Game Day - Chiefs are going down.

Well as you can guess this was written after the game.  I am pretty sure that there is no way I would have put in that heading before the game started.  But lets go back to that start.   Arrowhead stadium is not the prettiest stadium you have ever seen.   If you want to judge it's curb appeal you would give it a 2 on a 5 point scale.   It looks bleh from the outside.   But that really does not matter because what you are really looking at outside the stadium is the thousands of tailgaters.   Basically every parking lot around the stadium is open to tailgate and tailgate is what they do.  And in a big way.   There are the wimpy little people with a few chairs and a grill, but there are also many that do it up big time.  One, for example, had a full size smoker in the bed of his pickup and was smoking rack upon rack of ribs and who knows what else.  There was the group with an 8' table spread from one end to the other with serving platters and bowls and flower arrangements and crystal glasses and china plates.   There was the group who set up a teepee and was doing the tailgate in there.   There was just about every kind of anything that could be cooked on a grill being cooked somewhere.  There were touch football games and bags contests and ......  And they started at 7:30 in the morning.  By 8:00 the lots were mostly full and by 9:30 when we got there we couldn't find a spot in the lot we had a pass for.  Finally the guy directing traffic said if we could get the jeep over the curb to the grass we could park in this little spot at the end of the parkway.   Jeep, curb, no problem and spot found, but it was probably the last spot in that lot and the lot we were in was no different from most of the other lots.

Enough about tailgating.  One of the new things I want to do is to point out the differences or unusual things that each stadium has going for it.   For Arrowhead it started with the horse and rider on the field.   My only thought was what would Soldier Field grass be like after a horse trotted up and down the field.  It really is too awful to contemplate.   Other unusual things:  When they do the national anthem a large percentage of the crowd sings along.  I don't recall that from any of the other stadiums thus far.   When they end the national anthem instead of the "home of the brave" they say "the home of the Chiefs" and everyone shouts out the word Chiefs.   Not sure how I feel about that one.  As long as we are discussing the national anthem, another weird thing is they don't have a large flag banner being held by people on the field.  Almost every other stadium does.  Instead they have a large Chiefs arrowhead being waved up and down on the field.  Pretty sure I know how I feel about that one, but I will let everyone decide for themselves.  When they finish the anthem they do this whole guest war Chief thing where someone selected takes this huge mallet and pounds on a giant drum while the whole crowd does this war chant and does this tomahawk motion with their arms.   To be honest it looked like a bunch of wind up nerd robots the first time people did it.  By the 10th time it was just creepy.  Another unusual thing is that the fans stand up for every play when they are on defense.  For the whole game.   Very strange and to those of us wanting to watch the game a little bit annoying.   Now some positives is they applaud when a player gets up from an injury and heads to the sideline no matter which team it was.   This is different from most stadiums where they only do it for their players or a certain team from a city which supposedly promotes brotherly love but will otherwise remain nameless where they cheer when the opposing teams players get hurt and boo when they get up.

There have been some people who question which stadium is louder KC or Seattle.  Having had the chance to be at both two weeks apart, I must say Seattle is louder and the fans are more disruptive.  The Seattle fans start shouting from the moment the other team heads to the huddle, where the KC fans just yell at the line of scrimmage.

The fans were generally very nice.   They got a bit less nice in the last 5 minutes of the game or so, but you can't really blame them for that.  In any event there was only one person who was rude and she wasn't too bad. 

Bears fans were represented pretty well.   I am always amazed at how many Bears fans travel for the games, especially as almost all of us expected them to lose.   Probably between 5 and 7% of the stadium were Bears fans.   But boy, give us even a morsel to be shouting about and Lets Go Bears breaks out as loud and strong as you can want.

