Hanging Around in Hill City

Today was a lovely, leisurely day of just enjoying ourselves in a low-key kind of way. It seems that although there are oodles of things to see in the Black Hills, we may have seen the things most compelling to us (the Mammoth Site, the drive we took yesterday, Crazy Horse Monument, Deadwood, etc.) and so many of the other things are those kind of “family fun” places which are not geared for us at this point. 

So we went for the practical— we started the day with a visit to the laundromat. The place was small, but not crowded— I was able to get 3 machines right away, and by the time they were done, there was no one else using the dryers either. So I sat down with my iPad and uploaded yesterday’s blog, and tried to get my phones charged at the same time. Working on the blog made the time pass very quickly, and the dryers turned out to be very efficient also (i sure hope my clothes didn’t shrink—i put them on Low but they dried in 30 minutes, a little worrying.) In any case, I was finished at 1:00 pm. Joe and Cassie, meanwhile, were hanging out on the bench outside in the shade, people watching and talking to people who started up conversations. 

Whirligigs and lawn chotchkas

We put all the clean laundry into the Jeep, and then went to find a place on Main Street in Hill City to eat lunch. I was concerned about Cassie, though— the weather had gotten warmer than we expected. So we popped the roof off of the Jeep on the passenger side. It was heavier than I expected, so rather than take it off and try to wedge it into the front seat, we just left it up on the roof! That worked perfectly fine, and we ate right across the street from where we’d parked at the curb.

After lunch, we went back and got Cassie again. I had thought we might go to one of the small museums in Hill City, but Joe wasn’t really in the mood, and I wasn’t too excited about them either. So we wandered up and down the streets, which are full of the kind of stores you’d expect in a small, mostly touristy city— souvenirs, gifts, t-shirts, saloons (it is the Wild West, obviously), etc. But we did have to stop in first at the Beef Jerky Outlet. It was right next door to our restaurant, and Cassie was invited in with us. Joe sampled the jerky while i sampled the chocolate cordials. We both found something yummy to take with us, of course. I wandered into a couple of gift shops, but didn’t damage the bank accounts too much. Joe and Cassie sat outside and Cassie shmoozed with passers-by. We crossed the street and checked out an ice cream shop (I had Black Hills Gold flavor ice cream, which was salty caramel with cashews, pralines, and butterfingers candy. It was outstanding!) We sat on the patio in the shade and watched the people go by. It was just so relaxing! Finally, we visited a store with a lot of lawn “whirligigs” outside, and again they invited Cassie in, so we checked out the gifts as well. Hill City was very dog friendly, with a lot of blue bowls of water lining the streets for dogs to have refreshment. We really enjoyed the day.

“Iron Star” is made out of recycled metal items

We finished up with a quick trip to a local winery. I couldn’t resist going in, because they had big ads lining the road for their signature wine, “Red Ass”. I mean, they showed a donkey on the label, but REALLY? Joe stayed in the car with Cassie, while I went in for a tasting. It turned out that Red Ass was a rhubarb wine, of all things. They gave me 5 free tastes (they had a full complement of everything from dry to super sweet Concord grape), and I just did not care for the Red Ass, despite the intriguing name. So I could not in good conscience buy it as a gift for someone. I did buy another bottle of the Cabernet, which surprisingly, I really liked! We’ll see what the family’s expert thinks of South Dakota wine. 

After that, there was nothing to do but stop at the local grocery store, pick up a few things, and head back up the mountain to our campsite. I put the laundry away while Joe did some electrical things (there’s always maintenance going on around here!) and read my book. After dinner tonight, we are going out to look at the stars— there are about a gazillion stars visible from this campground and it is truly amazing so see. They were beautiful last night, and with a cloudless sky all day today, I’m sure they will be just as extraordinary tonight.