I am working at the golf course right now. I did all the cleaning, stocking and food preparation earlier today so now I’m just taking it easy serving up the occasional hot dog and Bud Light. We got these new cheddar dogs that are brats with cheese in them. The squirrelly things came all strung together like Schmeckfest sausage or those old school brats that you always see dogs stealing from butchers. After I took them apart I put them on the hot dog rollers and they did not lie down straight so part of them took a really long time to cook. Trent said they tasted good, though. Cheddar dogs … what a great idea. You know what they should do? Make hot dogs that have ketchup, pickles, mustard, relish, onions, and cheese mixed in with the meat. I bet that would be good.
I wish something exciting would have happened at the course, but the day has been pretty standard. I guess that I could report that someone called in looking for a lost 9 iron. I have no idea what a 9 iron looks like so I had to go back and look through all 40 or so clubs in the lost and found to see if his was there. Yeah, it wasn’t, but boy do we have a lot of clubs in the lost and found.
Something that I learned this summer working at the golf course is that golfing is an expensive hobby.There is no way I could golf occasionally on my Museum Interpreter salary. For one person green fees and cart rental is $35.50 at Rocky Run. I think I will stick to running and kick ball for my sport fixes.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Thursday, August 25, 2005
The Hayloft
Last night the Schrag side of the family had one last meal together before the college students in the family left for another year of school. The Hayloft was the restaurant of choice. It is a very small cafe on Hwy 42 a couple miles south of Canistota which is 30 minutes west of Sioux Falls. The first quirky thing about The Hayloft is that there is nothing else around it. At first I was not even sure we were in the right place. Jeremy and I came from Sioux Falls and planned on meeting everyone else there at 6:30. We got there just a bit late and I did not recogize any of the cars so I went inside to ask the name of the restaurant. All the locals eating curiously looked up at me and some lady said, "Are you in the right place?" She told me it was The Hayloft and I said thanks and went back outside so those people would stop staring at me.
Soon the other Schrags arrived and we all went inside. The second quirky thing about The Hayloft were the table settings. All the dishes and cups were different. Everyone was recognizing CorelleWare they had eaten on before.
The third quirky thing was the decor. There were probably hundreds of plates adorning all four walls in the cafe. They reminded me of the plates my Grandpa Hoppe used to collect, except he put his in vaults and cupboards where no one could see them. There was a poster with Tom Daschle's photo on it thanking him for 27 years of service. That ubiquitos picture of the two farm kids in coveralls kicking the dirt was also hanging up. A picture of the Austin wrestling team with their shirts off was resting on a shelf. Austin, MN? Avon products were loaded up on shelves by the bathroom. Were those for sale?
The food was very reasonalby priced and decent. My steak was not the best I had ever had, but the salad bar was great. Those deviled eggs ... mmmm. I had to laugh when Nathan's gravy for his chicken fried steak came in a serving bowl. They must not have had anything smaller. Throughout the meal I noticed there was a lot of random food around that no one ordered, but they just gave to us. In the beginning an employee brought out a tray of carmel rolls. Several jars of Tootsie rolls were already on the table to snack on. Finally, just before we left another employee/owner brought us some stale popcorm. Again, very quirky.
I liked the strange little Hayloft cafe. I think I might go back again someday.
Soon the other Schrags arrived and we all went inside. The second quirky thing about The Hayloft were the table settings. All the dishes and cups were different. Everyone was recognizing CorelleWare they had eaten on before.
The third quirky thing was the decor. There were probably hundreds of plates adorning all four walls in the cafe. They reminded me of the plates my Grandpa Hoppe used to collect, except he put his in vaults and cupboards where no one could see them. There was a poster with Tom Daschle's photo on it thanking him for 27 years of service. That ubiquitos picture of the two farm kids in coveralls kicking the dirt was also hanging up. A picture of the Austin wrestling team with their shirts off was resting on a shelf. Austin, MN? Avon products were loaded up on shelves by the bathroom. Were those for sale?
