Rapid City, South Dakota Trip

“No matter how much you move or travel, the heart will always recognize when it’s truly home.”

~Hannah Morris

@hmorris1997 freespiritedtraveler.travel.blog

July 20-28, 2020

Even though its been a rough summer because of COVID-19, I still got the chance to go on one amazing summer trip this year! Originally, I was born in Rapid City, South Dakota but I haven’t been back there in 19 years and both of my parents have constantly told me that I need to go back and see my birth state one day. Well July 21, 2020 became that day. Of course my trip wasn’t only a day long, it was about a week long. Definitely one of the best weeks in my life! I officially arrived in Rapid City late on July 20th so all that happened this day was my mom and I were picked up from the airport by my dad, he drove us back to his house and then we all crashed for the night because we were all tired and it was already midnight by the time we arrived. The next day is when I officially began to re-experience what South Dakota has to offer.

On July 21 I got to sleep in late which was great since I wasn’t able to for awhile because I had a summer job shortly before my trip. After, I got up my parents took me on a fun day of sight seeing! We drove all around Rapid City! I got to see lots of prairie, forest, the house my parents lived in before I was born, the house I spent my first 3 years of life in, I saw lots of different parks, a place called Storybook Island, a lake, and a famous church which was very old-fashioned called the Norwegian Stavkirke. The texture of the church was so unique and I even got to peek inside it to see how small and tightly crammed it was in there. A fun fact is that today, the church is still used for occasional church services and even some of the smaller weddings! After Sightseeing, my parents took me to a fun restaurant for dinner called Buffalo Wings & Rings. After dinner we went back to my dad’s house and just relaxed the rest of the night.

The next day, My parents drove me out to a different town in South Dakota called Deadwood. Deadwood is a famous old western, gambling town that birthed some famous western legends like Wild Bill Hickok, Sitting Bull, and Seth Bullock, to name a few. Another fun fact, Deadwood is one of the most haunted towns in the US and is also known as The City of Ghosts. My parents brought me out here because of how historic it is and also because I really wanted to explore the old western, gambling town. While visiting Deadwood, we walked up and down each side of the street, we had a few drinks in some of the famous saloons that line the street, we roamed around The Celebrity Hotel checking out all of its fun exhibits displaying things that belonged to celebrities and props from movies, we went into a few shops, and we watched a reenactment of Wild Bill’s murder in the street of Deadwood as well. After we finished spending the day in Deadwood we stopped to have dinner at another restaurant in a different town called Sturgis. This restaurant was called Loud American Roadhouse and we stopped there so I could see downtown Sturgis and plus, it was on the way back to Rapid City too.

July 23rd was a day for relaxing because my dad had to work. My mom and I decided we could use a relaxing, laid back day together without my dad, so we went and rented a few movies from Redbox and then made chocolate chip cookies and ate a lot of other good food at home while we watched the movies we rented. When my dad got home, we had dinner, drank a little, talked, laughed and then headed off to bed. The next day was another day filled with some adventure.

On July 24th, because my dad had to work again, my mom took me to walk through Storybook Island. Storybook Island is a park filled with fun play equipment for kids aged 3-12 that were all fairy tale themed. There was play equipment from almost every fairy tale you could imagine; Cinderella, the three little pigs, Winnie the pooh, Jack and the bean stock, etc. My mom took me to walk through here because she wanted me to see it since she took me there all the time when I was a kid, because a park filled with fairy tale themed play equipment that was completely free to get into is one of the most magical and fun places for a child to play and make friends in Rapid City. The park even played music from all sorts of Disney and fairy tale movies. Even though, I obviously couldn’t play on any of the equipment, it was still a lot of fun to walk through and take iconic photos at this park that my mom took me to all the time when I was a child. After Storybook Island, my mom took me to downtown Rapid City to actually walk around, shop a little, and have a nice lunch with her. The cool thing about downtown Rapid City, South Dakota is that on every street corner there is a statue of every president of the United States. While downtown, my mom took me to eat lunch at her favorite restaurant in rapid City called Firehouse Brewing Company. This place was really cool because it was created inside of what used to be an old-fashioned fire-station. The food here was absolutely amazing too! That about sums up that day I spent in Rapid City.

