Day Twenty-Six: Goin’ Out West

Wow… I haven’t updated this thing in a very long time. I have been home from the States for over a month, and Steph is currently over here visiting me. Still, I realised that I should finish it – if only as a document of the period. So, here goes…

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We woke up early and drove down to Plankinton to meet up with Altman. Plankinton is pretty:

Altman’s parents took us out for a hearty breakfast before we hit the road, at Al’s I-90 Diner…

…and then we set off. South Dakota is spectacular:

You know you’re in the midwest when…

We made a pit-stop in the Pioneer Auto Show in Murdo. It’s basically just a classic car museum, but it’s also a little rough around the edges which just adds to the charm. We’d seen signs on the interstate for a number of miles, advertising their star attraction. Here it is:

SO HAPPY!! That’s actually the only surviving General Lee from the original Dukes of Hazzard series, and being allowed to sit in it was just fantastic. It also has this fitted…

[YOUTUBE LINK]

Life goal achieved! Here’s a few more shots from the place:

Their secondary star attraction is a motorcycle which was made for Elvis…

…although unfortunately, their Elvis mannequin leaves a lot to be desired:

They also have a lot of those “face in the whole” things… do they have a name? Either way:

There is a world-famous attraction in South Dakota known as Wall Drug (no, I’d never heard of it either). As I understand it, it started as a drug store in the small town of Wall, and grew and grew. It was famous for offering “free ice water” and also for a ridiculous number of roadside advertising billboards… you see them hundreds of miles beforehand on I-90. You can see them in other parts of the United States. There’s apparently a sign on the other side of the world that says “12,000 miles to Wall Drug.” I’m surprised I’ve never seen one, actually, if the photo gallery of Wall Drug signs around the world is anything to go by:

There’s also a pretty consistent dinosaur theme.

Also, more of these:

And as well as the FREE ICE WATER for which they are famous, there is 5c coffee:

As we rocked into Rapid City, the skyline was beautiful…

We drove out to Bev and Bob’s (Steph’s aunt and uncle, where we were staying) and enjoyed ice cold beer in the hot tub under the stars.

Life was, and is, good.

Day Twenty-Two to Twenty-Five: A Midweek Round-Up

Just a few photos this time, detailing a few exploits from the midweek:

I bought some Throwback pop (made with cane sugar as opposed to high fructose corn syrup):

I hung out with Irving a lot whilst Steph was at work:

I cleaned the apartment:

I baked a cake:

I enjoyed some free coffee at the launderette:

I saw a funny number plate:

Me and Steph did some more eating here…

…and had a mountain of fried food at Cubby’s:

Boom.

Day Twenty-One: Recovery, ice cream and bowling

As you may have guessed, I woke up feeling sick as pike. Large quantities of cheap beer seem to have that effect on me. It took me a while to get started, and I had one hell of a lie-in in the camper – it’s not like we had anything planned. I’ve mentioned already how much I loved that camper, and as it turns out, it’s actually pretty comfortable to drive…

…not that I did anything more than sit in the driving seat, as you can see (aside from anything else, it’s covered up and parked.) Still, there’s something wonderful about being able to drive a house, complete with sleeping space for four, a fridge bigger than mine at home, a full size hob and oven, a toilet and shower. Cracking.

Steph’s brother, Brian, gave me something to drink… I’m not sure what it was, but apparently you usually give it to children with diarrhoea to rehydrate them. It seemed to work, and by dinner time I’d perked up enough to leave the house and do things. Not sure what to do with the evening, me and Steph decided to go to the bowling alley, but on the way we made a pit stop at Twist Cone; Twist Cone is a drive-in ice cream shop, and an Aberdeen landmark. I got this:

That’s a soft serve cone, dipped in chocolate, and with eyes. I decided to imitate it, as you can see. It was also the last day of the season, and Twist Cone was closing for winter the next day. I didn’t take this picture, but I think it’s important to show you the place, because it’s beautiful:

We then left and went to the bowling alley and played two games. I won both, through nothing more than dumb luck (that’s not modesty, either.)

And to finish, the final score:

We drove home, spent some time in the hot tub, and went for an early-ish bed.

Day Twenty: Parade, repair, and inebriation

(Word to the wise: this entry is not suitable for those with a slow internet connection!)

We woke up at an ungodly hour. The Homecoming parade in Aberdeen, called “Gypsy Days”, was starting at 8am, so after a breakfast of sausage biscuits (note: not cookies) we headed down. I was particularly trigger-happy with the camera, so here’s a small selection of photos:

And of course… SHRINERS!!

Fantastic. Each float throws out masses of sweets too, but the kids tend to get in first and pick it up off the street. One particular kid in front of us had a huge bag full – I don’t think I’ve eaten that many sweets in my whole life. Never mind, the dentists in Aberdeen will be rubbing their hands together at the money they stand to make… which they undoubtedly will.

