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Published: June 15th 2012
Downtown Rapid City
Steve enjoying a root beer.Day 6
15 miles
This is our last day in Rapid City, SD, part of me is very sad because it is so beautiful here but I miss my fur babies so much I can't wait to see them all. We decided to stay in Rapid City for the day, we were going to go to Deadwood again but since we have a 12 hour ride on Friday we thought we would give our old and tired bodies a rest. Today I rode on the back of Steve's bike for the short rides we took around town. I don't do this much but it was kind of nice because I got to see more things.
We ate at the hotel because we did not want to get dressed just to eat out and then come back and do laundry. When you travel on motorcycles you have to pack light so staying at a place where you can wash your clothes becomes very important. The breakfast is a buffet style and it is what some hotels include as a complimentary breakfast. This is one of my few complaints about the Hilton Hotel brand, they won't give a free breakfast
and for the price of the rooms you would think they could. I give the breakfast 3 motorcycles. Other than that I love this hotel, the staff are wonderful, the rooms clean and luxurious and it is in a quiet place in town. It is also brand new! I would highly suggest staying here, 5 motorcycles on room size, cleanliness, staff friendliness and location. I would give them 3 motorcyles on their food but it is a new hotel so maybe this will get better, also there bar only has beer and wine but they will be getting their liquor license in August and will have a full bar then.
We lounged by the pool and hot tub while we did wash. No noisy children or adults, just Steve and me, ahhhh. After we did our chore, we rode downtown and explored the city. This is such a pretty area of the town and you can tell they care about the appearance of the town. The one complaint, the parking is all metered until afte 4 pm and you have to have change, no credit card purchases allowed for the meters. We went to a shop on the corner
Memorial Park
Beautiful views along the park that turned out to be 3 different shops with Native American items. All of it beautiful but pricey. We did purchase a lovely old picture of a treaty meeting betweeen Geromino and a captain in the army that we decided to ship home.
We noticed while we were downtown that they were having music that evening downtown, which they have every Thursday in the summer so we decided we would come back down later. We strolled around the downtown and looked at all of the statues of the presidents. On every corner in the downtown area there is a full size statue of the 42 ex-presidents. It really is very interesting and a creative way to play off Mt Rushmore. Steve noticed a trolley and so we decided to ride it around town to get a better view and learn some history. It only cost $2 per person and was air conditioned. Another tip for the day, even though trolley and tour buses seem "touristy" they are a great way to see the town, learn the lay out and get information, I highly recommend them.
The trolley went to Dinasour park which is one of the highest peaks
Memorial Park
Lisa at the lake in the park in Rapid City and free, if you come here take your kids, they will love it. The trolley also went to this beautiful park, Rapid City has a bike path that runs the entire course of the city from west to east and starts at Canyon Lake which is located in Memorial park. Steve and I made notes on how to get back there because we decided to ride the bike there and take some photos. Another free attracation that the trolley passed was Storybook Park, again kids would love it.
When we got back to the bike we had 18 minutes left on the meter. From what we could tell, you would get a ticket if you metered expired. We rode to Dinasour park and them to the park and took some pictures and just enjoyed the calmness of the enviroment. We then rode back to the hotel to change and check out the music. Steve and I are big fans of live music, it is just fun to watch and listen to. We asked the receptionist about hiring a taxi when she mentioned that they have a shuttle that could take us down. What!!?? This would have
Memorial Park
Steve looking relaxed. been great to know about on Sunday since the reason we stayed in most nights was because we did not want to have a few cocktails and drive the motorcycles. We gladly took advantage of the shuttle, our driver was also named Steve and he was originally from North Dakota. He moved here after vacationing in Rapid Cinty, we asked about the winters in this area and he told us that the winters in Rapid City are pretty mild and if it does snow it is gone pretty quickly. That sounds very nice.
Driver Steve dropped us off and we mosied our way to the music festival. Dan McCalister band was playing, it sounded like a mix of southern rock and cajun style music. Apparantly if you live in South Dakota you need to know the 2 step. There were tons of dancers and it was fun to watch. They are really good. I told Steve we should take lessons so next time we are back we can join them, he just laughed at me. He never takes me seriously about dance lessons but one day he is going to find himself at a dance class.
We ate
Diansour Park
Overview of Rapid City at the festival and the food was awesome, 5 motorcycles. We sat next to another couple that was originally from Texas and came to visit their son at the miliary base and fell in love with the area so they moved here 6 years ago. We have heard a lot of stories like this and we can tell why, if we could get jobs here I think we would move here. We wrapped up our evening at stopping at Paddy O'Neills, which is located in the Alex Johnson hotel. I do not recommend this bar, the bartenders were unfriendly and complaining about their jobs. We had one drink and got the heck out of there. We then went to Wobbly Bobby which is suppose to be a Britain bar but the waitresses and bartenders were wearing kilts. I think the owners are having culture confusion. This was a fun place and we had a drink and then decided since we have to get up so early and travle many hours we should head back to the hotel. We called driver Steve and he came and got us very quickly, very nice service. Because it was so late I decided to
Dinasour Park
More overview of the city write my blog on Friday morning so if any readers were looking for Thursday blog, I apologize, I just just plain tuckered out.
Tomorrow we get on the bikes for the first stretch of the trip, 12 hours to Alber Lea, ugh. Originally we were going to take back roads home and go through Minneapolis but what sounds great in the beginning of a trip does not not sound so wonderful at the end of it so we are going to take the sam boring way back. Until tomorrow, be safe and keep the wheels on the pavement.
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