On July 25th, my parents drove me back out to Deadwood because we were going to the Days of 76 Rodeo, a famous rodeo hosted in Deadwood each year. I was really excited for this, in particular, because it was my first rodeo and for the longest time, I’ve always wanted to go to one! The rodeo was highly entertaining! The rodeo had been going on all week long but that Saturday was the finals, so the real competition took place then. The main events they had included; Steer Wrestling, Bull Riding, Bare-back Buck Riding, Western Saddle Buck Riding, Roping, Barrel Racing, and Team Roping. Each event had a certain number of finalists and they each were battling it out for first place in each event. The audience was so fun too! Everyone was singing along to songs like We Will Rock You by Queen and so many other songs that were a mix of country and rock music and cheering on their favorite cowboys participating in the rodeo. The rodeo clown also added to the humorous entertainment at the rodeo. For example, he talked about how he met a woman in the audience who was an ice skating choreographer and she told him that rodeo clowns and cowboys could never be ice skating dancers because she believed they didn’t have what it takes or the coordination needed for it. The rodeo clown proved her wrong during a break between events by getting one of the cowboys participating in the rodeo to do a ice skating dance routine they made up, themselves. He and the cowboy even had skimpy, matching outfits similar to what ice skating dancers wore underneath their clothing that they wore. After they changed they started jumping, skipping, and dancing around the dirt rodeo arena to dainty music. It was hilarious and probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen! This was, by far my favorite day spent during my South Dakota trip!

July 26th ended up being another relaxing day. My dad was home but it was a Sunday and the day after the rodeo, which kind of wore us out, so we just relaxed at my dad’s house. We slept in, watched some other movies, talked and my mom and I went for a little walk around my dad’s neighborhood just enjoying the gorgeous weather and the beautiful greenery around us. In the evening, after dinner, my dad drove us out to Mount Rushmore to watch their nightly lighting ceremony. He drove me out there because, of course, I had to see Mt. Rushmore up close while visiting South Dakota. At the lighting ceremony they talked a little about the history of the United States and the amazing accomplishments of the presidents whose faces are carved into Mt. Rushmore and then they lit up the mountain with lights they have up on the mountain and around it to give a great display of it for pictures and for people to just admire. After that, we just headed back to my dad’s and headed off to bed.

The next day, July 27th, my dad had work again, so my mom decided to take me on a drive through Custer State Park. Custer State Park is a famous state park of South Dakota. People drive through it, mostly looking for Buffalo. Custer State Park has a heard of over a hundred Buffalo that live there that still roam so wild and free. Sometimes its actually hard to come across the heard of Buffalo but my mom and I were lucky and drove through at the right time. The buffalo were crossing the street in front of us and some were on the side of the road in a watering hole. They ended up going down into a little valley and there was actually a dirt road that cut through it too, so we drove along it and stopped behind all the other cars as well and we were literally in the middle of the heard; on each side of the vehicle there were buffalo everywhere even babies! it was quite a sight to see! After the buffalo encounter we continued driving through Custer state park and stopped at some other spots a long the way that had really amazing views. We even drove through some really cool but narrow, natural caves! After, my mom and I just headed home to enjoy a relaxing evening.

July 28th, the last day of my trip, my mom and I drove out to another town in South Dakota called Hill City. We drove out here because it is another historic town and plus, it has a restaurant that my mom also loves that she wanted to take me to for a nice lunch. This restaurant is called Alpine Inn. Back in the olden days, Hill City became a popular settlement area for people who rushed out to South Dakota during the gold rush because gold was found here as well. Alpine Inn became the main hotel that these prospectors settled into while they hunted for gold. Today, the Alpine Inn is still a popular hotel people stay at when they visit Hill City but it has also been converted into a restaurant that is German themed. All the servers are dressed in old-fashioned German outfits and they serve really good, genuine German food there as well. after a nice lunch, we walked around downtown Hill city a little bit, checked out a few stores, and my mom even bought me a really cool souvenir, a necklace made of special gold only found in the Black hills of South Dakota. This gold is called Black Hills Gold. Its unique because it is actually tri-colored gold. If you were to see the necklace, it looks like it is made of gold, copper and silver but it is all actually gold. I thought this was a great souvenir to get because then when I wore it, I took a little piece of where I was born with me wherever I went. After Hill City, we went back to my dad’s to pack up everything because our flight back to Phoenix, AZ left at 10:00 p.m that night.

That was my whole trip back to my birth state and it was one of the trips I’ve gone on that I loved so much! After visiting my birth state for the first time in 19 years, I got so much more clarity on why I am the way I am because I finally, really understood my roots. I honestly didn’t even want to leave! For the first time in my life, in such a short amount of time, I felt ecstatic and as if I was truly home here in Rapid City.