The Road to Eola (#44)

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In my mind there is no more glorious time in the Texas Hill Country than spring wildflower season. The peak months are typically Mid March to Mid April. The intensity of the show is dependent on cold wet winters and spring showers. 2017 has been a pretty good year. Last weekend I asked a friend to join me for a mini adventure to a tiny brewpub I had been wanting to visit since another fellow beer drinker told me about it a couple of years ago.

SH 71-Near Llano

We left Spicewood late morning heading northwest on 71 to Llano, the county seat where we stopped at the local park to view the rehabilitated Roy Inks bridge before heading north on 16 toward San Saba. The park by the bridge is a nice place to picnic and in the last couple of years they have been dropping chunks of native rock for anyone making a creative effort to build rock art features.

Roy Inks Bridge-Llano

We discovered an unusual style house for rural Texas on 16 just south of Cherokee, Texas. I was convinced the original owner had come from the east coast. When we got to San Saba we turned west on 190 and immediately stopped at the Wedding Oak Winery sampling room and tried some very tasty wines. I was surprised when my favorite happened to be Viognier, a white wine.

Wedding Oak Winery-San Saba

CR 204 near Harkeyville

We headed west looking for CR 406, a road that would take us to an old historic truss. We missed our turn, but made our way back using CR 218. The bridge is a beautifully restored Pratt through truss over the San Saba River. We spent quite a bit of time walking across the bridge and back, admiring the beautiful portal bracing and never seeing another car. We still had another bridge to find before we made our way to the brewery. I had no cell service and no gps to assist us. We had the paper map above, but it didn't give us all the road names or numbers. Luckily we missed our turn to keep going due west at Rochelle, which landed us in Brady, the county seat of McCulloch County. Had we not missed our turn earilier, we would have missed a beautiful Mission Revival train station on the north side of the town.

US 190

McCulloch County Courthouse-Brady

Just outside of Brady we headed north on 283 and turned left at 765 toward Fife. We were looking for Waldred Road to no avail. At the first decent dirt road heading north approximated 2 miles we  we turned right (CR 220 north of the Colorado River). I had heard the bridge was a gigantic five part through truss and we wondered if such a bridge could be on this dirt backroad.  After approximately five miles we were thrilled to find we had indeed picked the correct road!

Waldrip Truss

On to the Eola School and Bright Brewing for our reward. But there was one last discovery near Millersville when I saw a unique building in the distance. It turned out to be the old Hartgrove Gymnasium, built in 1938-39 by the Works Progress Administration.  We had some good beers at the old schoolhouse, talked with a local and two Texas Poet Laureates before making our way home.  It was a lovely day for a ride and discovery. Where to next time?

Eola Schoolhouse Restaurant and Bright Brewing

Running from the Fire-Into the Arizona Frying Pan! (#31)

There's gonna' be some trouble around here! - Tombstone, AZ

Miller Fire-SE Arizona

On the first leg of our Vegas Loop trip in 2011 we entered Arizona on I-10 from New Mexico.  We stopped at the first rest area to pick up tourist information and a map, but only found a few kiosks.

What we did see to the south was smoke and it turned out to be the first of several progressively worse fires until the Sierra Vista fire which chased us to the Phoenix area a day ahead of schedule.

Next stop was a visit to Tombstone.  We got off of I-10 at Benson and missed our left turn to head south on Arizona 80.  It was a stroke of good luck because we saw the Old Benson Ice Cream Stop sign and stopped for one of their 44 different soft serve flavors!  I had the black cherry and we were off again. Before we ventured to downtown Tombstone we stopped for a little shopping, a nice antique shop and a jeweler next door who had a super collection of fire agates. As we headed to the tourist info office downtown we watched the rumblings of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday as they tempted the crowd to watch them finish the gunfight at the OK Corral. We then picked up a historic walking tour map and headed down Main Street.  This is a tourist trap town, but we LOVED it! We visited several shops and went into the old Crystal Palace and Big Nose Kate's Saloon to have a beer and sarsaparilla. Phil went downstairs in Big Nose Kate's to buy a souvenir t-shirt and enjoyed learning the history of "The Swamper" before we hit the road to our first Arizona campsite.