I mentioned in the last entry that I was going to make some observations about traffic and construction.   I have observed in the several thousand miles I have driven in the last couple of weeks that construction comes in 4 varieties.  There is the mile long set of cones to move you to one lane for the one guy doing something on the side of the road type of construction delay.   There is the several mile long set of cones because they are thinking of doing construction at some point in the near future, with near being a highly variable point in time.   There is the small warning before the lane goes away and you are suddenly upon the people doing construction.   And last there is the we are going to block off a lane on this side of the road because they are doing construction on the other side of the highway.   The last one seems to be limited thus far to Montana.   As you wander the streets and highways of our country let me know if you find any other major classifications of road construction.

Next week we take on Detroit.  As we have already been to that stadium and to be honest it was not a pleasant enough experience that I want to repeat it, we won't be following the Bears there.  But after the bye and the home game against the Vikings we will be heading out to San Diego.  We will give you all the scoop on the Chargers trip, so stay tuned and as always - GO BEARS.

The Day Before - Chiefs Gameday Minus One

It is the night before the game.  This is the time when I usually sit and think about the game and my expectations.  Unfortunately the Bears have me in that quandary again.  Do I hope for a great game and a win against the 1-3 Chiefs, or do I hope for a competitive game and a loss and let them get closer to a great draft pick?  At this point I don't believe there is any chance the Bears could make the playoffs, and even if they did, they could not win past the first round.   So on the surface hoping for the loss makes sense.  But it goes against every fiber of my being to not root for them to win.  Before the game against the Raiders I was content knowing they could not win a game.  But last week they actually looked good for part of the game.  And the Chiefs have the same abysmal record that the Bears have so maybe, but no - it is not to be and to get my hopes up is silly.

Enough philosophy.   The drive down to KC was easy.  All together it is about 9 hours in the RV.  We did most of it on Friday night and then finished the last 2 hours this morning.   The campground we are at is nothing special, but it isn't in the middle of a slum and the spots are almost, sort of, level and the hookups are close, so all in all not too bad.  We have a minor issue that none of the Nav systems can find the place, but hey we grew up with maps and so that problem was eventually solved.   No, I am serious the Nav systems cannot find the place.  I feel like I am in Brigadoon.   Once we got here I set the location in my Jeep's Nav and just to be sure I did a navigate to the location and it said I was there.   We went out and used the Nav to guide us back to the RV and it guided us to a place about 2 miles away.  The same place that the RV Nav said is where the address indicated the campground should be.  Google maps did no better.  It is like the place is in some other dimension and does not really exist on the surface of our planet.   Very strange.

Now those of you who read this regularly know that we always try to get the signature dish for whatever city we are in.  For Kansas City surprisingly that is Fried Ravioli.  I know you thought it was BBQ.  So did I.   But no, if you look on line it will tell you Fried Ravioli is the signature dish.  This presents a problem.  In all the restaurants we have gone to or looked at on line, no one has Fried Ravioli on the menu.   Now there is a list of the best fried ravioli places in KC, but they are all Italian restaurants.  Now it seems to me that a signature dish needs to exist at more than a couple of places.  We are holding out hope that they may have some at the stadium tomorrow.   Otherwise we may be doomed to miss the signature dish.

But fear not.  For those of you who think that BBQ makes more sense we agreed and set out to try some of the best BBQ in KC.   For lunch we went to a place called LCs.  LCs is a pit.  And I don't mean BBQ pit.  I mean dirty, greasy, slide on the floor, unwashed tables and you are afraid to use the bathroom kind of pit.   But it had some really fine BBQ.   Once we slid our way up to the counter and got our Burnt Ends, Ribs and Beans we headed for a table where some very nice Bear Fans we just getting ready to leave.  After discussing the state of the team for a while (they have the same quandary I have) we agreed that they are best off playing for the draft pick and discussed which QB they should take in the first round.  Three other tables of Bears fans joined in and our sitting down to lunch was a bit delayed.   Now something I should point out is there were only 10 tables in this place, so that is a lot of Bears fans having driven down for a game we all expect them to lose.   Well everyone except the Chiefs fan who isn't sure his team wants to win any more games this year based on how they were playing, but that is another tangent all together.

