SOUTH DAKOTA....THE SAGA
This little jaunt to South Dakota started with an
unexpected change. I was to fly out to SD on Thursday the 26th from Burbank.
Then suddenly, the Friday before, my Grandfather was killed in a car accident. So I
had to change my flight from leaving from Burbank, to leaving from San Francisco
so I could attend the rosary for him. I unfortunately couldn't attend the
funeral because these shows were contracted back in May, but I did get to say a
few words at the rosary.
Then early Thursday morning I was off to San Francisco International and winging my way to South Dakota. I had two goals going into this trip besides rocking. The first was to see Mount Rushmore. The other was to visit Deadwood. Read on and see if I accomplished my goals....
I arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota and had just enough time to check into my hotel, The Hotel Alex Johnson.
It's one of the tallest buildings in Rapid City and I was on the 9th floor so I had a great view of everything. Supposedly room 802 of the hotel is haunted. I was holed up in 906 and am happy to report there were no "supernatural" experiences to report. I found out you can get booked into that room if you want and they say, "Who know what will happen? Will your windows open by themselves? WIll your drawers be opened during the night? WIll You See THe Woman in White?" I just laughed because I felt bad for the Bellhop who, I'm sure, has to sneak into the room and do all this stuff while you're asleep.
BELLHOP: OoOoOoooooOooooO! I'm the Lady in white!!!
Downtown Rapid City has bronze statues of most of the presidents, one on each corner. It was kinda cool. My show was at the South Dakota School Of Mines. (That's Mines, note Mimes.) It was a bit of different show than I normally do as it was an Open Mic as well. So my set was broken up by some great performances. This lead to some great moments and an improvised song by Throwing Toasters called POOP ON MY TOOTHBRUSH. You really had to be there.
After the show I went to dinner at the Firehouse Brewery with Michael, Ryan, another Ryan and two young ladies whose names escape me. I had my first ever Buffalo Burger and I have to say it tasted really.....very much like a hamburger. but it was great. They also Home Brew their Root Beer which Ryan insisted I try and I'm glad I did. It was great.
After that it was back to the hotel to turn in because tomorrow I had to drive to Aberdeen for my next show. Aberdeen is about 6 or 7 hours away from Rapid City so I wanted to get some good sleep, but I also wanted to get an early start because I wanted to go to...
MOUNT RUSHMORE!!!!
As I drove to Mount Rushmore they have signs every mile or so and, to me, it really built up the anticipation of seeing it! I keep scanning the mountains and looking for it. Finally as I passed through the town of Keystone, I caught a glimpse of it between the trees and I started giggling like mad! It was SO awesome. I went in and Parked ($8 but your pass is good all year, too bad it's tied to your license plate and I was in a rental). I went to put my backpack into the trunk and promptly proceeded in locking my keys in the trunk. There was several moments of panic in the Mount Rushmore garage as I frantically searched the unfamiliar car for a way to get in and finally, several minutes later I found the button. Whew. That would have SUCKED BIG TIME!!!!!
Anyway, then it was up to the monument. Wow. That's all I can say. Something about this really impressed me. Moreso than my trip to Washington DC, though I think had I been able to spend more time in Washington, I would have been more impressed. I will say that it was FRICKIN FREEZING up there though! SO COLD!!! THat's why in the following pictures I have a pained expression on my face.
I also went to the "Profile Lookout". It's a little washed out, but that's George Washington there. He was our first president you know.
I spent way too much in the gift shop. On these trips there's some things I always buy. I buy my Dad a shot glass. He doesn't collect them or anything. Well, I guess he does now because I keep buying them for him. Also, for my manager Barbara, I always buy her a keychain. That's something I've done since she got me my first big gig in Japan. I also bought a T-Shirt for me and a Mount Rushmore oven mitt for my mom. I just thought it was such a stupid thing to have, I had to get it for her.
I wrapped this up at about 10:30AM and I was tempted to try and head to Deadwood (about 50 minutes from MR), but I decided that the Drive to Aberdeen was going to be so big that I should just get going! As you'll see this was a WISE CHOICE!!!!
Aberdeen is about 350 miles from Rapid City. It was a long drive. I learned a lot of things about South Dakota on this drive.
