Here are a few pictures from a couple stops we made between Sioux Falls and Rapid City:
Not pictured is Wall Drug. Wall Drug is a waste of time. Next time we check in with this little vacation we will take a look at Mount Rushmore.
On the way to the Black Hills we stopped at Falls Park in Sioux Falls. Because we got a late start to the trip, so we didn’t hang around Falls Park for long. Plus it was pouring rain and it was cold. I did snap a few photos before we hit the road again:
We will be visiting me and my Mom’s trip to South Dakota a few more times in the future.
I hope all of you had a wonderful Halloween! To cap it off, I want to give you my personal candy bar power rankings.
Best Candy Bars in the World
1. Whatchamacallit
2. Peanut M&M’s
3. Twix Caramel
4. Snickers
5. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Worst Candy Bars in the World
1. Three Musketeers
2. Milky Way
3. Almond Joy
4. Mounds
5. Nestle Crunch
Hope these lists help you out.
Most of the images that are located in the folder 11-29-07 were all taken at Iowa State:
Man! I miss being able to turn out the lights at work! Those were the days!
By adding these pictures to the SmugMug Gallery I was able to restore the following gallery:
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve Bandshell Park in Ames.
Now that I’ve been back to reality for 7 days, probably a good time to go over my vacation.
FRIDAY
Left work at 4 PM or so. Vacation starts.
Had FNSC with Willy. Ate at Colorado Grill.
After Colorado Grill. Started watching a new show, NARCOS.
SATURDAY
Breakfast at Legal Limit with Mom.
Photography for Amber and Steve’s Wedding.
SUNDAY
Went to the Lutheran Church in Gilbert with Jesse and Nader to celebrate Nader’s 30th year in the United States.
Ate lunch at the church with some of the people that helped Nader when he got to the country.
Went to Gene’s farm to admire his car collection.
Sent this picture to Russell of Youth Nazis harassing this old woman.
Sent this picture to Logan because he sent me a picture trying to make me jealous of his lunch.
Went to the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad and Shorty was there working it.
While this food stand looks awesome, the ice cream isn’t that great.
MONDAY
Loaded up Mom’s car and headed for Mount Rushmore.
Stopped in Sioux Falls for gas, human fuel, and Falls Park. It rained all the way to Sioux Falls.
Mom struggles with the selfie concept.
Confused by the bridge they built to seemingly just to wreck the view.
I give Falls Park the thumbs up. I’ll have to go back when I have more time at some point.
Stopped for gas again next to 1880 town.
Stopped at Wall Drug right before it closed.
Still don’t have the selfie thing down.
Pretty horrible restaurant across the street from Wall Drug.
I’d give Wall Drug the bird. Don’t waste your time. A bunch of touristy garbage with ridiculous hours.
Got to Rapid City and checked into a hotel with free WI-FI and continental breakfast.
TUESDAY
Got up in the morning and ate continental breakfast at the hotel. Had a lengthy conversation with two women from Arizona that came up there for the Buffalo Roundup.
Left for Mount Rushmore.
One armed woman took this picture for us.
Getting better at the selfie game.
What Mount Rushmore was supposed to look like, but they had to stop because of WWII. Another thing we can blame on Hitler.
I give Mount Rushmore the thumbs up.
At the base of Mount Rushmore we ran into Brad Dighton. The cousin of a member of my church. He gave us several pro tips for the area. We weren’t able to get to all of them, but maybe next time.
One of his pro tips was take the Iron Mountain Road to Custer State Park.
All of these tunnels point back to Mount Rushmore. You can’t tell in the picture, but trust me.
I give the Iron Mountain Road the thumbs up.
Custer State Park is a great example of white privilege. I have no clue why a park is named after Custer. His 2 claims to fame are graduating last in his class at West Point and then getting his buttocks handed to him at the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Custer Park (like the man) was more hype than pay off. We were told we would see hundreds of buffalo. We saw one. That being said, the feral donkeys and the prairie dogs made up for the lack of buffaloes.
I give Custer Park a thumbs up, but it didn’t live up to the hype.
After we left Custer, we went to Needles Highway.
Needles Highway is a road about the width of McHose Park road, but with a 400 foot drop to your death on one side. It is amazing!
I give Needles Highway a big thumbs up!
After that we went to Hill City to eat lunch/dinner at a place recommended to us by Brad Dighton. That place was closed, so instead we dined at the Hill City Cafe.
Hill City Cafe wasn’t terrible, but it certainly was not great. Thumb sideways.
After that, we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial.
I’d give Crazy Horse another big thumbs up! My only complaint is that all the information seems to be on the family carving the memorial and hardly anything on Crazy Horse himself. You know, the guy that ripped Custer’s buttocks off and handed them back to him. He took out Custer’s brothers while he was ate it. Crazy Horse was an OG.
Pro Tip: Pay for the $4 bus ride.
After leaving Crazy Horse, went back to Mount Rushmore for the lighting ceremony.
The lighting ceremony kind of drags on for awhile, but the part where they bring veterans on stage and take the flag down is powerful. While waiting (forever) for them to light up the mountain we became single serving friends with Lance Young. A former Iowa State wide receiver that played in the Dan MacCarney era.
After the lighting we went back to Rapid City and crashed.
WEDNESDAY
Got up in the morning and hit the continental breakfast. Hard. Going home day. No time for single serving friends. Ate and hit the road.
Stopped at Badlands National Park.
I think we have it. At least we’re in striking distance.
Taken by a woman who was friendly, but strangely afraid of falling down the side to her death. She has no future as a Photography 139 Assistant!