There is one other feature of this establishment that I should point out.   They have a smoker.  Not unusual in a BBQ joint you say.  And I would generally agree with you, but in this case the smoker is inside.  Now the kitchen area is maybe 15x10.   The counter runs along the long side and the cooks work in the middle and the smoker is at the back.  And every time they open the door of the smoker wonderful, fragrant, heavy white smoke billows out and fills the restaurant.   And when they spray the wood to cool the fire down more clouds of smoke along with steam fill the restaurant.  And when they open it to get the bbq goodness more clouds of smoke fill the restaurant.   If you are picturing a scene out of some demented BBQ gods world you are not far from wrong.   You walk out of the place and everyone for the rest of the day knows where you have gone.  But oh does it smell good.

Burnt ends - good but not great.  I like more bark and a little more well done on my burnt ends.  Ribs - really fine.  Some of the best ribs I have had.  Good flavor, done enough to be tender, but you need your teeth to pull the meat from the bone.   Just like it should be.  Sauce, rich, a bit tangy and not too sweet.  Beans really good.  Great flavor and a lot of the bark from the ends chopped into them.   Service - really friendly and helpful.  Overall score A-.

Now for dinner we decided to try a place that was listed as one of the 13 places you need to eat before you die by Anthony Bourdain.   It was up there with French Laundry, El Bulli and the like.   We get there and it is an old Gas Station.   And they still do pump gas there.  There was unfortunately a line that reminded me of the worst of the gas crisis.   They claim it was an hour wait.  At the end of 20 minutes we had moved forward about 15% of the way and most of that was other people leaving the line.  After 10 more minutes and watching the line move, but nobody entering the restaurant (line compression only apparently) we decided there was no BBQ on earth that good.   So we went off to another of the top 10 BBQ places in KC.  There was only a 2 hour wait at this location.  Another had an hour wait and so we finally decided that we needed to get out of that area and head to the outskirts of town if we were going to eat at any of them.     On the way to a place that said it only had a 25 minute wait we happened to pass a place that claims to have the best pan fried chicken in the city.  Well we had already had BBQ today, and they were here and not another 20 minute drive and 25 minute wait and ..... in we turned.

Now Stroud's has pretty darn good chicken.  And the sides are pretty good too.  It is a little strange because you order individual meals and sides off the menu, and then everything is served family style.  Really weird, but good.   Portions are more than huge.  The coach and I ended up taking home more than we ate by a good amount.  For example we ate three pieces of chicken between us and took home 4.  We finished 1/3 of the mashed potatoes.  1/4 of the green beans.  2 of the 6 cinnamon rolls.   You get the idea.

Tomorrow is game day.  We drove by the stadium to get the lay of the land today and it seems like it will be easy to get there.  Tomorrow will tell the tale.   Now it is time to get the game bag packed and get ready for the morning.

Tomorrow I will give you the update on the stadium and the fans.   I also have a few observations to make on road work, having had the opportunity to observe quite a bit of it on the last two trips.

Until Tomorrow.  GO BEARS  - I just wish I knew where I really want them to go.

Game Day - Bears / Seahawks

Gameday at a new stadium brings all sorts of feelings.  Excitement of course, a chance to see a football game.   Nervousness,  will we get to the field ok and on time?  How will the fans be?  How will parking be? Curiosity,  what will the new stadium be like?   Did I pick good seats for us?   Hope, will it be a good game?  Will the Bears win?  Today's game brought out many of those same feelings, but it also brought out a new one.  Resignation,  I went to today's game knowing they were not going to win and expecting them to be destroyed.   By the end of the game that expectation was realized.  But the Bears are cruel to their fans.  At the end of the first half they also left us with a bit of hope.   Not a lot of hope, but a spark.  Just enough light and heat to cause a faint little fire of hope to spring up.    Only to have it dashed within seconds of the start of the second half.   Cruelty at its worst.

