Christmas 2015: The Sturgis Edition

Something that Mike and Melissa have always been grateful for, are the numerous opportunities they have to spend holidays with family. Other than the two years they spent in South Korea, the couple has either been affiliated with a school holiday schedule or been their own bosses. Done right, self-employment offers the freedom to celebrate the holidays with both sides of the family without too much hassle or inconvenience.

 

Following up a grand time celebrating the holidays with the Harrington crew and a quick weekend of slinging beer and pizza at The Burlington Place, Mike and Melissa made their way to Sturgis, South Dakota in order to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with Melissa’s family.

 

Arriving on a Tuesday afternoon, the Harrington duo took to lounging and enjoying snacks, brews, etc with the Allen parents. Fire crackling, menus being planned, small talk being had; the first night in SoDak was perfectly relaxing.

 

Upon waking up and slowly getting ready Wednesday morning, the crew made a quick decision to head on into Deadwood and try their hands at a slot tournament. The slots of downtown Deadwood and the Deadwood Lodge were not too eager to pay out for the Harrington’s, but there was just enough winning to keep all participants engaged and entertained for a more than a few hours. After lunch and a few more pulls at the slot machines, the Allen/Harrington crew made their way back into Sturgis. In anticipation for the upcoming day of festivities, Melissa and her father headed to the grocery store and checked off the list of items that would have them enjoying entirely too much junk food and French Dip sandwiches in celebration of the New Year the following day.

 

Awaking New Years Eve day, Mike and Melissa were horrified to discover that their heads were stuffy, their muscles achy, and their overall energy levels dangerously low. An entire year of decent health came to a screeching halt as both Harrington’s set out to spend the New Years holiday feeling under the weather. Fortunately, there were no plans to leave the Allen’s cozy home, therefore, it was 100% acceptable for the Harrington duo to remain in their pajamas, drink hot lemon tea and take in some Emergen-C with hopes of feeling semi-decent when additional family arrived ready to celebrate Christmas and the New Year.

 

As the evening hour set in and the rest of the celebration crew arrived, M&M were unfortunately still feeling under the weather, but did their best to keep pace with the family; young nieces and nephews included. The afternoon began with the joy of Christmas giving; colorful paper flung far and wide, childhood exclamations of joy and excitement being shouted out and gifts being turned over and admired in the hands of many. Soon, Christmas activities were “out of the way” and the houseful of celebrants set into motion the joys of New Year’s Snacking, imbibing and gallivanting.

 

Between numerous dips, crackers, chips, roast beef sandwiches and out of this world sweet treats, the crew took part in a variety of activities. The children were given canvases for finger-painting (a future gift in the making) and a robot to build. Adults continued snacking and lounging in their pajamas. Movies were a go on Netflix, and Catchphrase made numerous passes around the dining room table. Soon enough, tiny eyes could no longer remain watchful and the over 18 crowd began a rousing, yet generally inappropriate game of “Cards Against Humanity”.

 

As the clock struck midnight, champagne was toasted (as were a few celebrants) and the Harrington duo begrudgingly gave up their spots at the game table and went to bed, hopeful that the morning would find them feeling less in the dumps.

 

Upon waking to the year 2016 for the first time, the Harrington’s were still below 100%, but could feel that progress was being made. The couple took their time packing up their belongings, old and new, said their good-byes and made their way back to Burlington, eager to see where the year 2016 would lead.

 

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Holidays and Other Shenanigans in Sturgis, SD: 2013

Having stopped at Clear Creek Brewing Company in Buffalo, the Harringtons were ready to continue forth to Deadwood, South Dakota for a nights free lodging, a bit of slot machining and most importantly seeing Grandma and Papa Cushing as well as Uncle Bernard.

The drive through the canyon and onto the interstate was relatively uneventful, although the moon did light up the night sky creating a peaceful journey across state lines.

The couple stayed at the Franklin Hotel in Deadwood where they were guests in "Josephine's" room (don't worry, there wasn't an actual escort of sorts in the room, just a plaque with her name on the door). The duo was a bit bummed to notice that another room boasted their own family name and that the grandparents were housed in John Wayne's room, fortunately, the success of the trip wasn't based on the name of the room...then again, perhaps it was.