The food was very reasonalby priced and decent. My steak was not the best I had ever had, but the salad bar was great. Those deviled eggs ... mmmm. I had to laugh when Nathan's gravy for his chicken fried steak came in a serving bowl. They must not have had anything smaller. Throughout the meal I noticed there was a lot of random food around that no one ordered, but they just gave to us. In the beginning an employee brought out a tray of carmel rolls. Several jars of Tootsie rolls were already on the table to snack on. Finally, just before we left another employee/owner brought us some stale popcorm. Again, very quirky.
I liked the strange little Hayloft cafe. I think I might go back again someday.
Tiny Homes
I was listening to NPR this morning on my way to work. What good radio - I always find myself learning so much about the world when I listen to Morning Edition and All Things Considered (on my way to and from work). And most of it is interesting stuff that is not usually covered by other media sources. It is hard for anyone to compete with the quality of Fox News, but I would still encourage everyone to check out their local public radio and TV stations, if you don't already.
Anyway ... so I was listening to Morning Edition and they were interviewing this guy who builds small homes. We are talking tiny tiny homes. Jay Shafer started buiding these small houses in 1997 and named his company, Tiny House Company, after his first house (Tumbleweed). He said his main goals were to cut down on home maintenance and minimize his impact on the environment. Shafer lives in a 70 sq. foot home amongst the Redwoods north of San Francisco, but he does make home up to 750 sq. feet. I just thought it was all very interesting.
Anyway ... so I was listening to Morning Edition and they were interviewing this guy who builds small homes. We are talking tiny tiny homes. Jay Shafer started buiding these small houses in 1997 and named his company, Tiny House Company, after his first house (Tumbleweed). He said his main goals were to cut down on home maintenance and minimize his impact on the environment. Shafer lives in a 70 sq. foot home amongst the Redwoods north of San Francisco, but he does make home up to 750 sq. feet. I just thought it was all very interesting.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Ode to Dorothy
This post goes out to my homie Dorothy Kaiser. A couple weeks ago the museum received some copies of the 2005 Traveler Magazine. This is a free tourist publication that highlights places of interest to visit, lodgings and restaurants, most of them in the Black Hills. As I picked up a copy of the Traveler last week I was instantly reminded of Keystone, Miner’s Motel, Dorothy and her love of one particular part of the Traveler Magazine.
I worked in Keystone, SD one summer between college and one season after I graduated where one of my jobs was working the front desk at Miner’s Motel. When I worked the evening shift Dorothy was most likely my companion.
She is from Sturgis, but during the work week she lives in a trailer attached to the back of Miner’s. Dorothy is about 80 years old. She is on the stout and on the shorter side. Dorothy used to be quite the smoker and now she has emphysema and has to use her inhaler quite a bit, even after just walking from her trailer in the back of the motel to the front desk. Dorothy drives around in a gray Dodge Caravan from the late 1980s with a Bear Country USA sticker on the back bumper.
She has short hair, except for one long thin braid dangling from her back lower right hairline. This braid is usually adorned with a variety of clips and barrettes. I loved it when Dorothy would quickly swing her head flinging the braid around to rest on the front of her shoulder just like someone who had a full head of long hair might fling his or her hair around.
Dorothy is also full of stories. I think some crazy things have happened to her, but I also think her storytelling abilities turn some of the more ordinary experiences she has had into epic adventures.
Dorothy used to tell me the reasons she like the Traveler so much were because 1) she liked looking for Miner’s Motel in the lodging listings under Keystone and 2) she enjoyed the Did You Know space-fillers interspersed between the ads and the area highlights. Many of the Did You Know facts were fuel for Dorothy’s stories. Here are just a few from the 2005 issue that I am sure Dorothy would find particularly interesting:
DID YOU KNOW
South Dakota’s state insect is the Honey Bee. Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.
Catfish have over 100,000 taste buds. South Dakota’s state Catfish record is 97 lbs. It was caught in 1959 and held the world record for over 40 years.
An Adult porcupine has approximately 30,000 quills, which are replaced every year.
The Crouch Line Railroad which ran up Rapid Canyon from Rapid city to Mystic from 1890 to 1947 would cross 110 bridges (about 4 bridges per mile), while bending and twisting its way through only 30 miles of the Black Hills, all the while negotiating turns and curves sharp enough to equal 14 complete circles. Passengers would often joke that the engineer could slap hands with people in the caboose as they passed.