The stadium in Seattle is quite nice.  Getting there is easy other than the usual problem of poor traffic signage that is rampant in Seattle.  Parking was easy and everyone was friendly.  The stadium itself is quite nice and provides fans with a large open area as you enter the stadium where there are games, bands, give-a-ways and a variety of vendors.   From the north parking lot you can see into the stadium and the field.   Once you go up to the club level you find a large variety of food vendors as well as a seating area and a few restaurants.   The largest impression is of openness.  There is no crowding of fans and pushing to get through.   The game seat area is well thought out with easy access to all the seats from either end of the aisle.   They offer seat delivered concessions and we saw many people taking advantage of the convienience. 

Surprisingly Bears fans were well represented.  And many of them came in from Chicago for the game.  

The thing that sticks out the most from our trip here is the fans and the support.   The whole town seems to support the team with at least 6 companies offering various free items based on the Seahawks achieving various goals.  3 sacks, a free double burger at jack-in-the-box.   100 yards rushing and free jerky and slushies from 7-11 and so on.  There were 4 different companies doing donations based on false starts, first downs and other items.  And everywhere you go about town you see large 12 signs.  This is their twelfth man and they take it seriously.  

The Fans also support the team.   Better than 80% of the crowd was in fan gear.  Most of them had jerseys, but there were a large number that did it all the way up with face paint and costumes and who knows what.   There are coordinated chants, total noise and bedlam as soon as the visiting team starts to get into their huddle and it lasts until at least the snap.  And that is on every play.  When the Seahawks are out there you can hear a pin drop in the stadium.  Making noise that might cause the Seahawks to miss a signal or cause a false start is grounds for flogging around the stadium.   And the fans are nice to the visitors.  We had several people ask us to make sure that no one had hassled us.   A couple of the security guards went out of their way to tell us to let them know if anyone gave us a hard time.   And it wasn't because they were sure they were going to win.  Before the game there was a legitimate level of concern and by half time there was some definite worry going on.

All in all I felt a lot like Misses Lincoln when asked "other than that one little thing, how was the play?"   Everything was great, if only the game had been better and the outcome a bit different.

Tomorrow we head on back to Chicago.  Our time in coffeeland is done and it is time to return to home and the solace of friends with whom we can share our pain and lick our wounds.

Tomorrow is Game Day

This post will cover the last couple of days.   Yesterday was mostly spent in driving from Montana to Seattle.  Unfortunately I had to be put on the injury report for the last couple of days with back problems.   Fortunately we had on board two wonderful new talents who were able to step up and jump right into the starting lineup.   The girls did a great job as a Driver/Navigator team while I did my best to rehab my back and get back into the lineup.

I can't give you many observations about the drive other than Idaho - lots of construction, and a quick observation that was made by the backup driving team that coming into Coeur D'alene Idaho, there was nothing but forested lands as far as the eye could see.  Once through Coeur D'Alene and Spokane (sister cities) they were back to rolling hills and scrub brush.   As one of the team said, I didn't realize rolling tumbleweeds was a real thing until this trip.

Our arrival at the campground outside of Seattle was interesting.  The campground is one large parking lot with very small spaces and lots and lots of RVs.   Our driver did a great job getting the rig into a spot and can pretty much be assured that any other RV park she rolls into will be easier.

After getting set up we headed for a restaurant in Seattle, Ma'ono.   As regular readers will remember we try and make sure we taste the signature dish for any city we play in.  For Seattle that is coffee.  Running a close (as in barely able to see the leader) second is Asian and Asian influenced foods, especially sea foods.  So we headed for Ma'ono which is supposed to have great Hawaiian dishes as well as the best fried chicken around.    Oh, and did I mention they also have an extensive whiskey list and do food/whiskey pairings?  Ok, I realize chicken isn't seafood, but Hawaii is Asian influenced.   The food was very good and we tried a wide variety of small plates.  We did not include anything with Spam.  I know - very nontraditional but I could not - just could not make myself do it.

