive thru that constantly has at least 10 vehicles waiting for their orders.

We parked and walked in. Amazingly we started to wait in line inside the doors. The good news is that the line moves quickly. The line moved so quickly, we didn't have much time to ogle the variety of donuts. We decided to get everyone a maple glazed and a chocolate glazed donut. The girls each got a chocolate milk that I wish we had glasses to share one, because neither one of them finished their milk. Tim and I got coffee.

The selection of donuts in the case with the Texas sized donuts. *They were similar in size to the Monterey Donuts which will be an upcoming Throwback Thursday post.

After placing our orders, there was barely any room to wait to pick up our orders. I'm not a fan of crowds, so I sent the girls and Tim outside to get a table while I waited for the donuts. It wasn't an overly long wait, but still felt long since I constantly felt I was in the way, but then again, so was everyone else.

Our family with our donuts. A nice lady who was sitting in that empty chair didn't want to photobomb us, so she volunteered to take our picture!

I finally got our order and joined the family outside. The donuts were obviously made fresh. They were very doughy and soft. Even under the chocolate and maple glazing, there was an odd orange colored glaze. They were a bit messy, especially the maple glaze. Their website says the orange or yellow color is because they use fresh eggs while hand making these donuts.

Six getting really messy with her maple glazed donut, plus some of the road construction equipment behind her.

While the donuts were delicious, I don't know if we'll be back any time soon. We have a few donut shops a lot closer who also make fresh donuts daily, with a lot less traffic and crowds. We might be back to order the Texas sized donuts for birthday breakfasts for the girls.

As we left, the traffic was just as bad and the line of people to get in the donut shop was even longer. Since it started to rain, we were happy to make room for others.

A horrible picture of the lines of vehicles coming and going from Round Rock Donuts.

As an added bonus, when we had to pick up my minivan from it's completed service, we decided to have burgers for lunch. So we headed to Mooyah.

We had decided not to review chain restaurants, because we usually avoid chains in favor of supporting local restaurants and businesses. Someday we may own our own restaurant or business, and we'd like all the support we can get! However, we didn't realize this was a chain, because it's only a Texas chain, like HEB the grocery store.

The burgers and hotdogs can be ordered with all kinds of toppings for free. Only cheese, bacon and avocado costs extra. You can also order salads here.

The rain was coming down hard and the restaurant was loud, so I had to repeat myself a few times. We did have a friendly chat with the gal working the register about Jimmy Kimmel and Vulcan Video that her friends own, and was featured on the episode I was there to see taped in person.

The girls were entertained by the big wall of chalkboard and chalk.

Our shakes came out first and mine was missing. Eight got cookie dough, Six got peanut butter cup and Tim got chocolate. I ordered an Oreo shake, but when it was delivered to me, it was peanut butter cup. Good thing I'm not allergic to peanut butter. It did have candy crushed on top, so I was warned it was not what I ordered, but I decided I didn't care enough to send it back. I was disappointed that the last third of my shake had no candy blended in, just vanilla ice cream.

My very disappointing and completely wrong milkshake.

Our food came out and it reminded me of Five Guys burgers. Five Guys happens to be my favorite fast food burgers, so this is a glowing review of their burgers from me! The one thing this place has over Five Guys is Sweet Potato Fries! Six was apparently not in the mood for her hot dog. She called it "spicy" but Tim tried it and he said it was delicious. We were filled, mostly enjoyed our food and didn't mind the wait as a huge storm moved through the area.

The rain falling in sheets as we waited to find a good time to drive home.

It was a blessing in disguise that we were stuck at Mooyah for awhile waiting out the storm. We drove home in the thunderstorm and torrential rain. A few minutes before we got home, a funnel cloud was spotted near our house. The storm has passed by now and we are all fine, still in our watertight house.

Someone shared this on facebook - the funnel cloud we missed as we were driving back from Mooyah, as seen 3 miles from our house.

As an added bonus, here is a link to the episode of Jimmy Kimmel I watched on March 16, 2015! Here's what I wore, matching my sister so we could find ourselves in the crowd. Amazingly Jimmy talked to us during a commercial break and we became known as "The Sisters" and got called out all evening walking around Austin that night! There's my 15 seconds of fame!