Until next time.....

6:47 am - Sunday - July 12th - Keystone, SD - 52° F, 80% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north by northeast......cloud cover this morning with a forecast high today of 87° F.....the view this morning......↴

....the past 2+ weeks have flown!  Here we are at July 12th and it is time to roll our wheels once again.  We will be, and have been saying our 'until next times' the past couple of days, and within 2 hours Keystone will begin to fade in our rear view camera as we head back north to the I-90 corridor.

Saturday was our last full day in Keystone as we finalized the putting away of our stuff, organizing the interior of the Newell for travel, and the trailer as well.  Around 11:30 am we walked south on US-16A to meet Rich and Marnie at Halleys West (Yelp gives them 4.5 stars on 16 reviews....we'd be around 4) for our last lunch.....

 Last lunch.....Halleys West

......you can get a Buffalo Burger with fry's for $8....pretty good deal....TLE and I split one of those, as well as a 'side salad'.  The conversation, as always, was wide ranging with just a tad bit of bitter sweetness thrown in for good measure.  We spent 9 months working for Rich and Marnie at RORVR, and became good friends.  Being able to spend these past two weeks with them has been a real tonic, and we are so grateful to have had the full hookups in exchange for a few hours of work.  Rich had to be at work by 1 pm, so around 12:45 pm we began to walk back north on US-16A.....we took our last 'footie' next to a bronze statue in front of one of the hotels......

Last 'footie'....

......by 8 pm (after the sun had passed behind Mt. Rushmore) we stowed all the awnings, and I disconnected our sewer and water.....all that keeps us connected to site #3 is our electrical umbilical cord......

 Our site for two weeks will soon be vacant once again

.....we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this little community over the past two weeks, and look forward to returning again sometime down the road....who knows where that "long and winding  road" will lead us?

As we slowly edge toward 1.5 million views of our blog we thank you for stopping by each day for the last 8.5 years!

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Eating our way through Keystone.....

6:41 am - Friday - July 10th - Keystone, SD - 62° F, 83% humidity, wind - CALM......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 85° F.....rained most of the night until about 90 minutes ago.  On this day in 2016 we were in Carson City, NV having lunch at the In 'N Out Burger.......↴

After enjoying one of the best Mocha Frappuccino's ever at 'Grapes and Grinds' the other day we decided to walk over to this fine establishment again Thursday morning after I finished composing my latest post for coffee and pastries......a scone for TLE and an 'everything' bagel for moi.......

 I never tire of TLE's turn down smile....

.....it was still in the 60's as we commenced our 1/8th mile walk so I wore, for the first time in a long time....a long sleeved T, and a pair of Addidas pants.  The coffee house was jumping at 10 am, and it took a while for us to place our orders, and then receive them, but, as I always say, good food (in this case coffee and pastries) is always worth the wait, and it was.  Because it was overcast most people were consuming their specialty drinks inside, so we had the pick of several umbrella shaded tables, ending up at the same one at which we drank our frappuccinos the other day.

We were home again around 11:30 am watching more previously recorded English Premier League Soccer matches, and reading.  Around 1 pm I received notice that the replacement high mounted brake light for the VW had been delivered so I walked over to the convenience store to retrieve it, and install it.  Rich, who has a 2002 VW Beetle, gave me a brief tutorial on how to get at and remove the old cracked lens (damaged in the first hail storm we experienced here in Keystone)......

The new 'high mounted' brake light installed

....the quite old, original lens was damaged on the left side by hail.  While it took a little longer than planned to replace the lens (another minor hail storm moved through Keystone while I was in the middle of the R&R job) I got the new one (purchased on Amazon for $55) installed.

Since I didn't have to work Thursday evening (I'm going to work Friday morning for a couple of hours instead helping receive the weekly grocery delivery at the convenience store) TLE and I had plans to have dinner at a local fine dinning restaurant called Powder House Lodge (Yelp gives the 4.5 stars on 41 reviews, and it is totally earned).  By all accounts this place is reputed to serve mighty fine food at a decent cost.  They don't take reservations, but said to call about 30 minutes before we were to arrive and they would put us on the 'LIST'.  It's only about 2 miles up the hill on US-16A....we've passed it going and coming from Rapid City numerous times, so we knew it would only take 5 minutes to make the drive.  TLE called around 5:30 pm to get us on the 'LIST'......we were there by 5:55 pm......

.....and seated at our table shortly thereafter.....it pays to be on the 'LIST'......

....we quickly selected a bottle of Norton Reserva Malbec (2018-Argentina) from their wine list to go with our meal.......

.....for our appetizer we ordered their bacon wrapped shrimp....a perfect choice!  For our entrees I ordered their House Special Filet Mignon, and TLE their Cornish Game Hen.....

.....the service was exceptionally good, and very prompt....the food and the wine were first class....everything cooked to perfection!  This is the first formal, expensive dinner out we have had since our 48th anniversary dinner last August 29th....if we were going to still be in town on August 29th we would definitely be celebrating our 49th anniversary it at Powder House Lodge, but who knows where we will be then?  I sure don't.....😊  

We were home by 7:30 and slipping into more comfortable clothing to aid in the digestion of our wonderful meal.  We watched another recorded episode of 'Alone' and I was in bed by 10:30 pm....I'm not sure when TLE joined me, but she was definitely there this morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!