Badlands. 2 big thumbs up. They just need to work on their rattlesnake game.
Next stop on the way home was to see the Dignity Sculpture. It looks like the Big Jesus in Sioux City, only less creepy. I don’t have a picture with the cell phone, but when I unleash the camera pictures, there is one there.
The next stop was Mitchell. I was going to avoid the Corn Palace but it just lined up with when we needed gas and human fuel.
Last time I went to the Corn Palace, I gave it the bird. I’m going to upgrade it to just a thumbs down. It is worth seeing, if you don’t waste time going inside.
We stopped at a place called The Hungry Dog for lunch.
The Hungry Dog was by far the best eating experience of the trip. 6 out of 5 Stars!!! It only seats about 5 people on the inside and after the only employee took our order, made our food, and delivered it; she locked the door and told us she’d be right back. She had to go pick up her kids from school.
I loved every second of my experience!
The last stop of the evening was in Jefferson for gas and human fuel.
Then home for sleep.
THURSDAY
Did not much in the day. Hung up a bunch of pictures in my bedroom. Cleaned out the guest bedroom now that Alexis has moved out.
Picked Derrick up for the Iowa State game.
Well almost everything about that game sucked, except the company.
FRIDAY
I can’t remember next to anything that happened on Friday.
I visited Scottie D. to get a yard sign. He is running for City Council for Ward 5.
Also had FNSC with Willy. Think it was at Jimmy’s Barbecue.
SATURDAY
Don’t remember much about Saturday either.
Went uptown during YesterBoone to complete another page of the Photo Journal Project.
Went out to McHose Park and with Jesse’s assistance completed yet another page of the Photo Journal Project.
After that, we went to a Gender Reveal Party for one of the members of the Youth Group. It’s a Girl!!
Headed up to Jay’s for Chili Lab. Both Jay and Wily made great chilis and we enjoyed a viewing of KONG ISLAND.
SUNDAY
Got up and went to church at Boone First United Methodist Church.
Then lunch with the family.
Meeting for the Council to Elect Degeneffe.
Then I went to the Freedom Flight Send-off to see Jesse’s Dad.
Monica’s mom made a bouquet that they took with them to place on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Then I went home. Sat on my couch and soaked up the last few hours of vacation, before being back at the grind on Monday.
I’ve been back to work one week. Already fantasizing about the next time I dip my toes into the PTO pool.
Looking for a chance to give to a good cause and eat completely edible food? Then do I have an opportunity for you!
Next Wednesday (October 4, 2017) the Boone First United Methodist Church Youth Group will be having a fundraiser to help pay for their mission trip to a yet to be determined location!
Just come out to the Boone Pizza Ranch between 5-8 and bring one of the slips below:
For every one of these we get turned in, we will get $2 towards our Mission Trip. Plus, there will be tip jars all around the Pizza Ranch where you can give a donation to help the cause.
What would you be helping to support? Take a look at the pictures below from past mission trips:
So please come out to Pizza Ranch next Wednesday and help support great kids doing great work!
The pictures in the folder 10-31-07 display both a terrifying display of brute strength and a terrifying display of Halloween costumes.
By dusting off these pictures and adding them to the current Smugmug Photo Gallery, I was able to restore the following blog posts:
I have now restored all of the October 2007 blog posts to close to their original glory. Now I can’t tell you why I’ve felt motivated to restore decade old blog posts, because I know that nobody is checking them out, but I can tell you that I’ve learned a lot about who I used to be. I used to be somebody that put up photos within minutes after taking them. The current me has photos that he took close to a year ago that he still needs to look at. I probably need to find some middle ground on that.
Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve more Iowa State Football and some surprising tailgaters!
One of the benefits of THE SELFIE PROJECT is that I can look back at a month and feel less worthless. Hey, I actually did go out and do stuff and see people in month X. I’m a winner!
Speaking of winners, these are the photos I consider winners from the month of August:
Remember that THE SELFIE PROJECT photos are posted on Instagram on the daily. If you don’t know, Instagram is that little sliver of social media that doesn’t suck… much. There are a few lazy slackjaws out there that post memes, but other than that, it is just pictures. Any way you can follow me at the account below:
Now I need to make sure that my September is almost as great as my August!
It is the time where I reveal what photos I entered into the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest, but first the good news and the “bad” news.
The good news is that my sister Carla cleaned up at the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. She got 1st Place in Hidden Treasures of Boone County and Second Place for Photojournalism.
The “bad” news is that the 6 photos I entered got no love from the judge or judges. I really have no clue how they pick the awards. But I put “bad” in quotes because if I could choose to get no awards, that is exactly what I would choose. Plus, I’m super excited about Carla’s awards! Pretty sweet!
If I can get Carla to email me her submissions, I’ll post those at a later date. Like the day that she emails them to me.
Hopefully Teresa will enter some photos next year too!
Any way, you may recall that I had 6 people choose my 6 submission based on who left comments on an Instagram post. Here are those 6 submissions and the people that selected them:
If you would like to see the pool of photos that they had to choose from, click on the link below:
If you are wondering what was selected to the submission pool here are the requirements:
1. Have never been entered into another photo contest (i.e. Iowa State Fair, Boone County Fair)
2. They had to fit into 1 of the 4 categories: Nature, Photojournalism, Photoshop, or Hidden Treasures of Boone County)
3. I had to like them, sorta.
I’ll add that this is the photo that wasn’t entered, but was chosen by Selector-Alternate Sara Lockner:
I believe that is probably it for photo contests for 2017. As things now, I will probably remain unretired from Photo Contests in 2018. See you then.