South Dakota

I think that I left off on my vacation installments just at the point that we had left 3 Sisters and were crossing into South Dakota.

South Dakota seemed like such a crowded place after Wyoming. Towns actually had over a thousand people in population. The roadsides were loaded with historical markers. We had already had a long drive and were anxious to arrive at our destination but finally I succumbed to my curiousity and pulled over to read one of the markers. It was memorializing an old settlement along the railroad trestles I believe.

At last, we arrived at our hotel in Hot Springs. It was fairly deserted but the room was spacious and nice with 2 large beds. The spa had a hot tub, Korean sand room and Korean marble room as well as a full time masseuse who happened to be one of the owners' 15 children. After making ourselves comfortable, we headed off for a walk around town. We were staying in the historical district which was comprised of red/pink sandstone buildings of vintage about the mid-1800s (if I remember correctly). We headed down to Evans Plunge which is the largest indoor natural hot spring in the world. It had been built over many years before so that it could be made into a recreation spot. We headed upstairs for an overhead view. The pool is built right over the spring and the river rocks are still in place as the warm water continues to seep between them. There are water slides, volleyball, hanging rings and other forms of entertainment all through the huge pool. It looked like a great place for the town to hang out. I would have liked to give it a try but hunger was driving us to look for something to eat. We took a look at all of the restaurants on the short street and settled on a steak house. We were in SD after all.

The restaurant, as with the rest of the town, was quiet and nearly deserted. Our waitress was a high school student - very sweet, quiet and willing to please. Lorraine had a beautiful flat iron steak and I had something equally good which I can't remember at the moment. I also had onion rings which were wonderfully prepared. The owner and cook came out to talk with us and he definitely was very passionate about his hotel/restaurant. He had trained in California in the Berkeley area and brought much of the adventuressness to his restaurant cooking in South Dakota. He had made a couple of wonderful fruit tarts for dessert and talked us into trying them out which we did. Yummy! I ate far too much, as did Lorraine and I think we rolled down the street back to the hotel. I had a nice hot tub before bed and we discussed the next days activities. Needless to say, we were both exhausted and slept well.

The next installment: Mt. Rushmore, buffalo (Bison) and more.......