Big Nose Kate's - Tombstone

June is one of the hottest months this far south in the USA and without air conditioning camping can get quite uncomfortable. Our strategy was to camp at elevations above 5000 ft, which was a great plan...as long as the places weren't on fire.

Sky Island Scenic Byway

 We headed west on AZ 82 toward Lakeview Campground located at 5400 ft in the Sierra Vista district of the Coronado National Forest. Anticipating one of 65 scenic campsites, we turned off the main road onto one of the National Forest designated scenic drive toward the beautiful Huachuca Mountains. About 7 miles into the drive a barricade in the middle of the road stopped us...Road Closed Due to Fire. I checked my laptop for National Forest updates and another campground in the vicinity. According to the website, Lakeview was indeed closed. then I looked for a backup plan. The Santa Catalina Recreation Area northeast of Tucson wasn't showing any closures and there were six campgrounds above 5000 elevation on the 27 mile Sky Island Scenic Byway. We climbed into the mountains through a hillside of blooming Saguaro cactus as the sun began its journey into the horizon. After six miles we saw the first of the campgrounds-barricaded. I checked the website again...no postings stating it was closed. We continued on and each time, each campground was barricaded. We arrived at Summerhaven and stopped in at the trading post where they informed us the campgrounds were closed due to fires, even though we had seen no signs of smoke north of I-10. Now what were we going to do?

Mt. Lemmon Ski Area - Summerhaven

Back on the laptop (and nearing 8:30pm) I found another campground on the west side of Tucson, this time I called. The recording for Tucson Mountain Park said the gate to the Gilbert Ray Campground closed at 10pm; we had to race to get there, but got there with five minutes to spare. Tucson Mountains Park is not really in the mountains, so we woke up early and decided to retrace our route to one of the tourist stops we missed even though Saguaro National Park West adjoined this park.

Mission San Xavier del Bac-White Dove of the Desert just might be the most beautiful non-secular buildings. Completed in 1797, they boast it's the oldest extant European constructed
building in Arizona. We spent the morning here and joined one of the docent led tours before heading back into Tucson for lunch.

San Xavier Interior

The 11 beer sampler

To get my microbrewery fix in Arizona we picked the Barrio Brewing Company where I had their colossal 11 beer sampler. Both beer and food were very good especially the happy hour appetizer of Pretzel Pillows with Nuclear Mustard dipping sauce. Barrio is located in an industrial area next to the railroad tracks so listen for the train crossing guard bells which of the railroad track gates, which signal Barrio Rail Pints are $3.25! We didn't know what to do, the fires had pushed us a day ahead of schedule and did not want to go back to the heat of the previous nights campground.
I called my friend near Phoenix and she graciously invited to come a day early.

We went back through the Tucson Mountain Park to Saguaro National Park West. Shortly after entering the National Park, we turned off the main park road onto the narrow and disserted Cactus Forest Drive. This one-way road lacked traffic road making it easy to stop and watch the birds who made their home in these majestic cactus pincushions. It was late afternoon as we turned north toward Phoenix and time to jump out of the frying pan. the fires finished with the blessing and the best two days in Arizona, catching up and spending time with old cherished friends.

A Delicious Bite From "The Big Apple" (#17)

How and why does an architectural historian with a big city heart avoid going to NYC until she is 52 years old? Me either. It's everything they say and more-this city eclectic, eccentric and electric. It's an architecture and art lovers mecca.

I had been all around the city from Long Island, along the NJ Palisades, across the entire length of upstate NY, but never, not even once, did I venture to the core of the Big Apple...until a baby shower took me to the Upper East Side, just a few blocks from the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir in Central Park. And then by sheer luck, I was blessed with not one, but two six-day visits within one year, first in April 2012 and then again the following January.

Enjoyable mornings started with brisk walks around the Reservoir and often drew me further into the arms of this Frederick Law Olmstead masterpiece.  Central Park embraces its history and retains many of the original cast iron and stone bridges from the late 1850s and 60s guiding park goers from one meticulously manicured area to another like Belvedere Castle, The Ramble and Strawberry Fields.