Dishes included:
Manapua - Steamed BBQ PorK Buns
Kalua Pig Tacos - good flavorful tacos
Sesame Roasted Carrots - I was not so much a fan but everyone else loved them.
Stir-Fried Pea Vines with Garlic - really good
Warm Portuguese Sweet Rolls - picture large better tasting Hawaiian rolls
Mac N' Kimcheese
Fried Chicken - really good, but I wouldn't drive 2,000 miles to get it again.
and Loco Moco Wood grilled chuck, Portuguese sausage, fried egg, neckbone gravy, rice, grits, grilled pineapple.  Sounds strange but it was everyone's favorite dish.

Afterwards we checked out the stadium to get the lay of the land before the game and then headed back to the RV for some games and sleep.  

The next day (Saturday) we had a full schedule.    We started with coffee at this cute coffee shop called Wayward.  It is a geek themed coffee shop with Serenity posters, x wing fighter models, a variety of other movie posters and toys all sci-fi based.   The drinks were named to reflect the theme with drinks like Mals and Jayne's favorites.   For all of you who don't get the references, you have a lot of catching up to do.

After that we headed for Pikes Market.  This is the home of the flying fish.  Flying as in one person tosses fish to another person on the other side of the fish mongers stall.  There are also some hundreds of other shops.  I spent about 10 minutes there to satisfy tourist requirements and then headed back for the car.  A couple of hours later when the rest of the squad showed up we headed for EMP.

EMP stands for Experimental Music Project and it is so much more.   Dedicated to the history and exploration of popular music, science fiction, and pop culture. it is a geeks happy playground.  Again I worked on getting back on the field and rested by back while the squad went through the exhibits.  If you are ever in Seattle you should check it out.

Next on our busy schedule was Unicorn Bar.  It is in the LGBT neighborhood and it is a very strange place.   I am not going to try and describe the place in detail.  Carnival strips, weird taxidermy, arcade games, strange carnivalish foods, and an eclectic crowd is the best I can do.   Here is a description from one of the local papers:  The Unicorn, with its absurd name, rampant stripes, salvaged carousel panels, and menagerie of taxidermy, is insane. The bar serves Jell-O shots, and the place gets wild. The food is carnival-style deep-fry, including various corn-dog configurations, unicorn balls, and elephant ears, as well as good, inexpensive burgers made with Painted Hills beef. Additionally, you may have them DEEP-FRY AN ENTIRE HAMBURGER

After a drink or two, we headed out for Starbucks Reserve.   This is a special place that Starbucks has set up to create their small batch reserve coffees, to teach the public about special coffees and to show off their alternate brewing methods.   I hate Starbucks and I was really impressed.  The rest of the team got a coffee to go after we spent almost an hour there learning and watching coffee being prepared.  

Before I go on I need to say something about Seattle for those people who have not been there.  Lets start with - they are crazy for coffee.  You heard about the movie "Sleepless in Seattle"?  Maybe they should have tried decaf for some of the cups they had each day.  There is at least one coffee shop on each block.  Most of them have two or more.  And that is just dedicated coffee shops.  For example Starbucks alone has 108 free standing stores.  That does not include the several hundred counters that are not stand alone.  Like ones in gas stations, in Targets, in office buildings and so forth.  That comes out to one stand alone Starbucks per 6,500 people and one Starbucks of any kind per 2,500 people (man woman and child).   And Starbucks is not the only kind of coffee.  There are probably at least as many independent shops.  And they drive like they drink that much caffeine.  Enough said about that.

After our most recent coffee experience we decided to go to Mashiko, a top rated sushi bar and Japanese restaurant.   The food there was outstanding and I would go back there in a heartbeat.

I will detail the dishes at a later time as this post is getting a bit long.   Tomorrow is the game and interestingly enough the fans here are worried that the Seahawks will lose.  There does not seem to be a lot of confidence on either side at this point.  Of course if they new we didn't have our starting Quarterback or wideout and that the next two wideouts on the list are also questionable I think they might feel a little better.  But we shall see.

Driving to Montana - Game day minus 4

Today's entry will be a quick one.  Mostly we drove today.  Over 750 miles of driving.  Tired!!

