Amanda was a little chipper the morning on the last full day in South Dakota. She is only a morning person on vacation, not at home, though. That woman does not like to be up early! It was cold, and I had a fire going strong when she happily poked her head around the corner and peered at me from the kitchen. The chipperness was crushed when she received a voicemail from the previous evening from one of the cardiologist’s nurses. She had emailed the coordinator about some labs she had questions on. I’m not sure if the team has another patient like Amanda, but she is always on top of things, checking her labs and tests when they are posted to her online chart.
The nurse said the coordinator was out and advised that some donor-specific antibodies were high. She would need to start a new immune suppressant and need a coronary artery CT scan, as well as the rejection labs we’d asked about at the annual visit. This is concerning because it can be a sign of early rejection. It’s not panic mode yet since we don’t know much at this point. I’ll cover more in a medical post later. I’m glad Amanda didn’t answer the phone on our heartiversary evening, and the voicemail didn’t come through till the following day. That was a blessing in itself since she could now converse with the coordinator about things; if not, it would have been a stressful night.
We talked a bit about it, but it was quiet after that as we prepared to leave. There were just too many questions, and we could think it to death. So, we just got ready and tried not to let it ruin the day or trip. It’s not the first bad news we’ve gotten or the last. The timing wasn’t the best, but it could have been worse. We weren’t sulking enough not to make lattes and go out hunting for critters to look at, though!
I planned a new loop where we would take the wildlife loop backward and cut across a dirt road on the park’s south end. We’d not seen anything on the northern end and decided to skip it this time. When we got to the south entrance, a sign said the road was closed ahead. Without a ranger at the gate, we didn’t know where, though, so we trucked along, seeing a few more signs at other intersections. I didn’t have the route planned because maps wouldn’t work with the road closure. It knew it was closed, just not exactly where, just like us.
I was ready, having looked at the map with a route in mind and a picture of the map, just in case. Amanda said I was overconfident and we’d probably get lost! As we entered the park, it was light, and the sun was rising over the hills. The best chance of seeing wildlife is at dawn and dusk. By the end of the day and this trip, we would have covered all the roads forward and backward, even all but one of the dirt roads, too.
As we approached a hill we needed to climb over, the sun was peeking through. We were listening to a Christian station on satellite radio. The DJ had a message about how life is hard, how Christian life isn’t easy, and how not all days are rainbows and sunshine. We aren’t promised things will work out the best for us, but it will work out for His good. And can be used to build up and further the kingdom of God. We know this all too well and have repeatedly seen it play out in our lives. I told Amanda I thought it was a petty good message for this station. Usually, they are very low-key Christian, not wanting to offend. We enjoy a local station back home that isn’t afraid to proclaim Jesus; this one isn’t typically that way. Either way, this was a reminder we needed to hear on this morning. With the sun rising in our faces, I was reminded of a verse in Lamentations on how God’s love is steadfast, never ceases, and his mercies are new every morning.
Once done climbing up and over the hill with a few switchbacks, we were in the flats flanked by pine-covered hills. Then, we spotted a couple of elk retreating to the trees in the early morning light, our first elk of this trip. Now we were pumped to see more with eyes peeled. We had officially seen all that this area had to offer, minus a mountain lion.
After winding through a few turns and rolling hills, the burros appeared on a hill grazing. I stopped and did a little horse whistle, and eventually, they came running to see us. We had a bag of leftover raw veggies to feed them since we were out of carrots.
Once back at the wildlife visitors center, we found where the road was closed. A sign was placed right at a dirt road junction. I planned on taking us down the dirt road anyway, so it worked out. We wound our way through a dead pine forest. It looked burned but had no other evidence of a fire, likely from pine beetles. There were no elk on this road, but it produced a view of a herd of buffalo on a cliff, a close-up of one, along with a few pronghorns. The far-off cliff view was my favorite, but it was hard to capture with a photo.
We only saw two other vehicles as we made our way out of the middle of the park on the dirt road. The second started to roll down the window and stop, so I backed up to talk with her. She said she had seen a herd of elk. I mentioned we saw a couple that morning, but she said it was a couple hundred she saw! The group she saw was up a dead-end dirt road in the middle of the wildlife loop. We’d passed by that road earlier but didn’t take it. Her sighting was at dusk, and she mentioned you had to be in the area early to see them like that. A creek ran through the middle of this area with horse camp. I couldn’t help but think how fun riding horseback through this country would be.
Being Wednesday, Amanda had to line up a few things for the children’s ministry night later that ending. She’d been taking care of things on the road trip up but hadn’t needed to take care of much for work since we’d been here. We made our way to the Needles Highway again. This time, we were going to traverse it backward, though. Coming from the south, we had a much better view of the Cathedral Spires. They are pretty magnificent, just popping out of the hills.
We wound our way through the single-lane tunnels carved out of the granite rock and towers of Sylvan Lake. This was the lake we hiked on the first day. We later found out it was the filming location of National Treasure, The Book of Secrets. The scene from the movie’s end where the lake is supposed to be behind Mt. Rushmore was filmed here. It has a distinctive look to it and was initially damned up by the family who owned a lodge there to drum up more business.
On our first day, we came into the park from Custer straight up to Sylvan Lake and missed part of Needles Highways. So today, we finished the remainder of the highway. It was a beautiful drive to the outer loop, the area around the park. The granite rock formations rose as a backdrop to the road as it climbed up and out through serval switchbacks.