This is truly architecture heaven, street after street excellent examples of every architectural style from every decade dating back to the late 1700s. Even post modern buildings are stunning.

Like every good tourist, I visited the top of Empire State Building, sat in the first pew at St. Patrick's Cathedral, rode the Staten Island Ferry, walked the Brooklyn Bridge and went into the Chrysler Building to view the lobby. But that is really the tip of the iceberg, because there is so much more like the new Beekman Tower, old Greenwich Village, the Roosevelt Island Tramway and the emotionally moving 911 Memorial. All this with the aid of a superb mass transportation system and a 7-day Metro Pass, this apple was mine!

Beekman Tower-Frank Gehry

And no visit to this city would be complete without a trip to one of their then their great museums-both history and art. I discovered some treasures in the Met and at the American Museum of Natural History I followed the popular self paced Night in the Museum tour. Both of these museums are pay what you can. The Guggenheim and The Frick have special times to pay-as-you-wish, but prepare to line up around the building, so these times tend to be very crowded.

My second trip in January was dubbed the NYC Drinking Tour with visits to Heartland  Brewing before riding to the top of  Empire State building and drank beer at McSorley's Ale House, the oldest continuous pub on Manhattan. I splurged $20 for Bloody Mary at the St. Regis, where the French Red Snapper made its American debut, but the real highlight here is the opportunity to admire the recently restored Maxfield Parrish murals in the Old King Cole Bar with a history lesson for the friendly and attentive bar staff. And my last evening was spent in Greenwich Village sitting at the bar of the White Horse Tavern at the opposite end of the bar where Dylan Thomas drank himself to death-but I stopped at two-I want to make sure I get to come back.

Photo courtesy of the ultra cool bartender

One Month - Five Texas Breweries (#44)

Three friends at Shiner

The American Craft Brewing industry is finding a foothold here in Texas...and I couldn't be more thrilled!  Hopefully legislation will follow that makes doing business here in Texas a little easier for them.  A girl can only hope...and write to her local legislators to support reform like HB660.  But on with the tour!

Thirsty Planet Tap Room

Austin has recently been honored with several new brewing venues.  I welcome them all with open arms! In February Phil and I made our second visit to Thirsty Planet Brewing, located off 290 just west of the Oak Hill Y on Circle Drive.  Thirsty has a couple "anchor" beers like Thirsty Goat, Yellow Amadillo and my favorite, Buckethead IPA. In addition, they brew small specialty batches.  Brian and his wife are great additions to our brewing community here and we are glad they picked Austin to open their venue.  Besides brewing good beer, they are warm, welcoming and community minded.  Some of their beers give a portion of the profits to causes such as the Amadillo (local cancer research/support) and the small batch Silverback Ale (for gorillas of course!) that we sampled during our visit. Phil who rarely embibes beer enjoyed the small batch Ginger Beer.

Thirsty has been offering two tours on Saturday, one late morning and one early afternoon.  You can order and print tickets on line (recommended).  When you arrive you can buy the $7 pint glass and get bigger and better tastes.  The pub style tasting room has a wonderful atmosphere and the staff have been very friendly both visits.  It amazes me that they are so willing to "talk shop" with the home brewers in the group.  I do not doubt they will be successful here and hope they continue to stay grounded.

The next Saturday was the Grand Opening of Jester King Craft Brewing on Fitzhugh Rd; practically next door neighbor to Thirsty Planet.  Jester King seems to be fashioning themselves as a Dogfish Head type of venue.  The facility is very nice with an open air "barn" next to the brewery. The party started out great, they had food vendors, great entertainment, tours and several tasty brews to sample.  An hour into the event, a very cool, slightly ratty car club showed up. They had a super selection of darker beer styles and I really liked the Commercial Suicide (oak not whiskey barrel).  It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed a tour, but less than three hours into the party, the drink lines went on forever and when people drink too much they often won't wait their turn...sadly it was time to leave.

Next weekend it was off to Houston to celebrate my very dear friend Heather's birthday. Now living in Minnesota, she flew home to Houston so we could help her usher in the big 4-0!  Phil and I planned to pick her up at the airport and head to Saint Arnold, but we had to venture there alone.