Sturgis-bound for Thanksgiving 2012

By far one of the best things about being in one's mother country is being able to celebrate holidays in all the traditional manners without the difficulty of tracking down ingredients for all your favorite dishes and being reminded of just how far you truly are from family. However, don't let these statements convince you that the Harringtons have lost their fondness and love for the land of kimchi or that celebrating Thanksgivings 2010 and 2011 in South Korea weren't absolutely beautiful and memorable, no, not at all. It's just, in the challenge of re-adjusting to the mother land, the holidays provide a kind of stability and sense of home the Harringtons are reaching for. Not to mention, turkey!

With great swiftness, the Harringtons packed up and loaded the car as soon as school was released on  the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. They made the five hour drive to South Dakota discovering that the new Subaru, while boasting seat warmers, failed to play CD's or anything other than radio and cassettes, fortunately, the Harringtons have a love for the radio and were content to make the drive sans Dan Walker and Jalan Crossland (although, the couple is quite fond of both artists...)

Upon arrival in Sturgis, the couple was greeted with warm hugs, a warm fire and a warm bed - can't get much better or warmer than that!

Vacation at Home: Sturgis, SD August 15 - 18

Following one night's sleep in the Ten Sleep canyon, Mike and Melissa loaded up the car once again and began a cheerful trek to Sturgis, SD where the infamous motorcycle rally had just come to a close. Eager to spend a couple days enjoying the parents as well as the sister and her boyfriend, the Harrington duo set out relatively early and arrived in the early afternoon ready for whatever the Black Hills and the Allen folks might throw at them.

The visit was kicked off by an evening of dumpster diving in an attempt bolster the eBay business of Luella who is choosing to follow in her parents footsteps. Finding a few good leftovers (boots, bike seats, posters and more) the crew headed back to brown house on Whitetail Dr. and Elk St. to wash up and enjoy a dinner of steak, corn, macaroni and potato salad accompanied by a few good brews (Estes Park Raspberry Wheat to be exact).

Tuesday came at a slow-pace but was quickly picked up a trip in Deadwood, South Dakota where the history of the old west has hardly died and the slots and poker tables are ready to be dished some of your hard earned cash, and hard earned cash is exactly what was left in Deadwood as none of the crew had any big wins. However, the boys (Harland, Ryan and Mike) enjoyed a $12 buy-in Texas Hold 'Em tournament while the ladies (Brenda, Luella and Melissa) hit up the slots and crossed their fingers for a chance at the bonus rounds.

Having enough of the slots and gambling life the crew of  six made their way up Mount Roosevelt for a spectacular view of the hills before heading down the road to Central City to scarf down some hot wings and pizza from the infamous Pizza Lab (should you ever find yourself in the neighborhood, be sure to order a Thai Pizza - veggie or chicken, either way it's phenomenal!) The night ended with Melissa and Luella gettin' their Wii dance on and breaking a bit of a sweat.

Wednesday held a number of great joys and highlights for the whole family as they made their way into Rapid City for first and foremost a late lunch at Casa Real (that's Mexican food folks...a dearly missed cuisine in South Korea). With fully bellies, the crew headed on up the road to Putz and Glo a black light mini-golf center that really needs no explanation...the pictures can do all the talking on this one...

Following mini-golf and remembering the pure, unadultered awesomeness that was the 90's, the Harrington's and family made their way to Ralph's auction house for the pleasant, melodic rhythm of the auctioneer song and to again bolster the eBay businesses of both Luella and the Allen parents.

Having stashed up all these phenomenal moments and memories with the dearly beloved Allen family the Harrington's had to do what became an all too frequent routine on their return to the states: say good-bye. So, with tears in their eyes (Melissa's eyes more specificially) the couple loaded up their car and bid farewell to the Hills and more regretfully, the Allen's.

Restin', Drivin', Restin' again

Day 41 - 42: August 6th and 7th 2009 - Sturgis, SD to Ten Sleep, WY
Plus: Another First

It's possible that August 6th has been our most restful, unplanned day.

Laundry. Facebook. Chokecherry pickin'. Muffin bakin'. Green tomato fryin'. Jambalay eatin'. T.V. watchin'.

That's about it.

The 7th however was another travel day. It was time to hit the road and make our way to Nowoodstock - the best bluegrass festival in the Big Horn Basin!

However, before we could show up at the cabin, it was necessary for Melissa to experience another first and enjoy another aspect of Wyoming scenery - Devil's Tower. The Nation's First National Monument and the first time Melissa saw the monument up close and personal! (Picture to come, eventually...hopefully). Of course, it is still tourist season and Sturgis season, so the park was nothing short of crowded, so we took a couple pictures, vowed to return soon since it's not far from Mom and Dad Allen's place, and continued on our way to Ten Sleep Cabin and Park for our favorite music festival EVER!