As we popped out on the outer loop road, we headed to Hill City; we needed coffee. Amanda had found a coffee shop that looked promising. Caboose Coffee, it was called. The owner was the barista, and we chatted as he made our lattes. He was from Colorado and wanted to escape all the craziness there, as many people from California are doing, and migrate to Texas. He called it Colowacky! They bought an inn and had a front room they didn’t know what to do with, so with both of the couple having coffee shop experience, they opened one up. He was the only one there, and I asked him if it was shoulder season for them. He replied that it is not much of a shoulder; it goes from 100 to 0 in October and 0 to 100 in May. That was the sentiment with most shop owners I talked with as well. The coffee was good it was stouter than most, so I liked it, but Amanda thought it wasn’t sweet enough.
Amanda was a little quiet on the drive-in; she was processing. We process things differently. She is quiet, and I want to talk it out. We knew too little, and there was no sense in trying to figure anything out that we didn’t know or couldn’t figure out. She had been emailing the coordinator, so she had the answers to a few questions. The biggest question was whether we go to Houston from here for the testing and labs. With my schedule, it would be best to go before next month.
We did a little shopping; this is the best time of year to shop here, as many places have deep discounts at this time of year. We picked up a couple of backpacks at almost 80% off, and I grabbed a cap for 50% off. That’s my kind of shopping! We also found a unique gift for someone. We really enjoyed this town; it had the friendliest people and the best shops. We saw many things we would have loved for our house if we only had the money! I never even tried my hat on. When we returned to the cabin, Amanda had it on and wanted joint custody! It did match her outfit, and she sure looked cute in it, though!
From there, we’d backtrack a few miles to the road we came out of after visiting Rushmore. We stopped to take some fall-colored pictures along the way.
Today would be a daylight viewing of the presidents. It is free to visit Mt. Rushmore. I wasn’t worried if we had to pay because our annual park pass would have covered it anyway. You did have to pay for parking, though, which we’d already done for the night visit. That was an annual parking pass good for a year. It’s good we kept the receipt; the gate attendant was confused when I already had a ticket. I guess many don’t visit twice, at least not one with Texas plates! We didn’t stay long, viewed from the observation deck, and then checked the visitors center out. We were both glad we went back and visited in the daylight.
Now, we were at the point where we had ended our Iron Mountain Road drive, so we went south on the road backward. This was the road with the corkscrew or pigtail bridges where you go around in a circle, looping under the part you just went over. This road was an exercise to dive with those bridges and a few tunnels.
Almost at the end of the road, a dirt road cut across to the Needles Highway, so I took it. It was pretty and out of the hills some. There was a pretty meadow about halfway down it. In the distance, on a hill, was a lone tree in full autumn color tucked in amongst the green pines. This road was aptly named Playhouse Road because a playhouse on the road was built long ago to host plays and is still currently hosting them.
From there, we were back on the road connecting to Custer. We made a loop from town to the Crazy Horse Memorial sculpting and back. Being pressed for time, we did not go into the site but got a view from afar. It is an active sight, and there was construction equipment on top. It’s been under construction for over 70 years, and the original sculptor did not want government assistance. I think the government could have finished it by now, even as slowly as they move!
To make it a loop, we went back to town through the portion of Needles Highway. We came out this morning and back down another road. We had initially entered the park on the first day here. That made every paved road forward and backward in Custer State Park and the surrounding area official!
We now needed to return to the cabin to get ready for our dinner. I had originally planned for us to eat out before the ballet. The restaurant we were to eat at tonight was in Custer and didn’t open early enough to make the ballet. Our Airbnb host had recommended this place, and when I asked for recommendations in Rapid City, they still urged us to eat at this location. I’m so glad we swapped things around to come to Skogen Kitchen instead of the places I had on the list in Rapid City. It was fabulous!
When I made reservations, I was asked about dietary restrictions or preferences. So I made it known we were plant based, and the hostess said no problems and that the chef could fix something that wasn’t on the menu to suit our needs. I had looked at the menu from the weekend before; it changes weekly, and we could have made do with what they had.
We had shishito peppers to start. They had sugar snap peas, goat cheese crema, toasted walnuts, and za’atar. It was a large portion and surprised me. Most fine dining places typically have smaller portions; these were the best shishitos I’ve ever had. Then, it was pumpkin ravioli with a black garlic mushroom emulsion, parmesan reggiano, and toasted pumpkin seeds. Then, an onion and tomato soup for each of us, it was fabulous. For the main course, we had the veggie plate the hostess had mentioned; it had an array of vegetables, from mashed potatoes to fried brussel sprouts to roasted carrots and more. The second entree was freshly made cavatelli with chanterelle mushrooms, corn, furikake, truffle oil, and fried shallots. And to finish things off was a butter cake made with local butter and had caramel, Maldon salt, popcorn, and ice cream. The second dessert was s’mores inspired. A smoke-infused chocolate panna cotta topped with balsamic marshmallows and graham crackers.
By far, this was the best plant based meal we’ve ever had, and it was among the top five in all fine dining. It was such a treat, and I was surprised to find a place like this in the small town of Custer. I looked long and hard, and nothing I found in Rapid City could have even compared to this place. If we lived close by, we would be frequent customers for sure! It was nice to get dressed up again and spend one last night out on the town before we left.
We had an early reservation. So, even with the long meal, we were back to the cabin before seven, which was good because we needed to pack. It was also a good time to catch a beautiful sunset on the dirt road that led to our cabin.
At first, I didn’t want to do anything after the meal but rest by the fire! After the realization set in that we were leaving, I began to pack and get the car loaded with as much as I could. We wanted one more shot to look for animals, but the lady’s report of a massive elk herd intrigued us. But we’d have to be up long before the sun to have a chance.