South Dakota to LA

Sometimes when you travel a lot you end up meeting yourself coming and going in the past two weeks is a little bit of that for me.  I have gone from a furniture symposium with Shannon in Deadwood South Dakota and Rapid City, South Dakota to Las Vegas for a week and then drove to Los Angeles, where I am sitting presently.

Often I get to do the most amazing travel because of Shannon’s furniture trips that are not only multiple times a year, but are with other store owners that we get to see a few times a year which is extra fun when you have built relationships with other owners you get to see repeatedly and travel with.  I couldn’t explain all the different styles of their meetings because I drive her nuts asking questions each time because I don’t understand it all. I’ve learned to just ask (repeatedly 😂🤦‍♀️) “where are we going?” Hoping to remotely pack accurately which I struggle with also.

So from Shannon’s furniture trip in South Dakota, I had planned to go to Las Vegas to visit my friend Eric for his final weekend in Las Vegas. I ended up staying there a bit and then riding over to Los Angeles with he and another bandmate Ben, because they have rehearsals here through the month.  So my packing has struggled a bit but I say that’s the beauty of wearing black dresses every day! I have from strapless to some with long sleeves that I can just accessorize, depending on the weather. I did do a quick shopping run in South Dakota because coming from Mexico to that I was freezing!

South Dakota was an absolutely beautiful state that I was quite surprised pleasantly about! I know some people are gonna come at me with this, but I even discussed this with a couple Colorado people that were there and they also agreed. People love Colorado because of the beauty of the populated expensive areas. But when you are driving and traveling in Colorado from point A to point B my personal opinion is it is an ugly ass state that has shanty towns with dirt and tumbleweeds that is not attractive when traveling in between the beautiful and expensive spots.

South Dakota is the beauty of Colorado, but is beautiful with lush green when driving From point A to point B! It is absolutely stunning and everywhere you look there is something genuinely pretty in nature to observe and look at.

My friend Lathan has always loved deadwood South Dakota, which is also ironic that my father also loved South Dakota for hunting, but I think I always poo poo’ed it thinking it was just a different speed or something of life. I don’t know what I expected, but let’s just say I was beyond pleasantly surprised!  Rapid City, although a very quaint and charming town, it would not be my first choice of a visit to South Dakota other than we have friends that own furniture store there.  But Deadwood… That place is special! They’re also a couple other towns. I believe Keystone is the name of one and another one that is along the route to Mount Rushmore that are just precious. If you were enjoy Branson-esk towns that are maybe not so neon lit and obnoxious Deadwood is for you. It is very special with its old time casinos, tchotchkes, shopping, local boutiques, and more not to mention they sell Indian tacos everywhere!

One of the best things of that trip is a random happenstance of my best friend Stacey that I met when I was 12 at space camp, happened to be taking her son to college in South Dakota at the exact same time! So it was absolutely wonderful that I got to spend an hour with her and her husband, whom I adore, got to hug them, Shannon got to meet them, all before we headed both off on our separate journeys.

Our hosts for the week really did some amazing things while in South Dakota to allow us to learn and enjoy the culture of South Dakota. One night we went to one of the gentleman’s personal homes, and it was all themed around Native American culture, which was extremely special because we had a Hoop dancer come and perform and answer questions and give a presentation. Plus he had Indian tacos as the meal which I couldn’t ask for a better choice of a dinner!

I will say I did about die when one of the guests asked the native American in her full beautifully beaded and feathered regalia why her English was so good and why she didn’t have much of an accent. 😳 She handled beautifully and explained she was born two blocks down the road 🤦‍♀️😂.

I guess I should add in a little bit about Mount Rushmore since it is a national monument! It is absolutely beautiful. You do have to pay $10 to enter the park to walk up close. If you follow me on social media, you’ll see a second set of pictures we paid to go into the park to see it at a closer view and to watch the lighting ceremony. The lighting ceremony is what I want to address, my ADHD brain when someone says do you want to go see the lights turned on? I simply think it is a three minute process to light the shit up! Well, it’s not… It is a 45 minute presentation with singing and talking and a lot of quiet solitude. So if you enjoy history and things of that nature, it is perfect for you if that is not your cup of tea, I would maybe just go after it’s already lit.

I’m going to sign off for now. It is my last full day in Los Angeles and I’m two cities behind for my blog! Oh so much to share…until next time,

Jenny