Sun, Warmth, Turkeys and the Norris'

Ahh yes, sunshine ...again! The rain left us yesterday after about 4-1/2 inches over almost four days, so the sun is a very welcome sight to us once again. And as a bonus we get warmer temps too. But as I have mentioned before the emerald green is very awe-inspiring to see.

Well, our dear friends, Ralph and Tammy left us today, as they needed to continue heading east so as to meet their schedule for Ralph's class reunion for his high school over in Iowa. It was great having them stop in and visit, and we enjoyed the time we got to spend with them during their short stay here. We had dinner at one of our local favorites here in Rapid City, Stanford's Grub & Pub is truly a unique place with tons and tons of memorabilia and artifacts throughout, along with 211 various televisions all over the place even in the ceiling, and about every other place in between. It is located in large, former old brick warehouse. It was started about 12 years ago by three graduating college guys attending Black Hills State University in Spearfish. There are now ten of these Sanford's located in 10 cities in South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota and Colorado. They provide a great atmosphere as well as excellent food and good service in the numerous times that we have had the pleasure to visit their interesting restaurants.

Yes, we all left with our 'take-home boxes' which contained about as much as what we had already eaten. It was great having the opportunity to "break some bread" with Ralph and Tammy, and sitting around and talking 'story' with them. We wish them a continued safe trip.

We went to one of our favorite local breakfast places in Rapid, the Cambell Street Café'. They provide an ample breakfast cooked in the old country style and served with a big smile.

Went over to our "home" and picked up our mail; a fast stop at Wally-World; and then by the library and for Marilyn, "Mona Lisa's on Main" a neat little boutique that has all that feminine 'fu-fu' stuff that women seem to love. Then it was back to our portable castle to take care of a few odds and ends around the coach.

We noticed that there appears to be more and more RV's coming into the area and many of the RV parks and resorts. Summer must be here and now many of the families are headed out on vacations, and of course the 'snowbirds' are shifting further north for a more enjoyable summer. Some of the RV parks a month ago had like 4 or 5 units, and today those same parks have probably a good 25 to 30 units, which is representative of the increase. We see more out of state plates now also (a lot of them I may add), with the adjoining states of Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska having the majority of those visitor plates, but also there are those from Colorado, Texas, California, Arizona, Iowa, Florida, Pennsylvania and a sprinkling of others. I am sure that those out-of-state visitors will continue to increase until mid-summer anyhow.

Like I said, it has been an absolutely beautiful day with lots of sun, and warmer temps in the upper-70F's which is such a relief after days of rain. Now, I just hope that this will hand in there for a while. According to the forecasters, it should. But then with the weather, and especially the weather in the Dakota's, you just can never be real sure. Keeping our fingers crossed...