I got some pretty good sleep but I woke up at six and probably didn't get back to sleep til 7:30 or so. Julian's
wake up call got me up at 8:50 which gave me plenty of time to pack up, grab some oatmeal and coffee in the lobby
before getting on the bus. 11am rolled around and John was still reading, 11:24 came and still reading, Al was
sleeping, everybody seemed too low. I knew I had to take initiative so I went and grabbed the tequila tray. I
went to the back of the bus and said "Wake up Al, it's time for your medicine". We woke Julian for his medicine
too. The limes had gotten moldy at this point so we said "sorry Julian, we're out of limes". Without skipping a
beat, Julian says "well, there's a lime shortage in Iowa." We all had our shots and the back of the bus was bright
eyed, bushy tailed, and back on track.
After they perked up Al and Brillo told a great story of a previous trip, when after the ballgame in Chicago they
impulsively went to a Jimmy Buffett concert. We stopped at a little baseball museum in Norway, Iowa. Norway's high
school won a legendary streak of state baseball championships and has produced dozens of professional and
semi-professional players. We got into our Hotel in Rapid City, the Hilton Double Tree. It's a nice room on the
ninth floor with a great view. We went out to a little bar that's inside of a parking ramp. The place is called
Bricks. We got some food, mine was a great black bean burger, and a couple two-for-one beers. Next we wandered
around the abandoned streets of Rapid City, looking for any signs of civilization.
Eventually we came across the Pub 217. It had essentially the same beer and food menu as Bricks, so we've learned
the formula to a successful establishment in Rapid City. This place didn't have two-for-ones but it did have
some folks from our group. As we were there more people from the bus showed up too. We stayed for a while, then
everybody left. Dad went back to the room, Marty and I went to see if the arcade was open, it wasn't. We ran into
Julian and Deb on the street and I decided we should all go back to Bricks and chill on the patio (the patio in
the middle of a parking ramp). I got us some drinks and eventually Dr. Dave came stumbling in, followed soon after
by Tom and Jeanie, and soon after still by Mike. We hung out for a few hours, our group slowly dwindling. Mike
and I were the last to leave, around midnight.
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