1. The South Dakota Folks are opinionated. There were several signs stating several different political views than we usually have in California. There were several variations on the theme "Abortion Kills". There were signs that actually said, "Animal Research Saves Animals Too!" that had a picture of a little cat that said, "Puddles (or something) living with diabetes since...". Wow. And the ones that REALLY got me said, "WEAR FUR!!!! Wearing fur helps keep the populations down!" Wow!
2. Speed limit on I-90? 75 baby! We only get 70 in CA! That was great.
3. There were A TON of AWESOME roadside attractions. I'm talking totally cool roadside attractions, kinda like The Biggest Ball Of Twine (except that's not in SD). I'm a TOTAL sucker for these kind of things and was bummed to find out that most were closed until summer. :-( So I'm planning another trip sometime! I plan on seeing: The Reptile Gardens, Old MacDonald's Farm, Storybook Island (which may be a great place to film a video for NRL), The Petrified Forest, 1880 Town, Bear Country and any others I can get to! There was one attraction open though, which brings me to number....
4. I LOVE WALL DRUG!! It is the coolest place EVER! What is Wall Drug? It is a Pharmacy about a mile off the I-90 in Wall, SD. It's about 100 miles (i think) from Rapid City. About 10 miles out of RC you start seeing the signs "Wall Drug As Mentioned in The Wall Street Journal" "Wall Drug 5 Cent Coffee!" "Wall Drug FREE ICE WATER". THere were just TONS of these signs. It got crazy, but it was SO funny! Then, there was one sign that hooked me and the moment I read it I knew I had to stop..."Wall Drug - Six Foot Rabbit!" That did it, I was planning my stop!!
The history of the place is REALLY fascinating to me and it will be talked about in a future episode of Dr. Floyd, so I won't go into here. I will say I stopped, walked around, had another Buffalo Burger, And, of course, some FREE ICE WATER....
Unfortunately, the "Backyard" where all the REALLY COOL STUFF is kept was closed for the season, so no Six Foot Rabbit. There was still plenty to see and that totally gives me reason to go back! I got my free Wall Drug Bumper Sticker and was back on the road! I did get to see the dinosaur...
5. The capitol of SD is Pierre.
Here's me across from the Pierre Opera House. And as for what I learned, It's pronounced like PIER, not Pee-Air.
6. There are vast amounts of...nothing in South Dakota. It's very beautiful though.
7. When you cross over the Missouri river in SD, traveling West to East, you lose an hour. This TOTALLY messed me up. I was driving and was like, "Man I'm making GREAT time!" Then suddenly I lost an hour. It was gone. I had no idea what happened. My Cell Phone was an hour fast and suddenly the car's clock was wrong. I swear I though I had been abducted by aliens and lost an hour. I finally figured it out as I was reaching Aberdeen and then I realized all that "GREAT TIME" I was making was suddenly not so GREAT! luckily I made it to my soundcheck on time.
The show in Aberdeen was great. Crowd of about 30 kids. They enjoyed the show and I sold a few copies of Laughter Is A Powerful Weapon Vol. 2. As I headed back to the hotel I was hungry and decided to get some Pizza and saw that Papa Johns was still open. Not only were they open, they were the only Pizza Place I've EVER seen with a DRIVE THRU!!!
Yeah, like a drive thru. Like McDonalds. It was awesome.
Then it was back to the hotel where I devised my master plan! I would go to sleep and wake up early. My Flight was at 5:45PM, so I had the whole day. I'd get up at 6:30AM Aberdeen time (5:30 AM Rapid City Time). Make the 7 hour drive to rapid city, then the 50 minute drive to Deadwood! HA! That extra hour would now work to my advantage!
On the way back I was SORELY tempted to stop at Wall Drug again, but I was determined to get spend as much time in Deadwood as I could, so until next time Wall Drug!!
I rolled into Deadwood at 12:30PM (Deadwood/Rapid City Time) and was overjoyed because that meant I had two hours before I had to head back to Rapid City (50 mins away) to catch my plane!
Why do I want to go to Deadwood? Because I'm a HUGE fan of the HBO TV Show. That show is so great AND it's based on REAL PEOPLE AND REAL EVENTS!! If you're familiar with the show you'll love these photos! First Stop...