It is time to think a bit about the upcoming game however.    This puts me in somewhat of an uncomfortable position.  I know deep in my heart and soul that the Bears are going to get beaten - badly.   There is no hopeful, irrational, optimistic part of me that can come up with any way they don't lose.  We have a backup quarterback who does not seem to be able to throw past the line of scrimmage, an injured #1 wideout and even with everyone healthy they were only barely competitive.  But I also can't go into another team's stadium and meekly submit to heckling like a sheep being let to the slaughter.  I am going to have to yell and scream.  The Coach is going to sing at the top of her lungs if we manage to score and we will be in full Bears regalia.  Somehow in the next few days I am going to need to reconcile these two sides of my personality. 

Being an away game we can't even hope for the other team's bus to break down and have them not show.

Oh well.  Football is a sport that always includes some pain.  Why should being a fan be any easier than being a player.

On to Seattle. 

Project of a lifetime(s)

Today we spent the day resting in the Mt. Rushmore area.   It is mid drive and a rest was called for.  We woke up bright and early and noticed the somewhat overcast day.  Weather forecasters here apparently are not much more accurate then the ones in Chicago because the report was for partial cloud and a nice day.  By the time we got the Jeep in motion (about 30 minutes later) the drizzle had started and the overcast had moved to about 200 feet above the ground.  I think back home we call that fog, but what do I know.   We headed for Chief Crazy Horse monument.   I have been there before and while they swear they are continuing to work on it, you can't prove it by my observations.   We will come back to Crazy Horse later during the observation/rant portion of our program.

So we arrived at Crazy Horse.   I know this because the sign on the side of the road said so.  Of the mountain there is no evidence.  The overcast and fog is so heavy that nothing can be seen.  I approach the woman taking payments for parking and ask her if the fog usually burns off on days like today.  She says yes, it always does.  I ask her about what time it usually burns off.  She replies - I don't know!  What am I, a weatherman?  As part of my new being nice to people initiative I don't inform her that given the lack of accurate information she has available she might as well be.  See I can be nice.  Instead I just turn the jeep around and decide to go visit a winery first.  Maybe that will help me retain my good humor.  

We get the the winery only to find it does not open until 12:00.  Ok - so time for plan C.  We will go visit Custer State Park instead.  I am fairly sure the Buffalo there will be closer to the ground and may be visible.   And I am pretty sure the park is open all the time.  So Off to see the Wizard, or at least the Buffalo.   

Custer State Park is known for a few things.  First the buffalo herd, second the begging burros and last the prairie dog town.  This upcoming weekend is the GREAT BUFFALO ROUNDUP.   Apparently you need to say it with all capital letters.  Because of this the buffalo were not in their normal spots, but instead had been allowed into new pastures near to the corals where they will be herded.  Might have been nice if someone mentioned that when we asked where the Buffalo hang out, but hey we eventually found them and that is fine.  Suffice to say we accomplished seeing all of them as well as deer, elk and a huge number of birds.

Now back to the winery.  The winery was called Naked Winery.  That should have been my first clue as to the quality, but alas I was not alerted.  The wines they serve for their tasting all come from Washington and Oregon.  For those of you who are geographically challenged, Custer is in South Dakota.  Now this was both good and bad.  Good because I had yet to see a grape vine in South Dakota and could not imagine how they would grow and bad because I was at a winery to taste wines from another winery.  Confused yet - wait it gets worse.  The wines are actually from two different wineries and one of them they private label the other they do not.  The wines have names like Fantasy Cherry, Naked Merlot, Hanky Panky Zinfandel and, well enough.  You get the idea.  One of them they said is great with a splash of lemonade.   Let us just say we are not coming back with cases of wine to age.  If for no other reason then by the time we get back next week they would be past their drink dates.

