South Dakota Cuisine

TOP: The world famous "Road Kill Cafe" in Sturgis

2nd: Hot Springs...they had warm water there for tea

3rd: Custer Purple Pie Place...we had ice cream there

4th: The "Big Cut"..nothing to to with food but I didn't want to forget it...

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We elected to stay in Custer SD to get away from some of the touristy crap....Keystone (near Mt Rushmore) which makes Niagara Falls look like a nature setting and Deadwood (casinos and hokey street gunfights). We figured any town named after a scumbag who got his entire platoon slaughtered by the natives probably wasn't going to be a real hopping place...and, we were right. It was however, just right for a loding point. They had a couple of coffee shops, a diner that served "meat xxx"..elk stew, buffalo chili, goat gyros...you name the animal, they made it into some concoction.

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The first morning in I did a bike ride down to Hot Springs. Turned out to be just what the doctor ordered, as it was predominately downhill, with a crossing tailwind, and I had good legs and lungs coming out of the Colorado mountains. A blistering ride, averaging over 22mph, which is huge for me. When I got there, I found a little coffee shop and waited on Kathy to arrive. She finally did, several hours later (and promptly drove right by me) (no cell coverage, and I totally mistimed my speed) so we hit a local diner for breakfast. Bad move....since this diner had the luxury of being able to serve beer, they could let diners smoke there...and smoke they did. It was disgusting, what a vile habit. We ate quickly, and took our black lung and smoked clothes and hit the road. Really gross, and probably the worst dining experience of our whole trip.

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That evening we went to the Purple Pie Place in Custer, as we had both been hankering for pie ever since our few days on Route 66. Turns out the pie wasn't very interesting looking, but the ice cream was, so we had (I swear...) the FIRST ice cream of our whole trip. Quite good; then we hit the Custer diner for some deep fried chipmunks, some elk bloody marys, and possum niblets. All in a days eating in South Dakota....

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We took a short drive up to Sturgis, to see the motorcycling capital of the nation. It was totally a bust, nothing there but saloons and, well, saloons. Few houses, nothing to see, nowhere to eat, but lots of places to drink. Seems "Sturgis" is really just a euphamism for "I'm going out drinking and whoring with the guys this week". Oops, I hope I didn't give anything away!

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We also went by another "rape and pillage the land" site up north of deadwood. This one was "The Big Cut", a huge open air gold mine. Now, I know we need gold, but this was just bizarre, making it a major tourist attraction. Big hole though, if I say so myself.

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"This place gets more interesting every minute" Lumpy out