Next up, Steph and her mother (Jo, in case I refer to her again in this blog, and I will) went off to leave me and her dad (Mark) to some “man time.” Whilst I wasn’t too daunted by the prospect of being left alone with my girlfriend’s father, I would like to point out that he took me to workshop… full of wrenches, drills, screwdrivers, power tools, and large machinery. Turns out, we had an assignment – namely, the speakers in Steph’s car. The front right speaker worked intermittently, so I had to fix it whilst Mark changed the oil in the car:

The oil change didn’t take that much time, so before long we were both working on the speakers (as you can see, the inner door panel is removed) and worked out that the front right speaker was knackered. A quick trip to Wal-Mart to get some new ones was made, and we came back and fitted them. Never has a car stereo sounded so magnificent. On the trip, we passed this house…

…yeah, Americans take Hallowe’en very seriously. This was over three weeks before Aberdeen. Also, we saw this fine specimen of a vehicle in the Wal-Mart car park:

We had another project to work on, which was a bookshelf/end table made from an old cable spool. Steph had seen it on Pinterest, and Jo had picked up on it. There’s a lot of old cable spools lying around the workshop (Mark works for a construction company) so he build it, and wanted me to help him finish it. I don’t have a picture of it, but this is the original:

Mark had done a great job, so all that was left for us to do by the time I was involved was to fit the wheels and stain it. Oh, and we signed it with the year, of course.

After a dinner of potato soup and chili (thanks, Jo!) we went to Lager’s Inn in Aberdeen to commence drinking. Steph had arranged for all her Aberdeen friends to come, and we ended up having a great night. I don’t remember much of the end of it, in any case. Thanks to Mark though for picking us up and taking me through the McDonald’s drive-thru; I needed that McMuffin.

There are two specific things I loved about Lager’s, and this is how I’ll close the blog:

1) Complimentary peanuts, which are still in the shell. Patrons simply eat the peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. By the end of the night, the floor is covered in peanut shells and dust. Not only is it incredibly satisfying to drink beer and throw your peanut shells on the floor, it apparently makes it easier for them to clean up at the end of the night – the shells soak up all the beer, sweat, vomit, urine etc. so that they just have to sweep up.

2) This 32oz (2 US pints; 1.7 UK pints) mug of beer cost me $6. They had offers on the swill lager (Coors Light, Bud Lite etc.) which made them $3.50. Plus, they bring them to your table. INSANE.

*glug glug glug*

 

Day Nineteen: Meet the parents

Today was the day of driving to Aberdeen, and more importantly for me, meeting the parents. We started the day right with a Burger King breakfast – sausage, egg and cheese in a toasted croissant is a lot better than it sounds. Also, the hash brown carton made me chuckle:

We loaded up on soft drinks and hit the road…

We made a brief pit stop at the Jorgenson Meat Store, a small independent business that sells nothing but meat products and kuchen (a custard-based cheesecake-like dessert of German origin and commonplace in South Dakota). They notably sold the best beef jerky I’ve ever eaten, spicy Peperami-esque treats called “Texas hot rods,” and Mountain Dew and Pepsi Throwback. Suffice to say, I loved the place. I took a picture, but it was both very windy and very bright, so I look simple:

We carried on, passing through Bristol on our way…

…until we arrived in Aberdeen:

Meeting the parents (and brother) was great. We had dinner, then Steph’s mam had invited a lot of her friends/relatives over for drinks. We got nicely drunk and me and Steph solved Rubik’s cubes to everyone’s amazement.

Additionally, I was challenged to drink a beer on my head by Steve, which I flat out said I could not do (truthfully). Steve, who is 52, put me to shame:

After everyone left, we got into the hot tub…

…in preparation for Wales V Ireland, which kicked off at midnight our time. And yes, I watched it on a laptop, from a hot tub, with beer and jerky:

We won 22-10! A cracking end to a cracking day. We retired to the comfort of our accommodation, and went to sleep:

Camper, sweet camper.

Day Eighteen: A brief interruption; an apology.

Only now, looking at the calendar, do I realise how much I have let this blog lapse. I missed a day or two, and then it snowballed. Another issue is that Steph works during the week, and due to her night shift (which I have almost attempted to match my sleeping pattern with) we don’t really come to life until around 2pm. The days are filled with bumming around locally, grocery shopping or going out for something to eat/drink.

It’s great, but it’s hardly blogworthy.

Looking back at iPhoto, I can see that the day was pretty uneventful. I’ve found that if I didn’t document it with a photo, the chances are it wasn’t worth remembering… and it certainly wasn’t worth passing on. Day eighteen (which is actually the 7th of October) is a perfect example of this. There were two photos taken of the day:

This is a basket of popcorn that was inexplicably served with our meal at the Ground Round. It was seemingly in place of a bread basket, as is usually customary.

This is Irving asleep in a drawer, which I found amusing enough to photograph.