It was now time to go to crazy horse.  Yes the fog had lifted and yes the sun was out.  Maybe she should have been a weatherman after all.   For those of you who know all about it you can skip to the next paragraph.  For those who care here we go.  A Lakota chief by the name of Henry Standing Bear decided to ask a Polish American sculpture who was orphaned and then raised by an Irish prizefighter in Boston, to create a memorial for the American Indian.   Somehow he convinced this very successful sculpture to leave his thriving studio in Boston to go to South Dakota and live in a tent for a year while he built a log cabin in the middle of nowhere to live in.  After that he spent the next several years alone starting to carve the mountain.  He built a staircase of 714 steps to get to the top of the mountain and climbed it sometimes as many as 10 times a day in order to restart the cranky generator at the bottom of the stairs.  He married a woman, Ruth Ziolowski and then, deciding that the work needed more help had 10 children so they could help carve the mountain.  They continue to do so and plan for the next generation to do so as well.    This carving is some 600 feet tall from horse to man and so far in the last 65 years they have gotten about 81 feet of the face done and part of the arm.  Now it is time for the rant portion of our program:

Nowhere in any history of the Crazy Horse monument, in the day to day operations, in the sculptures, the gift shop workers, the people who run the whole thing, nowhere do you see any Lakota.  The only place the Lakota seem to come into this whole thing is in the School that is run for them and the scholarships they get.  Not once did it seem to occur to either Korczak (the sculpture) or the Henry Standing Bear that if they could spare a person, a child, a arthritic wheezing old man, pretty much anyone to stand by the generator and start it when it died, that Korczak would not have had to walk down the 714 steps, restart the generator and walk back up to continue his work.  In fact maybe one of those tribe members could have carried some of the equipment up the stairs and save time that way.  Maybe one or two of them could have used an ax to help cut the logs for the log house so he could get started on the project sooner.  Maybe..... I don't know - Maybe a memorial for the Lakota should have some involvement from the Lakota other than asking for help and taking handouts.   Just Maybe? 

After we left Crazy Horse we headed for Mount Rushmore.  There we saw the monument and then continued on to Rapid City, where we found the Dinosaur park.  This park has 5 life size concrete sculptures of Dinos.  Why, I don't know but it does and so we went to see the turquoise painted concrete dinosaurs before meeting a friend for dinner.

Tomorrow is a drive day and then the day after Seattle.

2015 - The Season Begins

Today I sit to write the first blog entry of the 2015 season.  Unlike previous years my expectations are pretty low.  My hopes had gotten a slight lift after the Green Bay game.  Not that I thought we would see victory after victory, but at least it looked like they would be competitive as they played for a great draft pick.   Once Cutler went down at half time against the Cardinals it looked pretty dire for our home town team.  

We are currently on the road on the way to Seattle.   Now normally you might say it would be a good game, what with both teams being 0-2.   I don't think it is going to go that way.   Lets just say that without Cutler and with Seattle being embarrassed twice in a row I suspect that they will be out for Bear and the Bears are going to be on the menu.   But win or lose we stay to the end of every game and this one will be no different.

But enough of looking at the past or forecasting the future.  Lets talk about this trip.   We left Chicago on Monday with the bitter taste of defeat still fresh in our mouths.   (OK, maybe a little talking about the past.)  We loaded up the RV and headed for our first stop, Souix Falls SD.   On this trip we have two additional fans with us and the girls were as excited at the Coach and I to be on the road and headed for adventure.   Day 1 summary - no adventure.   We drove a lot of hours and finally got to a little roadside campground just off the highway.   After pulling in an setting up (about 7 minutes total elapsed time) we got all the beds ready and enjoyed a well earned nights rest.  

Morning came early.  Not sure why it chose to show up with such a bright sun, but it did.   By just after 9 we had packed up, had breakfast and gotten on the road.  Destination - Hill City SD.  The morning did not start out toooooo smoothly.   First we had the slide out in the back that didn't get slid in.  Next we had the jacks that were still down when the air breaks were disengaged.  Then we had the coffee shower (lid, coffee, cup, road and the lack of the first to properly attach to the third).  The generator that was not generating so the refrigerator was not fridging.  The Hot water heater that did not heat the water due to the lack of engagement of the on switch.  Not its fault, totally the user not turning it on.  Let us just say - pretty much the most chaotic day on any trip in the last three years.  And it was not yet 10:00.  

