Golf and Laundry

7/22 Thursday

miles 46

After listening to a beating thunderstorm during the night, we awaken to cloudy skies and have the thought that our much anticipated golf day will not materialize. Rich and I head down to breakfast at our hotel in Vermillion, SD - the Prairie Inn. The selection is not great, but we manage to get filled up. We visit with the proprietor and explain that we were planning on golfing today, but are not sure since the skies are looking ominous. She checks her radar on the computer and assures us that the storm has now passed Vermillion and is heading east. Great! We will head to the course while the kids sleep in.

We ask her if we can keep our rooms until after we return from golf. No problem. It does seem like a simple request, but from prior experience in larger hotels in larger towns, I was not expecting her to be so accommodating. We told her we would give the Prairie Inn a good review on TripAdvisor. Such is life in a small town I guess.

We head down Main Street to The Bluffs golf course. The guy at the pro shop is super friendly and tells us that it is NOT going to rain. However, no riding carts will be allowed on the course due to very wet conditions. Fine - we rent a pull cart and off we go.

Rich surveys the "leader board" at the Bluffs

The course is absolutely beautiful and so different from courses in Arizona. It is green, green, green (and wet, wet, wet). We find ourselves on fairways next to fields of soybeans and milkweed. The houses on the course are very unique as well and not walled in like those at home. There are marsh-type areas on many of the fairways and the skeeters are out in full force.

"Where is the green????!"

We stop after nine holes to spray up with bug spray and venture out for the second half. It is getting very muggy and we are starting to droop from the heat/humidity combo. However, we make it through the full round and ended up scoring pretty decent.

Check the form. . .

When we get back to the room we check with Janel and John and hear from them that they have found a great spot for lunch. They have already indulged, but encourage us to go to their secret spot as well. We gather all our belongings from the room and stuff them into the SUV for sorting later. Janel and John direct us a couple of blocks away to a parking lot that belongs to a combination grocery store/Ace Hardware. We enter somewhat skeptically and then we see a sign proclaiming "Mister Smith's" in a portion of the grocery store.

Looks pretty intriguing. The kid tell us that they make the best sandwiches they have ever eaten. We are IN. There is a huge chalkboard menu and after being guided by J&J we settle on a grilled portabello on peasant bread (Linda) and a meatball sub (Rich). The folks behind the counter are extremely nice and start in to prepare our feast.

When our sandwiches are ready they are transported to a "condiment area" much like Subway (but with waaaay better ingredients). We ask them to load up our sandwiches.

"one of these, some of this. . ."

Time for the ultimate test. Yessss - this lunch is awesome. A great find! We scarf 'em up and enjoy every bite.

Grilled Portabello Sandwich

After lunch it is time to move on to our next destination - Sioux City, IA. Fortunately it is only about 30 miles away from Vermillion. We are going to be there for the next 3 nights in prepartion for Rich's ride across Iowa that starts on Sunday. He will have a couple of days of rest and relaxation before he starts the insanity. We are happy not to have to drive for a few days.

We check in to the Ramada around 3pm. I can't wait to take a shower since I am still hot and sticky from golfing. I know that when I checked in I must have looked like I had been "snatched through a knothole." In fact, the heifer that checked us in even made a not so subtle comment on my appearance:

"whaaaaaa?"

We drag ALL our stuff up the our rooms. h has piles of stuff from his previous rides and other stuff that we brought him from home. He has a lot of sorting to do. Oh - the other thing he has a lot of is laundry. This was my scenic view for the next hour or so:

Fun in Sioux City

There aren't a whole lot of choices in Sioux City for dinner and we scour the internet for possibilities. Rich zeros in on a place called "Hungry's" in Dakota City (about 10 minutes away). We load up, turn on Mandy (our GPS) and off we go. Hungry's is not much to look at from the outside.



We bravely enter to an almost empy room. The waitress in nice enough and we start to warm up to the joint. After a beer or two, we really warm up.

check out Rich's sexy tan lines

Steaks and chicken are ordered all around along with a starter of fried gizzards. The gizzards are pretty good and we munch them while watching our meats being cooked on a large indoor grill in the middle of the room.




The steaks and chicken are good (Janel says the chicken is really good probably due to the fact that there is a huge Tyson factory next door. . .). The vegetables are horrid. Service is good, atmosphere is low key, we come in hungry and leave satisfied.

On the way home the kids notice a local carnival has set up across the street from our motel and they buzz on over to check it out. Rich and I head to the room to crash and burn. Tomorrow is another golf day.