Al Swearengen's The Gem. Now, this isn't actually the EXACT place where the original GEM was. That location is now a parking lot across the street. The Gem burned down and this one was rebuilt across the street. They supposedly have THE BEST STEAKS IN DEADWOOD, so I just HAD to try. I decided to splurge (after eating crap food the rest of the trip) and buy myself a good meal. I orders Al's Porterhouse Steak. The most expensive item on the menu! And here it is...
Mmmmmm. And those are "Garlic Mashed" potatoes. We have Garlic Mashed potatoes in CA, but they sure don't look like that. After I filled my belly, it was off to explore Deadwood.
Bullock Hotel. named after Deadwood's first Sheriff.
The Mint, which if I remember the show correctly was the Gem's rival.
This...is the Actual Location Where Wild Bill Hickock Was Shot. Don't believe me? Read the sign!
This is the same place, but across the street. It was called the 10 Cent when Bill was killed and then it burnt down and was rebuilt up the street, but this is the location.
Looking down Main Street in Deadwood.
And more cool buildings....
And then....
The Celebrity Hotel has a ton of Movie props all over it. I actually started thinking maybe these were props from now defunct Planet Hollywoods. Anyway, this picture was taken for Doug who is a big Herbie fan. He even dragged me to the Lindsay Lohan movie.
I purchased another shot glass for my dad, a book for mom and a shirt for me that says, "What Happens in Deadwood, Stays In Deadwood."
The time was quickly approaching 2:30PM and I had to leave soon but there was one more stop i wanted to make.....
Mount Mariah Cemetery. This is Deadwood's cemetery and has been for hundreds of years.
It is the final resting place of Wild Bill Hickock....
That's Bill's Gravesite. And right next to him is...
Calamity Jane's Grave. Jane is my FAVORITE character on Deadwood.
People were leaving pennies on Bill's Grave so I did as well.
And with that it was back to the car, but I did stop briefly at a Antique shop in Deadwood and picked up a SOUTH DAKOTA license plate for my wall!
This really was a great trip! Worth every moment driving. Worth the ton of tired I feel write now as I fly back to Burbank. ANd best of all....I GOT PAID TO DO IT ALL!! HA HA HA HAAAA!
THanks to all the new fans in SD. Thanks to the schools for bringing me out and letting me discover South Dakota. I WILL be back!!!
Then early Thursday morning I was off to San Francisco International and winging my way to South Dakota. I had two goals going into this trip besides rocking. The first was to see Mount Rushmore. The other was to visit Deadwood. Read on and see if I accomplished my goals....
I arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota and had just enough time to check into my hotel, The Hotel Alex Johnson.
It's one of the tallest buildings in Rapid City and I was on the 9th floor so I had a great view of everything. Supposedly room 802 of the hotel is haunted. I was holed up in 906 and am happy to report there were no "supernatural" experiences to report. I found out you can get booked into that room if you want and they say, "Who know what will happen? Will your windows open by themselves? WIll your drawers be opened during the night? WIll You See THe Woman in White?" I just laughed because I felt bad for the Bellhop who, I'm sure, has to sneak into the room and do all this stuff while you're asleep.
BELLHOP: OoOoOoooooOooooO! I'm the Lady in white!!!
Downtown Rapid City has bronze statues of most of the presidents, one on each corner. It was kinda cool. My show was at the South Dakota School Of Mines. (That's Mines, note Mimes.) It was a bit of different show than I normally do as it was an Open Mic as well. So my set was broken up by some great performances. This lead to some great moments and an improvised song by Throwing Toasters called POOP ON MY TOOTHBRUSH. You really had to be there.
After the show I went to dinner at the Firehouse Brewery with Michael, Ryan, another Ryan and two young ladies whose names escape me. I had my first ever Buffalo Burger and I have to say it tasted really.....very much like a hamburger. but it was great. They also Home Brew their Root Beer which Ryan insisted I try and I'm glad I did. It was great.
After that it was back to the hotel to turn in because tomorrow I had to drive to Aberdeen for my next show. Aberdeen is about 6 or 7 hours away from Rapid City so I wanted to get some good sleep, but I also wanted to get an early start because I wanted to go to...
MOUNT RUSHMORE!!!!