Things got better from there.   Kinda like with the Bears in the second half of the Cardinals game, not really much choice in the direction things had to go.  Bottom is bottom after all.

On the way to Hill City we stopped in Mitchell SD.   Mitchell is known for the "Corn Palace".   This building is decorated with murals and other fantastic decorations all made out of corn cobs.  If you are ever in the area you must check it out.  It is great.

Now somewhere between Mitchell and Wall, SD we switched drivers.   One of our guests decided to try her hand at driving and did a great job.  I was very glad she did because not 10 minutes after I turned over the wheel the construction started and I hate driving in construction.   For the next 47 miles the construction continued.  Then I took over and it all went away. 

After I took back the wheel we didn't get too far down the road before we came to the Prairie Dog Town.   Feeding the prairie dogs is just about the most fun 50c will buy these days.  You get this bag of peanuts and the animals will run and chase each other to get the peanuts.   They will take them from your hand and gaze up at you as they munch away.  They will sneak up behind you and bump you to get you to give them one.   So much fun!!  After whiling away almost an hour with the cute little prairie dogs we headed back on the road.  This time it was the scenic loop through Badlands National Park.   Having been here several times I enjoyed it and always love the scenery.  But our two tag along guests had never been here and were blown away by the strange and unusual rock formations, the colors and stripes in the rocks and all the rest of what the park had to offer.   They hiked the trails, climbed the rocks and generally acted just like the mountain goats.   What mountain goats you ask?  The ones that live in the park and come down to the road where they show their incredible disdain for all the people by totally ignoring them while still managing to show off and hang out by the road where everyone can watch them.   Big park, lots of hills and rough terrain and yet they ignore everyone by standing in and on the side of the road.  Sounds like a teenager. 

Well we are not done yet.  Leaving the park we were able to encounter someones idea of a good way to work on a road out of a national park where there are lots of RVs.   Lets just dig up the whole middle of the road and force the RVs to drive on this dirt, almost and excuse for a trail around the construction.  Because everyone knows how well RVs love to off road - right?

Finally a few miles later we came to Wall SD, home of Wall Drugs.  Now for those of you who have been there you can skip to the next paragraph.  For those who have not, imagine a place that started as a small mom and pop drugstore that was just getting by.   Suddenly on a hot summer day they come up with the idea of giving away cups of ice water.   They put signs out on the road (ala burma shave) and people start showing up.  Several hundred the first day and up the 20,000 a day now.   So if you have these many people coming you need to have something other than a drug store.  Add in a restaurant, a gift shop, ice cream parlor, boot maker, replica of Mt. Rushmore (in miniature), dinosaurs (everyone loves dinosaurs right), maybe a art gallery, museum,  a second gift shop, rock store, got to have rocks for sale, fudge shop, donuts, a jackalope, Amish RV (ok maybe they thought it was a covered wagon, but we knew better),  and I could keep going.   Imagine Wisconsin Dells compressed into a one block street.

Well on we went to our campground where everything went very well and we decided to go out to dinner.   We went to the Alpine Inn.   Now the Alpine Inn is a bit odd.  They have a menu that has three items on it.  Filet Mignon 9 oz, Filet Mignon 6 oz and Spaetzle with Swiss cheese (apparently 5 years ago they decided to add a vegetarian option).  All dishes get a lettuce wedge, baked potato and texas toast.   No choice, no option.   The place is packed.  Food was really good too.  Then they bring the desert menu.  All three pages of it.  Over 25 items not including the various flavors of ice cream.   They suggest we come back for lunch.  They mention they have a large lunch menu.  Turns out it has over 35 items on it.   WHAT GIVES FOR DINNER WITH BASICALLY 1 DISH?  Anyway we go to pay and they don't take credit cards.  Cash  only.  - Very strange place, but if you want a good, inexpensive piece of beef, the Alpine Inn is your place.

Tomorrow is a bit of site seeing and then on to Seattle.   More tomorrow then.