13 May 2018
I have no idea why, but I got very little sleep last night. I kept tossing and turning and eventually dozing and then awakening. Even the short time of sleep I had strange dreams. In one, I was fly fishing. I haven’t fly fished in over 30 years!
Actually, I may know why. I have been worried about the Isle Royale trip. I have chartered a sea plane to fly me to Isle Royale and spend one night at Windingo, one of two harbors on the isle. My problem is there is no service there since it is out of season. Season begins at the end of May. I will have to spend one night in a campground and I was worried I would have to hike some 7 or 8 miles to a campground on a bum ankle. As it turns out, at the Windingo visitor center, there is a campground 0.3 miles away with 10 shelters and 5 tent spaces, so I should be fine. That way, I can day hike around the area without any problem. It’s a big relief!
In any case, I was out of the Great Sand Dunes lodge and on the road at 6:15 am. It was an 11 hour drive to Rapid City, S.D. for one night before I head to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. It should be around a 6 hour drive tomorrow.
To keep myself awake on the trip, I have on my phone a “Road Trip” compilation of music on ITunes. I put that on and pretty much sang along with all the songs as they played. Embarrassingly, I knew the words to most of the songs. They were oldies but goodies like “Save the Last Dance for Me”, “Blue Velvet” with Bobby Vinton, several The Platters’ songs, etc.
I’m staying at the historic Alex Johnson Hotel in downtown Rapid City. Four years ago, Michel planned a trip for Nancy and me to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, and Custer State Park. She asked where we might wish to stay in Rapid City and I said I preferred historic hotels to the modern ones. She found Hotel Alex Johnson. We loved it.
Construction on the hotel began in 1927, the same year that construction began on Mount Rushmore. I think Johnson was planning on the tourist trade even then.
It’s famous for the people who have stayed at the hotel, including Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Regan, Henry Fonda, Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant (when filming North by NorthwestI) Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and many others.
My room, the first time, was the secret service room for the Presidential Suite. Michel really knows how to pick them!
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Our favorite spot was the Vertex bar on the rooftop. We would adjourn for cocktails at 5 pm and eat our way through the free bar food and appetizers. Michel had a fondness for Moscow Mules and Nancy and I had our usual martinis. The waiters and waitresses were usually students at South Dakota Mechanical and Technical College and we found they were all engineering majors.
After I dumped my luggage in room 624, I headed to the Vertex for martinis and their free buffet and then I ordered one appetizer for dinner. I love this place. It overlooks the city of Rapid City. When we were last here, we all agreed this would be a great place to live. The natives did not disabuse us of this point of view. They all loved the place. Even snowfall is pretty rare in this area.
By the way, when we last stayed here four years ago, the place was showing its age. It has since been taken over by Hilton and the place is now posh. My room is one of the nicer rooms I’ve had at a Hilton.
The lobby hasn’t changed. The main chandelier in the lobby is interesting, particularly when you look closely. Most of the hotel has first people’s decor (that’s a Canadian term for native Indian tribes) and the chandelier is no exception. Some people immediately become irate when they see what seems to be Nazi swastika. It’s actually a native symbol symbolizing the four corners of the earth and has been around for eons before Hitler.
I intend to rise late tomorrow, have a late breakfast and a leisurely drive to TRNP. I hope the two martinis help me sleep tonight!
