Today is “explore downtown Rapid City” day. We’ll need our strength. Good thing the chuck wagon chef brought his game on this trip and is wearing his food fancy pants today. If he makes something for me that isn’t vegetarian, at least it has bacon!
This camp ground has a pool, and that means that before we go anywhere, that pool needs to be tested out. One kid didn’t listen well when told to get out of the pool yesterday, and so he has to sit out the pool testing this time.
He kept yelling things like, “The shovel has a snake on it!” and “The lady has a cup on her shoe!”
The kid’s tent looks way more fun that our tent. They have glow-in-the-dark blankets, sparkles blankets, zebra blankets, cute stuffier, fireworks, and picture search books in their tent. We have a mattress, 2 boring blankets, and lots of work gear. Yawn. We need a tent disco ball, at least!
The kids came back wet and happy. “There are kids in the pool, and we made friends,” they said. Ah, camp friends. We have made many camp friends this trip. Camp friends are such a kid phenomena. I’m thinking that we stodgy adults need to get in on this trend.
Stop telling me that this town is cute. I’m still grumpy from having to leave Brookings.
As we drove into town, I was looking at the Rapid City crime statistics. Pretty grim. It turns out that Rapid City has a much higher crime compared to Escondido! Really? Escondido, home to gangs, extreme poverty, homeless pooping on the sidewalks, sex trafficking…really? Rapid City has higher crime? Huh. Something to call the Rapid City PD to discuss at a later time.
I was just reading the crime statistics to Brandon when a police car came speeding down the street, siren and lights blasting our sense, and he slammed to a halt not half a block from us, pulled out his gun, and captured…someone…wow. Ok, so maybe that was just a fluke. Surely it’s not that bad.
We chalked that up to coincidence, and parked to walk around. This place does have the cute factor. However, it’s a big city, and people are not as friendly here as in Brookings. There is a lot of signage letting people know what they can and cannot do. Don’t touch this. Walk here. Don’t do that. This is what a city may need to keep everyone in line. A smaller town has people who simply say what they expect.
There are toy stores on several blocks in downtown Rapid City. It seems that Who’s is the big name here. Their hobby shop had everything Judah and Atticus would ever want, including remote controlled cars and drones, and toys for their brains to feed on, as well as toys for them to annoy their sisters with. We took pictures of their favorites so that we could remember these when birthdays come around.
We ate at a downtown cafe that used digital menus, and the waitress was pleasant, but treated the job as a job. Fair enough. It is a job. She I did the job well.
In a small town, the job appears a bit incidental to the social experience. You’ll get to buy the thing you came for, but you’ll also get a conversation and make a friend. there is something very attractive about that lifestyle.
A quaint town goes from boring to delightful when there are interesting touches here and there. In Rapid City, one encounters the presidents of the United States on every street corner. It adds to the patriotic vibe here, and the kids enjoyed stopping at each one to read who it was and what the plaque said about each. Atticus was thrilled to FINALLY come across George Washington. “He’s my favorite. you know why?” “Because he has your name?” “No, because his name is George.” Oh, my mistake. He has your middle name. Silly Atticus George! If we move here, this will forever be his favorite place in town! Look how he even tried to stand like old George W!
Another interesting touch is the parks in this town. No two parks are even remotely similar. Now, no kid is complaining that all the parks back home in Escondido all have nearly the same play structures and look. A kid plays and doesn’t notice such things. However, there is something very important about variation. This is the park with the splash pad. Across the grass is another Who’s toy store, this owe with a patio featuring an enormous chess set and toddler playground. The train tracks next to the parking structure are heavily traveled, and the trains loud in all ways. There were signs telling kids not to climb on the rocks, but otherwise, kids were free to run and play. No helicopter moms in sight. No city employees lurking around waiting to yell at kids for having fun. The kids at the park, siblings and strangers alike, played together and looked after one another.
The people we have encountered in this state are something to be desired.
Tonight there was freshly-made beef stew at the church wagon. We are going to keep this chef around for a while!
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