Saint Arnold recently relocated from their original industrial strip complex to a huge facility in a refurbished old warehouse just north of downtown and I-10. Houston traffic, even on the weekend is never fun and parking for the facility took some patience too. They profess to be Texas' Oldest Craft Brewery and amazingly they have a small staff of less than 30 who do it all.  Tours are free, but if you want to sample the beer it is $7. For your money they provide you with a very nice 8oz tasting glass and three wooden tokens for samples. They open at 11am and when we arrived about 11:30am the huge beer hall was jam packed (the website had warned us) and super LOUD. Did all these people come here to tour?

Saint Arnold Beer Hall

People brought in their personal larger sized Saint Arnold barware and bartenders often poured a bit more then the 8oz promised. Root Beer was free...and delicious. I questioned if all these people were using it as a cheap place to drink? At 11:30, we could not find two seats. I was rather surprised to see how many people had brought kids and babies (and even though I was raised in Las Vegas I do not consider it a family friendly venue either). Many people brought lunch/pizza/munchies/chess/cards as the website had suggested.  I wish we would have too, but there was no place to sit but on the floor anyway.

I have not been a big fan of Saint Arnold beer and I hoped somehow visiting the source would be different. Their best chance to impress me was their Stout, it lacked any complexity. I took the noon tour as my wonderful husband escaped to the van for a nap. The young women leading the tour did a fabulous job and all the staff members were super friendly. I was thrilled to see the brewmaster tossing hops into the batch of IPA and having my picture taken next to the tie-dye Rolls Royce, they were absolutely the highlights here.

My kinda ride

See those beautiful kettles

My friend Heather lived in Texas most of her life and had never visited the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas! I learned of this terrible oversight shortly after she relocated to Minnesota and insisted we journey to Texas Beer Mecca for a tour on one of her upcoming visits. So what better way to spend a day of her birthday week visiting the place "every drop of Shiner Beer is made"? They have a really nice tasting room and an extensive gift shop.  Tours are free and come with three wooden tokens good for small tastes (I think it was about a six oz plastic glass).  My one complaint was they do not allow pictures.  The area around Shiner is a wonderful place to visit and we topped off the day visiting some of the area's beautiful Painted Churches.

When I moved from Michigan in November 2005 I had to leave behind my beloved Bell's Porter. Shortly thereafter Shiner Bock became my "go to" beer.  Shiner Bock is Texas beer...hands down. Bock is Spoetzl's primary beer.  I also enjoy their 97 Bohemian Black Lager and a couple of their small batches-Alt and Kosmos Reserve.  Unfortunately the small batches can only be acquired by buying a "Family Reunion" 6-pack which also includes one each of Bock, Blonde, Black and Hefeweizen.  They will switch out the Alt with something else down the line.  I asked during our visit and they are just small batches and have no future plans to market them in 6-packs. The variety pack is their marketing gimmick, so check the 6 beers before you buy, I have encountered 6-packs that were switched out and the Kosmos has always one of the missing.  They also produce a numbered anniversary beer coinciding with the number of years they have been brewing.  This year is number 102, a double wheat, I did not care for, but I loved the (97) Black and it was so popular they made it a regular.


Twenty nine days after Thirsty Planet, I stopped at Freetail Brewing on the northside of San Antonio on a Sunday evening.  I had been at an event for most of the day and was looking forward to a relaxing dinner and samples of the dark beers I had read about on their website. I like to sit at the bar, especially when I am alone like this time. Staff let me sit, apologized, then forgot me again without beer! Did she think I wouldn't notice the guy that walked up and got immediate service when I waited...and waited...and waited??

I ordered a beer sampler and was really looking forward to trying some of their dark small batches. They were out of three I wanted to try including the Lucinda Obscura (the black IPA) that I specifically wanted to taste. Maybe they should pay more attention to their website content. The Ancho Oscuro was flat and I do not like chili beer.  Of the five I tried the brown hbb660 was tolerable.