As I drove to Mount Rushmore they have signs every mile or so and, to me, it really built up the anticipation of seeing it! I keep scanning the mountains and looking for it. Finally as I passed through the town of Keystone, I caught a glimpse of it between the trees and I started giggling like mad! It was SO awesome. I went in and Parked ($8 but your pass is good all year, too bad it's tied to your license plate and I was in a rental). I went to put my backpack into the trunk and promptly proceeded in locking my keys in the trunk. There was several moments of panic in the Mount Rushmore garage as I frantically searched the unfamiliar car for a way to get in and finally, several minutes later I found the button. Whew. That would have SUCKED BIG TIME!!!!!
Anyway, then it was up to the monument. Wow. That's all I can say. Something about this really impressed me. Moreso than my trip to Washington DC, though I think had I been able to spend more time in Washington, I would have been more impressed. I will say that it was FRICKIN FREEZING up there though! SO COLD!!! THat's why in the following pictures I have a pained expression on my face.
I also went to the "Profile Lookout". It's a little washed out, but that's George Washington there. He was our first president you know.
I spent way too much in the gift shop. On these trips there's some things I always buy. I buy my Dad a shot glass. He doesn't collect them or anything. Well, I guess he does now because I keep buying them for him. Also, for my manager Barbara, I always buy her a keychain. That's something I've done since she got me my first big gig in Japan. I also bought a T-Shirt for me and a Mount Rushmore oven mitt for my mom. I just thought it was such a stupid thing to have, I had to get it for her.
I wrapped this up at about 10:30AM and I was tempted to try and head to Deadwood (about 50 minutes from MR), but I decided that the Drive to Aberdeen was going to be so big that I should just get going! As you'll see this was a WISE CHOICE!!!!
Aberdeen is about 350 miles from Rapid City. It was a long drive. I learned a lot of things about South Dakota on this drive.
1. The South Dakota Folks are opinionated. There were several signs stating several different political views than we usually have in California. There were several variations on the theme "Abortion Kills". There were signs that actually said, "Animal Research Saves Animals Too!" that had a picture of a little cat that said, "Puddles (or something) living with diabetes since...". Wow. And the ones that REALLY got me said, "WEAR FUR!!!! Wearing fur helps keep the populations down!" Wow!
2. Speed limit on I-90? 75 baby! We only get 70 in CA! That was great.
3. There were A TON of AWESOME roadside attractions. I'm talking totally cool roadside attractions, kinda like The Biggest Ball Of Twine (except that's not in SD). I'm a TOTAL sucker for these kind of things and was bummed to find out that most were closed until summer. :-( So I'm planning another trip sometime! I plan on seeing: The Reptile Gardens, Old MacDonald's Farm, Storybook Island (which may be a great place to film a video for NRL), The Petrified Forest, 1880 Town, Bear Country and any others I can get to! There was one attraction open though, which brings me to number....
4. I LOVE WALL DRUG!! It is the coolest place EVER! What is Wall Drug? It is a Pharmacy about a mile off the I-90 in Wall, SD. It's about 100 miles (i think) from Rapid City. About 10 miles out of RC you start seeing the signs "Wall Drug As Mentioned in The Wall Street Journal" "Wall Drug 5 Cent Coffee!" "Wall Drug FREE ICE WATER". THere were just TONS of these signs. It got crazy, but it was SO funny! Then, there was one sign that hooked me and the moment I read it I knew I had to stop..."Wall Drug - Six Foot Rabbit!" That did it, I was planning my stop!!
The history of the place is REALLY fascinating to me and it will be talked about in a future episode of Dr. Floyd, so I won't go into here. I will say I stopped, walked around, had another Buffalo Burger, And, of course, some FREE ICE WATER....
Unfortunately, the "Backyard" where all the REALLY COOL STUFF is kept was closed for the season, so no Six Foot Rabbit. There was still plenty to see and that totally gives me reason to go back! I got my free Wall Drug Bumper Sticker and was back on the road! I did get to see the dinosaur...
5. The capitol of SD is Pierre.
Here's me across from the Pierre Opera House. And as for what I learned, It's pronounced like PIER, not Pee-Air.