By 5:00, Mom and Dad Allen, Mom and Dad Harrington, Katie, Travis, Mike and Melissa were ready to enter the Ten Sleep City Park and get their bluegrass on. We enjoyed a small number of bands, choosing Harry Harpoon and Dr. Mongo and Spawning Fondness as our favorites of the night. Spawning Fondness in particular caught our attention with their unique sounds and instrumentation including an electric cello.

Shortly after enjoying the sounds of Spawning Fondness our friends Ryan and Erin showed up with another Travis and a Shane - the whole crew of us made our way (slowly) back to Ten Sleep Cabin where the gents talked man talk and the ladies talked girl talk (or non-manly talk) before making our way into bed.

Can You Say:

Day 40: August 5, 2009 - Sturgis, SD to Wall, SD to Badlands National Park and back again.
Awesome!?!?!

If you've never been to Wall Drug, you should probably go as soon as you possibly can. Just so you have a greater understanding of why you should go: check out the following photos - all taken within the Wall Drug Territory.

And that's not even All!!! Mike enjoyed the shooting gallery, Melissa had her picture taken with a few "Old Western" style statues, we passed up the opportunity to eat homemade fudge, enjoyed a small presentation on the Union railroad, listened to a "Barber Trio" which was also graced by a bunny-bird-antelope creature and looked at many photos of the history of this random and ridiculous Roadside attraction. Words cannot express the crazy adventure that awaits you in Wall, SD - so just hop in your car now, follow the signs and have the time of your life!

Now, we apologize, because this blog is a little out of order, but the computers acting funny and the pictures are in the places they want to be, so we are typing the story in order of picture placement.

Therefore; it is important to note that we spent most of the morning hanging out in Sturgis. Mike "farming" on Facebook's Farm Town and Melissa baking muffins for the upcoming weekend and preparing Taco Salad for dinner and Banana Berry Sundae Cake for dessert. We had planned to begin our sightseeing in the late afternoon in order to catch some moonscapes in the Badlands.

So it was around 3:00 in the afternoon that we headed toward Badlands National Park where we were amazed by the geological formations and the quiet, calm pace of this rarely visited National Park. We enjoyed a short walk around some of the cliffs and spires before continuing on the road toward the yellow mounds. As we were making our way down the road we began to realize that the clouds were thick and we may be able to catch a good sunset, but the moon may not be as visible as we hoped. Much to our displeasure, after making our way to the Awesome Wall Drug Store, the sunset wasn't wonderful and the moon wasn't showing. Being as we are, we made the best of the situation - ate dinner and headed back to Sturgis to enjoy our ice cream dessert! Not a bad day, not a bad day.

How much?

Day 39: August 4, 2009 - Sturgis, SD and surrounding Black Hills Area

No Thank You.

We woke up this morning unaware of how often we would be asking a cashier "how much?" and coming to the conclusion "no thank you." It is difficult to spend over a month on the road and come out with an abundance of money...so, $9 for mini-golf appears to be a small fortune, paying $10 to park and walk up to Mt. Rushmore when you can see it from the road seems to be the same as paying an arm and a leg, and $10 just to drive on the Needles Highway seems way out of line. Not to mention the $23 per person price tag on touring a cave - it's good South Dakota, and more accurately, the Black Hills have plenty to offer in scenery for the low-budget travellers that we are.

We enjoyed breakfast burritos with Melissa's parents in Sturgis before slowly gathering ourselves and a sandwich lunch for the road. The plan was to visit Mt. Rushmore then drive the Norbeck Senic Highway, detour to Wind Cave National Park, get back on the Scenic route and drive the Needles Highway until we made our way to Sturgis. Little did we know how often we would be required to pay.

After driving through Keystone, SD we entered the National Memorial just to discover that our "America the Beautiful" pass wasn't good here and we'd have to pay $10 to park and go see all that Mt. Rushmore has to offer (which both of us have seen previously) and which can be equally well seen from the road - so we tood the road views, snapped this shot and made our way through the Norbeck Scenic Byway.

Hairpin curves, one-way bridges and tunnels and beautiful landscapes set all around us, we took one of the best scenic drives our trip has yet offered us. We enjoyed the familiar site of pine trees, the rolling plains interspersed with spectacular forest scenes. The entire day, we shared the road with motorcycles and the occassional deer and bighorn sheep.