In 1823, while hunting with the Ashley fur party, Hugh Glass was so terribly mauled by a grizzly bear that two members of the party were left behind to do what they could and to bury him when he died. Fearing for their own lives and believing his condition hopeless, they took his weapons and deserted him. Living off rain, wet tree moss, snakes, mice and bugs, Glass crawled for 3 months to make the 190 mile trek back to Fort Kiowa on the Missouri River to find the men who had left him. Today Glass is remembered in songs, books, a movie and a historical marker.
Deadwood’s Methodist Church was the first church ever visited by Calamity Jane. It was her own funeral.
Gold is so dense that a one ton cube would measure only 14.2 inches per side. A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court. The largest gold nugget ever found weighed 172 lbs., 13 oz.
I worked in Keystone, SD one summer between college and one season after I graduated where one of my jobs was working the front desk at Miner’s Motel. When I worked the evening shift Dorothy was most likely my companion.
She is from Sturgis, but during the work week she lives in a trailer attached to the back of Miner’s. Dorothy is about 80 years old. She is on the stout and on the shorter side. Dorothy used to be quite the smoker and now she has emphysema and has to use her inhaler quite a bit, even after just walking from her trailer in the back of the motel to the front desk. Dorothy drives around in a gray Dodge Caravan from the late 1980s with a Bear Country USA sticker on the back bumper.
She has short hair, except for one long thin braid dangling from her back lower right hairline. This braid is usually adorned with a variety of clips and barrettes. I loved it when Dorothy would quickly swing her head flinging the braid around to rest on the front of her shoulder just like someone who had a full head of long hair might fling his or her hair around.
Dorothy is also full of stories. I think some crazy things have happened to her, but I also think her storytelling abilities turn some of the more ordinary experiences she has had into epic adventures.
Dorothy used to tell me the reasons she like the Traveler so much were because 1) she liked looking for Miner’s Motel in the lodging listings under Keystone and 2) she enjoyed the Did You Know space-fillers interspersed between the ads and the area highlights. Many of the Did You Know facts were fuel for Dorothy’s stories. Here are just a few from the 2005 issue that I am sure Dorothy would find particularly interesting:
DID YOU KNOW
South Dakota’s state insect is the Honey Bee. Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.
Catfish have over 100,000 taste buds. South Dakota’s state Catfish record is 97 lbs. It was caught in 1959 and held the world record for over 40 years.
An Adult porcupine has approximately 30,000 quills, which are replaced every year.
The Crouch Line Railroad which ran up Rapid Canyon from Rapid city to Mystic from 1890 to 1947 would cross 110 bridges (about 4 bridges per mile), while bending and twisting its way through only 30 miles of the Black Hills, all the while negotiating turns and curves sharp enough to equal 14 complete circles. Passengers would often joke that the engineer could slap hands with people in the caboose as they passed.
In 1823, while hunting with the Ashley fur party, Hugh Glass was so terribly mauled by a grizzly bear that two members of the party were left behind to do what they could and to bury him when he died. Fearing for their own lives and believing his condition hopeless, they took his weapons and deserted him. Living off rain, wet tree moss, snakes, mice and bugs, Glass crawled for 3 months to make the 190 mile trek back to Fort Kiowa on the Missouri River to find the men who had left him. Today Glass is remembered in songs, books, a movie and a historical marker.
Deadwood’s Methodist Church was the first church ever visited by Calamity Jane. It was her own funeral.
Gold is so dense that a one ton cube would measure only 14.2 inches per side. A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court. The largest gold nugget ever found weighed 172 lbs., 13 oz.
Friday, August 05, 2005
The Key Saga
Get comfortable, this story is going to take a while. I don’t mean to sound dramatic (well, maybe I do), but I had quite a traumatic night on Wednesday. After my day at work and then kickball in the early evening I was in the mood to just be by myself, away from people. I decided I wanted to go for a run on the bike trail at the friendly Sertoma Park. Thunderstorms were looming and there was lightning in the west so I figured I better hurry to get my run in before the rain.