I think this illustrates my point. No-one cares if Irving was sleeping in a drawer except for me, and maybe Steph. Not even Irving himself cares that I find his choice of bedding humourous.

I will catch up on the weekend in Aberdeen (and this weekend just gone) post haste, and furthermore I will attempt to refrain from documenting the more pointless aspects of my time in the States.

Day Seventeen: Another lazy day

This one’s even shorter, and mostly foody. We started the day with Steph making breakfast burritos:

One thing I did do, however, was go to the AT&T shop to get a SIM card for my phone (I now have a US phone number!) I also saw a stunning Corvette outside:

I don’t care that it can’t go around corners. It’s beautiful. We went to Guadalajara for dinner, too:

Yum.

Day Sixteen: The way she goes.

This is the shortest post yet. We literally did nothing, all day, which was fantastic. Sometimes, you just need a day like that.

…I tell a lie, we actually went out for a quick beer at Jim’s before Steph had to go to work:

Whilst at Jim’s, I had my first experience of video lottery. I only put in a dollar, and played the 5c games, but as it happened, I lost it all:

That’s the way she goes.

Day Fifteen: Hallowe’en Boo-tique

To celebrate Steph’s first day at work, we drove down to Sioux Falls for record shopping and curry. I love driving through the midwest:

As it happens, the record shop was pretty poor. I was very excited, but kept getting assured by Emma and Steph that “it really isn’t that great.” They were right. It turned out to basically be a head shop with a few racks of second hand CDs and DVDs, and a small section of vinyl (an even smaller sub-section devoted to new vinyl!) I didn’t buy anything, although I did flirt with the idea of getting a really obnoxious tie-die t-shirt, or a cup-and-ball magic set, or some other form of mindless rubbish that I didn’t really need.

We then found the Hallowe’en Boo-tique that we had seen advertised on the interstate. Americans take Hallowe’en way more seriously than us, and set up temporary shops selling nothing but spooky merchandise. We bought a beer bong in the shape of a skull, and tried on a lot of hats and masks:

This outfit in particular made me laugh hard. I love that someone is going to go to a Hallowe’en party dressed as a satirical BP worker:

After working up an appetite by having that much fun, we went to Shahi Palace for Indian food:

It was interesting to see how different Indian food is over here (or at least in the restaurant we went to). For one, they don’t have onion bhajis, and they don’t serve poppadums with a pickle tray. I usually order a rogan josh, but they only seemed to offer a lamb rogan josh, and the waiter was reluctant to allow me to have it with chicken. Completely unlike Britain, where you pick the curry and the meat. Also, rather than a certain curry being a certain heat, you get offered how hot you want it. I said I wanted it hot, and the waiter repeatedly warned me that it was hot. I said it was fine. He came back later to check my order, and once again warned me and told me it was very hot, until I broke down and let him have his way. I wanted a hot curry, but I wanted to keep my waiter happy also. Steph had a vindaloo “as hot as you can make it” because that’s how she rolls. The trouble with this approach is that the curry doesn’t seem to be a balance of spice and flavour; rather, it tastes like a curry with a certain amount of raw chili added to it. The chili flavour doesn’t seem to be cooked in, which spoilt it a little for me (well, when I tried Steph’s vindaloo… mine was like a korma). It was an experience, but I can categorically state that Indian food in the UK is superior.

We went to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert, which is literally the best thing ever. Mine consisted of cake batter ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and chunks of cookie dough. We all gorged on creamy goodness…

…then drove home, and Steph went to work.

 

Day Fourteen: Slave to the wage

We had a long lie in, because Steph was starting her new job at 10pm in the evening (she works nights). We also made sure we had a fairly lazy day, as she hadn’t done anything to modify her sleeping patterns prior to this. She managed to convince me that a sandwich can be a meal, by ordering Jimmy John’s:

Their slogan is “Subs so fast you’ll freak!” Between ordering online and the delivery guy coming to the door took 17 minutes. Steph swears they’ve done it in less time. It was good stuff, either way.

Steph had some sort of chai drink with hers – the bottle of chai mix made me chuckle:

“Retrieval portal”?! Bloody hippies.

To get out of the house, we decided to go for a walk. We naturally ended up downtown at Jim’s Tap, and on the way I saw this guy…

…who gave me a wave for taking a picture of his awesome pickup. I want that car. Oh, we also saw a squirrel:

On the way back, we took the long way home, crossing the train tracks to the other side of Brookings and walking back along the street adjacent to the tracks. As we came to cross the tracks again, there was a train coming, which was insanely cool. I was stood about fifteen feet from the biggest (and loudest) train I have ever seen:

I also forgot how long trains are over here. We stood for a solid five minutes whilst the train passed.

And then it was time for Steph to go to work:

Her first day! Awwww…

I cleaned the apartment up, had a cwtch with my new best friend…

…and went to sleep.