The food was terrible too. The Rueben panini was awful. They used a fake tasteless corned beef, perfectly round, like Oscar Mayer DeliFresh. The fruit salad they gave me was several days old and on the verge of spoiling. Price: $9, come on! There aren't many beers or breweries that I haven't liked, but this one rose right to the top. Bad service, short beer supply, awful food=I won't be returning!

Three out of five breweries were great, and the "not-so-great" two made the three great ones even better.  I may be a little bit of a beer snob, but hey, life is too short not to drink good beer. What I really need is to plan a hike to the top of Enchanted Rock so I can visit my very first Texas brewery-Fredericksburg Brewing Company for the umpteenth time ;)

Cheers!!

Finding "Lost Maples" in Texas (#44)

What Midwestern girl would not be intrigued by the thought of finding "lost maples" ablaze with color in Texas Hill Country? The bigtooth maple is the tree that most closely promises some of the same vibrant fall color of Michigan's glorious sugar maples. Prime time for experiencing fall color in the Texas Hill Country usually occurs near the beginning to middle of November. To commemorate my birthday we took advantage of the long Veteran's Day weekend this year and reserved a campsite at Garner State Park and headed southwest for a hiking filled weekend.

We decided to take the road a little less traveled and letterbox our way to Garner State Park. The direct route would be about three and a half hours, but there were just so many places we needed to see and food to savor! We packed up first thing Friday morning and headed up SH71 to US281 and stopped at Spicewood General Store for one of the best breakfast tacos (a central Texas food phenomena) I've ever tasted. The steam table had more that ten different items to choose from like carne guisado, charrizo, sauteed green peppers and onions besides the basic eggs, potatoes and cooked ground bacon. I topped mine off with a pico de gillo and salsa; Phil had his with cheese, both cost $5. As of 2017 there are new owners and tacos just are not what they used to be.

Our next stop was Sisterdale, reputed to have been established by German "Freethinkers" in the mid-nineteenth century. We stopped at Sister Creek Winery located in a repurposed 1885 Cotton Gin. The winery offers several choices of red and white wines and tastings for a moderate fee. As we headed north of the town center, we saw the old schoolhouse and stopped to read the RTHL marker posted on the wall. Built in 1893 the schoolhouse was constructed with huge blocks of local limestone. We turned left to continue west on RM 473 and spotted a beautiful farmstead on the rise. The entrance gate was marked Siedensticker-1855.

We continued moving southwest towards Bandera, the Cowboy Capital on scenic backroads. We made a quick stop at Camp Verde, site of U.S. War Department's 1857-69 camel experiment run by Jefferson Davis. Today all that remains is the quaint general store, in continuous business since 1857. The highly remodeled two story building holds a cafe and the mercantile store selling specialty food, gifts and a whole room devoted to modern penny candy.

After stopping in Bandera for That Genghis Guy we headed for Tarpley to have lunch at Mac and;Ernie's Roadside Eatery. Featured on the Premier episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, we asked an owner how they were picked and she shared that Guy Fieri's veterinarian hadrecommended the place to him! The place has become so popular they had to expand, but they used the old kitchen for the entry so old customers can still recognize the place. We enjoyed the recommended Cabrito Burger and French Fries, which were cooked perfectly. The eatery is only open Friday-Sunday, but it is well worth rescheduling the day and the route you take to visit this beautiful area. The lunch menu is almost exclusively limited to burgers, including an Axis (deer) burger, but dinner and Sunday are filled with gourmet faire and if you bring your own vodka they will make you a pitcher or two of some awesome Bloody Mary mix to go with your breakfast.


We soon realized that Texas does offer nice fall color in some areas. I do prefer reds and oranges. and this area has a fair amount of bigtooth maple, sycamore, red oak and persimmon. We arrived at Garner State Pair in the late afternoon and snagged a great campsite (#468) in Rio Frio; part of the new "water only" section. This site is located close to the shower building and had good tree cover to set up our tarp roof. The rest of the day was devoted to relaxing and walking along the Rio Frio and resting up for our search of the elusive lost Maples.