The run was very refreshing, but toward the end of it, as I was heading back to Sertoma Park the lightning and wind really started picking up. As I was nearing my car the rain came. I reached down to take my car key out of my shoe and … it was gone! Now, I have been intertwining my key in my shoelaces while I run for the past two years and have never lost it. Why then? Why such bad timing? I was standing in the pouring rain, right next to my car and I could not get in. Even if I found a phone somewhere and called a locksmith, once I got in my car I would not be able start it. All of the buildings at the park were closed by this time so I did not even know where to go or what to do. I felt so completely helpless.
The first thing that came to my mind was “you have to find that key.” I started walking back over the elevated trail (which included a bridge) in the middle of all the lightning and rain. It was probably not the safest move, but I was determined to find this key. As I walked along I realized I couldn’t see anything because of the rain and the clouds covering the sun so searching for my key was stupid at this point. I was also thoroughly drenched and cold. I ran another ¼ mile to where the Interstate crosses the trail and sat under the bridge on some Red Sioux Quartzite rocks. I was so depressed. I started sobbing.
After about ten minutes I decided I wanted to keep looking for the car key. The rain let up for a moment and I started searching along the trail again. I walked about another ¼ mile and then it began to rain pretty hard. The next overpass was a couple hundred feet away so I ran to it and sat under there for twenty minutes. Thoughts like “you are never going to find your key,” “you are going to die out here” and “lions and raccoons are going to eat you” kept running through my mind (even though I knew I probably would not really die or be eaten alive). It was right at this point, when I was so hopeless, that a lady came running along the trail right by me. She stopped to ask if I was okay and I told her my story. She said she, or maybe it was someone she knew, lost his/her car key and did not have a spare. A dealership made a new one and it only cost $30. This made me feel a lot better. I knew if the key did not turn up and I could make it home somehow I could call a dealership the next morning and get a new key made.
Right after she left the rain subsided and what was left of the sun at 9:00 pm peeked through the departing clouds. A cold front came through with the storm and I was still wet so I was pretty cold just sitting under the overpass. I decided to walk the rest of the distance I ran along the trail earlier in the night to see if I could find my key. If I could not find it after that I would wait until tomorrow morning and call a dealership.
Because of the large amount of rain the trail was flooded in parts. This made looking for the key a bit tricky, but I walked down the entire trail I had run on before and still could not find my key. Turning around I walked back, still searching, awhile longer. I cut across the river and started walking along 57th St. to a gas station. 57th St. is a road with a lot of new developments on it so it does not have always have sidewalks. In fact, the part I was walking along was very muddy because there was no grass planted yet. After I maneuvered the deep mud, there was very steep ditch. I was hanging on for dear life to these metal ropes that ran along the road while trying to pull myself along toward the gas station. What terrible luck.
Finally, I reached the gas station and I tried to think of some people I knew who might give me a ride home. The four phone numbers I could remember that I tried all went to voice mail. I left messages and waited at the gas station for about ten minutes, but no one returned my calls. I knew my best option was to walk home. The gas station attendant said she would tell anyone who called back that I started walking home along 57th St.
When I got home 30 minutes later Dawn and Kellie were there so they let me in. I borrowed Kellie’s car and drove it to Sertoma Park so I could get the VIN from my car, which I would need to get a new key made.
The next morning I told Julie I would be about an hour late to work and I called the parts guy at a Chevy dealership in town. He said it would cost right around $50 for a new key. Okay, I do not have a lot of extra cash to be spent on things like that so I took Kellie’s car (Dawn gave her a ride to work – God bless them … and America) back to the park and told myself I had 20 minutes to look for my key. If I did not find it in that time I would have to go to the dealership and shell out the $50.
I walked for approximately 200 feet and I found it! It was such a beautiful moment in my life. It was like Christmas. It was better than Christmas. And in the end it wasn’t even about the $50. I was happiest I found the key because I had spent so much time looking for it and walked so far along the flooded trail, in the mud, pouring rain and lightning. I was so ready to spend time by myself that night and when I finally got my wish and I was all along crying under the overpass all I wanted was someone to magically come and save me. Crazy how that works.