6. There are vast amounts of...nothing in South Dakota. It's very beautiful though.
7. When you cross over the Missouri river in SD, traveling West to East, you lose an hour. This TOTALLY messed me up. I was driving and was like, "Man I'm making GREAT time!" Then suddenly I lost an hour. It was gone. I had no idea what happened. My Cell Phone was an hour fast and suddenly the car's clock was wrong. I swear I though I had been abducted by aliens and lost an hour. I finally figured it out as I was reaching Aberdeen and then I realized all that "GREAT TIME" I was making was suddenly not so GREAT! luckily I made it to my soundcheck on time.
The show in Aberdeen was great. Crowd of about 30 kids. They enjoyed the show and I sold a few copies of Laughter Is A Powerful Weapon Vol. 2. As I headed back to the hotel I was hungry and decided to get some Pizza and saw that Papa Johns was still open. Not only were they open, they were the only Pizza Place I've EVER seen with a DRIVE THRU!!!
Yeah, like a drive thru. Like McDonalds. It was awesome.
Then it was back to the hotel where I devised my master plan! I would go to sleep and wake up early. My Flight was at 5:45PM, so I had the whole day. I'd get up at 6:30AM Aberdeen time (5:30 AM Rapid City Time). Make the 7 hour drive to rapid city, then the 50 minute drive to Deadwood! HA! That extra hour would now work to my advantage!
On the way back I was SORELY tempted to stop at Wall Drug again, but I was determined to get spend as much time in Deadwood as I could, so until next time Wall Drug!!
I rolled into Deadwood at 12:30PM (Deadwood/Rapid City Time) and was overjoyed because that meant I had two hours before I had to head back to Rapid City (50 mins away) to catch my plane!
Why do I want to go to Deadwood? Because I'm a HUGE fan of the HBO TV Show. That show is so great AND it's based on REAL PEOPLE AND REAL EVENTS!! If you're familiar with the show you'll love these photos! First Stop...
Al Swearengen's The Gem. Now, this isn't actually the EXACT place where the original GEM was. That location is now a parking lot across the street. The Gem burned down and this one was rebuilt across the street. They supposedly have THE BEST STEAKS IN DEADWOOD, so I just HAD to try. I decided to splurge (after eating crap food the rest of the trip) and buy myself a good meal. I orders Al's Porterhouse Steak. The most expensive item on the menu! And here it is...
Mmmmmm. And those are "Garlic Mashed" potatoes. We have Garlic Mashed potatoes in CA, but they sure don't look like that. After I filled my belly, it was off to explore Deadwood.
Bullock Hotel. named after Deadwood's first Sheriff.
The Mint, which if I remember the show correctly was the Gem's rival.
This...is the Actual Location Where Wild Bill Hickock Was Shot. Don't believe me? Read the sign!
This is the same place, but across the street. It was called the 10 Cent when Bill was killed and then it burnt down and was rebuilt up the street, but this is the location.
Looking down Main Street in Deadwood.
And more cool buildings....
And then....
The Celebrity Hotel has a ton of Movie props all over it. I actually started thinking maybe these were props from now defunct Planet Hollywoods. Anyway, this picture was taken for Doug who is a big Herbie fan. He even dragged me to the Lindsay Lohan movie.
I purchased another shot glass for my dad, a book for mom and a shirt for me that says, "What Happens in Deadwood, Stays In Deadwood."
The time was quickly approaching 2:30PM and I had to leave soon but there was one more stop i wanted to make.....
Mount Mariah Cemetery. This is Deadwood's cemetery and has been for hundreds of years.
It is the final resting place of Wild Bill Hickock....
That's Bill's Gravesite. And right next to him is...
Calamity Jane's Grave. Jane is my FAVORITE character on Deadwood.
People were leaving pennies on Bill's Grave so I did as well.
And with that it was back to the car, but I did stop briefly at a Antique shop in Deadwood and picked up a SOUTH DAKOTA license plate for my wall!
This really was a great trip! Worth every moment driving. Worth the ton of tired I feel write now as I fly back to Burbank. ANd best of all....I GOT PAID TO DO IT ALL!! HA HA HA HAAAA!
THanks to all the new fans in SD. Thanks to the schools for bringing me out and letting me discover South Dakota. I WILL be back!!!
Posted: Sat - January 28, 2006 at 03:54 PM
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Published On: Jan 28, 2006 10:08 PM
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Published On: Jan 28, 2006 10:08 PM