After a leisurely morning we headed east to Utopia and north to Lost Maples State Natural Area. We arrived around 10am to find a short lineup waiting to get into the park and one nasty policeman screaming and shaking his fingers at the cars....give this guy a chill pill, we are here to experience nature folks! Once inside the park we continued with lines...lines to park, lines to go in to get a tag (glad I am a Park Pass holder), another line to park. In defense of the park we were here peak fall color on the Saturday of a long Veteran's Day weekend. And for the amount of lines we really did not wait too terribly wrong...it just all seemed contra to being in a State Natural Area.

We parked in the first lot on the west and headed up the East Trail. We soon met what State Natural Area really meant...steep uphills with large, loose chunky gravel the size of golfballs. This 4.6 mile trail should not be attempted with flip-flops or kitten heels, yes we saw both, in fact I highly recommend good hiking shoes or boots that offer plenty of ankle support. The view from the top is well worth the effort it takes to get to get there!! We had packed a lunch and found a nice ledge to sit on and enjoy the view of the valley below. After finishing the trail with a thousand new friends, we headed out of the park and the mile long line of cars still waiting to get into the park at 3:30pm. I sure hope they don't think they can hike the East Trail before it gets dark.

On to Leakey for an early dinner at one of Texas Monthly's 40 Best Small Town Cafes. We arrived an hour before the Leakey Feed Lot reopened for dinner so we headed up to the scenic overlook (now closed) north of town on US 87 and enjoyed a Shiner Bock we had stashed in the cooler. This funky little cafe has varied hours that change with the season so I highly recommend checking their website link before you go. The article recommended the chicken fried rib eye, but all I could think was-Why ruin a perfectly good steak? So I had the rib eye sans the chicken fried with a side of bacon green beans and salad. My meal was delicious and my medium rare steak was cooked to perfection. Unfortunately Phil's chopped steak was overcooked to shoe leather and they served it on Styrofoam plates...I guess they don't want or have a dishwasher. To top it all off they brought the very tasty salads with croutons and cheese with our dinner, no mistake just the SOP. If I were to go again, which I might-the staff and owner were friendly and we loved the funky cafe decor-I would go for the food more appropriate to Styrofoam and have a beer. Another 40 Best nearby was Hicks House and Bakery east of Utopia on Lee Street in an old renovated house, next time will be a must stop.

We savored one last night around the fire. Sunday morning we broke camp at a leisurely pace, enjoying breakfast, hiking along the Rio Frio and plotting one last hike and the route back to Austin. We were glad we had chosen Garner over Lost Maples to camp. Lost Maples very limited campsites were out in the open and everyone using the trails had to pass by. Lost Maples would be fine for someone who had a recreation vehicle, but we like the peace and quiet without listening to generators running all night. We also liked the newer Rio Frio section of Garner because of the mature trees we like for setting up a tarp roof.

Our last hike was in the older section of Garner, south of our site. We took the trail to Crystal Cave (make sure to pick up a Hiking Trail Map on you way into the park). This trail is reminiscent of the East Trail from yesterday. Up,up,up we hiked over the same golfball sized gravel (did they import this stuff?). We climbed more than 1200 feet in elevation over a short 0.37 mile trail. Never so happy to see a cave entrance sign, we ventured into the small cave to see the crystals. Without a flashlight and feeling a little foolish (it did say crystal now didn't it?), we made due with the light from my camera and Phil's lighter. It was worth the effort to get there and next time we will bring our flashlight! Just before heading back down the boulder strewn trail we grabbed Baby Bear's Extreme letterbox Oh Crap, That Was Today. After all, I had made it this far, why not scramble up the hill another 20 feet...and as it turned out it was a super cute carving.

Leaving Garner we turned east to Utopia then north up RR187 past Lost Maples to SH 39 and headed easterly again. The road to Hunt weaves back and forth crossing the Guadalupe River numerous times. We rounded a curve to see several horses down in the river seeking a little refreshment. We stopped to take pictures and continued on our way. At Hunt we turned left to go to the old Stonehenge and Easter Island heads location. I had heard rumor they wanted to relocate the 7/8 size replica, but Phil had never seen it so I thought it was worth checking. The old field was empty, but a sign directed us to its new home just down the road in Ingram at the Point Theater.

