...And the rest of South Dakota

One of the nerdy things that I really liked about South Dakota was that I had read a novel about a young woman growing up on the reservation in the 30's in South Dakota. Hill City was the closest town. I would highly recommend it. I took a class called "Native American History" where the professor was an expert in cultures on the Great Plains, specifically the Lakota. We read 7 friggin novels strictly about the Lakota people, so I became a bit of an expert myself.
Anyway. So we drive toward Mount Rushmore. I vaguely remember driving behind someone ridiculously slowly on the way there and not being able to get around them. So we said to ourselves, one way to fix that is to make a pit stop on the way to the heavily roadside-advertised Crazy Horse Memorial, largest mountain carving in the world. So we get up to the "toll booth" and they say its 20 bucks per car. And that they've been working on this thing for 60 years and it's (my estimate) less than 15% complete. NO THANK YOU. They tried to pull this whole "Oh, well proceeds go to fund the building of a University on site for Native Americans." Okay, I would be more than happy to donate time, money, or both to help education. However, can I really have faith that they can make it happen if the stupid statue alone has taken 60 years. Sorry.
So, Mount Rushmore. Cool. Not thrilling, but worth photographing. They had a Mount Rushmore Coke machine, that was cool. I got a sandwich. It was really plain and expensive, and also not thrilling, but it's a tourest trap, so thats what I expected. And for the record, I think it was 8 bucks a car, as apposed to 20 bucks. Interesting.
The drive to Souix Falls was uneventful. Well, pretty much the whole friggin state was uneventful. So we drive and drove and drove until we reached Soiux Falls. We would be couchsurfing here. It would be a lovely oasis. Actually a really cute town. We went to go lounge in the grass. It reminded me a lot (as far as the people were concerned) of my suburban town at the park. Couples, families, and teenagers milled around, going for walks, reading books, sketching, picnicking, enjoying the nice summer evening. So we did the same; lounged on our blanket while I read a book and Boyf sketched. Relaxing. I was somewhat concerned about our host being available, but that was just because he was initially our fall back and we scrambled to find his contact info last minute. We were planning to go to Minneapolis, but then decided that was a waste of time. Boyf had a cousin up there, but it was 5 hours north out of our way. The host called to say that he was on his way, and showed up with two other couchsurfers. Everyone was very nice; Our host had lived in Sioux Falls all his life and the other surfers were from Washington. We asked him if he knew of somewhere to get some grub, and we were very glad to take him up on his recommendation of Granite City. We had a great meal. If you are ever anywhere near one of these, you MUST eat these:
Idaho Nachos
Recommended pairing: Northern Light
Golden fried waffle-cut potatoes topped with Colby-Jack cheese, bacon bits, diced tomatoes, sour cream, and green onions.
They are in shown third from the left in the photo montage of awesomeness at the top of the page. I also enjoyed a few drinks. This was a much needed break from campfire hotdogs. So was the accommodations where our host was house-sitting, They lived in this beautiful ranch house in a little cul-de-sac. We got hot showers and slept on the same air mattress we had slept on since Seattle, but no complaints there. All in all, Sioux Falls was the best part of South Dakota, which isn't saying much, but really, we did enjoy our stay there.