The run was very refreshing, but toward the end of it, as I was heading back to Sertoma Park the lightning and wind really started picking up. As I was nearing my car the rain came. I reached down to take my car key out of my shoe and … it was gone! Now, I have been intertwining my key in my shoelaces while I run for the past two years and have never lost it. Why then? Why such bad timing? I was standing in the pouring rain, right next to my car and I could not get in. Even if I found a phone somewhere and called a locksmith, once I got in my car I would not be able start it. All of the buildings at the park were closed by this time so I did not even know where to go or what to do. I felt so completely helpless.
The first thing that came to my mind was “you have to find that key.” I started walking back over the elevated trail (which included a bridge) in the middle of all the lightning and rain. It was probably not the safest move, but I was determined to find this key. As I walked along I realized I couldn’t see anything because of the rain and the clouds covering the sun so searching for my key was stupid at this point. I was also thoroughly drenched and cold. I ran another ¼ mile to where the Interstate crosses the trail and sat under the bridge on some Red Sioux Quartzite rocks. I was so depressed. I started sobbing.
After about ten minutes I decided I wanted to keep looking for the car key. The rain let up for a moment and I started searching along the trail again. I walked about another ¼ mile and then it began to rain pretty hard. The next overpass was a couple hundred feet away so I ran to it and sat under there for twenty minutes. Thoughts like “you are never going to find your key,” “you are going to die out here” and “lions and raccoons are going to eat you” kept running through my mind (even though I knew I probably would not really die or be eaten alive). It was right at this point, when I was so hopeless, that a lady came running along the trail right by me. She stopped to ask if I was okay and I told her my story. She said she, or maybe it was someone she knew, lost his/her car key and did not have a spare. A dealership made a new one and it only cost $30. This made me feel a lot better. I knew if the key did not turn up and I could make it home somehow I could call a dealership the next morning and get a new key made.
Right after she left the rain subsided and what was left of the sun at 9:00 pm peeked through the departing clouds. A cold front came through with the storm and I was still wet so I was pretty cold just sitting under the overpass. I decided to walk the rest of the distance I ran along the trail earlier in the night to see if I could find my key. If I could not find it after that I would wait until tomorrow morning and call a dealership.
Because of the large amount of rain the trail was flooded in parts. This made looking for the key a bit tricky, but I walked down the entire trail I had run on before and still could not find my key. Turning around I walked back, still searching, awhile longer. I cut across the river and started walking along 57th St. to a gas station. 57th St. is a road with a lot of new developments on it so it does not have always have sidewalks. In fact, the part I was walking along was very muddy because there was no grass planted yet. After I maneuvered the deep mud, there was very steep ditch. I was hanging on for dear life to these metal ropes that ran along the road while trying to pull myself along toward the gas station. What terrible luck.
Finally, I reached the gas station and I tried to think of some people I knew who might give me a ride home. The four phone numbers I could remember that I tried all went to voice mail. I left messages and waited at the gas station for about ten minutes, but no one returned my calls. I knew my best option was to walk home. The gas station attendant said she would tell anyone who called back that I started walking home along 57th St.
When I got home 30 minutes later Dawn and Kellie were there so they let me in. I borrowed Kellie’s car and drove it to Sertoma Park so I could get the VIN from my car, which I would need to get a new key made.
The next morning I told Julie I would be about an hour late to work and I called the parts guy at a Chevy dealership in town. He said it would cost right around $50 for a new key. Okay, I do not have a lot of extra cash to be spent on things like that so I took Kellie’s car (Dawn gave her a ride to work – God bless them … and America) back to the park and told myself I had 20 minutes to look for my key. If I did not find it in that time I would have to go to the dealership and shell out the $50.
I walked for approximately 200 feet and I found it! It was such a beautiful moment in my life. It was like Christmas. It was better than Christmas. And in the end it wasn’t even about the $50. I was happiest I found the key because I had spent so much time looking for it and walked so far along the flooded trail, in the mud, pouring rain and lightning. I was so ready to spend time by myself that night and when I finally got my wish and I was all along crying under the overpass all I wanted was someone to magically come and save me. Crazy how that works.
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