Stonehenge and the Island Heads seemed happy in their new home and it was now time we headed to our old home. But I could not resist going through Fredericksburg and making one last stop at my favorite Texas brewpub for a light dinner and a few delicious brews. Fredericksburg Brewing Company is located downtown on Main Street smack dab in the middle of town and offers several staple beers like Not So Dumb Blonde, Enchanted Rock Red Ale, or Pioneer Porter. They also brew specialty batches and had a Fitztown Brown-their seasonal hoppy porter with a creamy head, this is a great transitional beer as we move into the colder winter months here in Texas. A perfect finish to the fantastic long weekend.

South Dakota (#40) - Great Faces, Great Places

This was my second visit to this beautiful state and the west side is (in my book) hands down...the best side! My first visit was in 2000 with my mom and two sons. Phil stayed home and paid for the trip while the four of us took mom back to Vegas for a visit. That trip we went via all the National Parks we could fit in on a one month trip there and back. While that trip is most cherished and memorable, I have the digital pictures from this trip and it was close to being just as awesome...only this time I was alone...and enjoying some much needed me time.

My trips primary purpose was to get to North Dakota, but I was not about to miss another opportunity to visit the Black Hills area. I entered the state from Nebraska following US385 on the west side of the state. Just before I turned to continue on to Hot Springs I saw a sign for a microbrewery in Rapid City so I decided that was my destination for the evening and I was going to stay in a motel to boot. Hot Springs on the south end of the Black Hills would have been another good choice to stop and take advantage of the springs and numerous spas up on the bluffs...next time. The nineteenth century town had an amazing amount of its original limestone architecture. I stopped momentarily before heading off to Mount Rushmore via Custer State Park.

Custer State Park is undoubtedly one of the great wildlife viewing parks I have had the pleasure of visiting. Within a few miles of entering the park I saw: bison, prairie dogs, coyote, elk, mule deer, antelope and mountain goats...oh and a few black squirrels too. I went into animal overload and took about a third of all the pictures I took the whole trip. I went past the beautiful State Game Lodge and just before leaving the park I happened upon the spot where Austin & Jacob (then 10 & 7) fed the "wild burros." it was there that a lovely women went around sticking carrots in the hands of all the kids who were stopped there. To this day that "wild burro" incident is one of the boys most favorite vacation moments...even though we broke the law!

Snaking my way up 16A to the Peter Norbeck Overlook from south to north is the better route choice. Going this direction allows a surprise first peek of presidents as you drive into one of the three tunnels along this stretch of road. Mount Rushmore is perfectly framed within the tunnel and I wondered just how they figured it so precisely. I reached the overlook and this time had the place all to myself. I also savored the lack of traffic on this last day of April, because it allowed me to just stop virtually anywhere and take pictures, including the interesting pig tail bridges.

I reached Mount Rushmore at 5pm and they had quit taking the $10 parking fee at the gate for lack of patrons!! I walked through the Avenue of Flags and found both Michigan and Texas flags. On to the observation area, except this time I was no alone. It appeared I was amongst several Amish people, until they asked me to take there picture, I decided they must be Mennonite. I asked them to reciprocate by taking my picture and they shared they were from Alberta, Canada and wanted their picture taken with my presidents. I told them to return in a couple years to see Obama added to the end. Not thinking I was that funny they nearly rolled on the ground with laughter. I spent way too much money in their, oh so neat, gift shop and headed for Rapid City.

Beer was calling my name! I quickly secured a motel room and headed straight to the Firehouse Brewing Company. This microbrewery is located in a beautifully refurbished two story firehouse from the early twentieth century. This was my dream at the end of grad school - renovate a historic building and start a microbrewery - I was like a pig in mud! My bartender informed me they ambitiously brewed more than 30 varieties of beer, but usually had 5 offerings available so I ordered up my usual sampler.

The building was used as a firehouse until 1991 when it underwent a stunning renovation to a restaurant. They had even hung some of the original antique fire fighting equipment from the ceiling. One of particular interest was the hand pump water tank were three people stood on each side as the pumpers worked to expel water from the tank. My Yellowfin Tuna was masterfully cooked and both Porter and Stout were super yummy. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

CHEERS!