A few sharp curves later we were pulling into Wind Cave National Park where we learned a great deal about the cave itself in the Visitor Center exhibit however we had arrived too late and were too cheap to go on any of the tours. Back in the car, we enjoyed sandwiches and made our way back toward Needles Highway. Because the highway goes through a State Park we were required to pay a small fee to drive through - knowing that we would often be visiting the Allen Parent's in South Dakota, we decided this small fee could wait and we would just hit the road toward Sturgis, SD.

At home, we enjoyed a grilled dinner, more internet usage, some television watching and the same comfortable bed as the night before. How much? Free. Yes Please!

Good-Byes, Debuts...

Day 37 - 38: August 2 and 3, 2009 - Sturgis, SD

Hill Climbs, Slot Machines and Mini-Golf

As a large group, we enjoyed breakfast together and then Kim, Rob, Macradee, Grandma and Papa all prepared to leave Sturgis and return to their homes. Before noon the majority of the crew had departed and we were left to relax and sit around doing basically nothing.

However, around lunch time Dad Allen was receiving a phone call asking that he pick up his guitar and make his way down to the Nite Owl to perform some songs and help draw in a crowd from the busy streets of downtown Sturgis. Harland got himself gathered up quick and Mike, Melissa and Brenda planned to go see him sing as soon as they accomplished a few tasks around the house and gave Harland sufficient time to set up and begin playing.

Having completed whatever small tasks they had each deemed important the trio made their way downtown to listen to Harland wow the crowd with his smooth voice and awesome strumming skills.

Back at the house, it was time to get settled in for the evening and make our way to bed...just so we would have enough energy to take on the next day!

The morning of the third, we had made plans to walk down the road a way where we would be able to watch a hill climb. That is, we would watch young children and teenagers gun their dirt bikes up an extremely steep hill. This would generally begin with slight revving of the engine then the sight of a bike carrying a small body up the hill and at some point tipping over and dropping the passenger. Fortunately, all the way up the hill there stood at the ready, a number of gentlemen ready to catch falling riders and help them get their bikes off the hill. As a group, we were rather impressed with efficiency of these riders making their way up the hill and stood for about an hour watching as bike after bike attempted to go farther than the last.

With our fill of hill climbing, we made our way back home and got ourselves ready to go down to Deadwood to serve as Mystery Shoppers. We were being given a free meal just to go sit in the casino and evaluate the service of the employees. Between the four of us, we had one special Mystery Shopper ticket which we would hand to the employee that best served our needs and the needs of their business. Melissa was elected "prime" Mystery Shopper and given the ticket so that, as she received extraordinary service she could hand over the prize to the deserving employee and the four of us could go and enjoy our dinner!

Arriving at the casino we all sat down to enjoy a few games and begin our evaluation of customer service. Within minutes, Harland and Brenda were offered complimentary drinks while Mike and Melissa sat, wishing they had something to wet their whistle. Eventually, Mike was offered a drink while Melissa continued to yearn for some thirst-quenching water or soda or ANYTHING! Within the couple of hours the four of us meandered through the casino, Melissa was never once offered a drink or even carded! However, at one point, a machine printed out a poorly inked ticket, so a helpful and friendly maintence man was quick to fix the problem and make sure all else was at it should be. Thank you fine sir, you have earned yourself the Mystery Shopper reward - hope you get something nice for yourself, as for us, we're off to eat our late lunch.

Stuffed to the brim with all you can eat salad, meat and dessert we made our way to a few other casinos (where Melissa still seemed to have a hard time being served...) before making our way to the mini-golf green. We played a good game without ever adding up the score - but Melissa is fairly certain it was nota win for her, although she did manage a hole-in-one!

With a full day of fun and excitement under our belts, we made our way through the canyon and make to the parents house where we enjoyed unrestrained use of the internet and the promise of a comfy bed!

Are you Wearin' Black?

Day 36: August 1, 2009 - Sturgis, SD

The Official Color of Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Trivia Question #2: How long does it take 8 adults and 1 child to get ready in the morning?

Answer: Over 4 hours.

At our earliest, as a group, we were up around 5:30 am; at our latest 9:00 am. Melissa is no longer the only morning person. Together with her dad, she helped prepare Papa's famous breakfast of bacon, eggs and potatos in one skillet while the rest of the family members took showers, woke up and talked about the days objectives.

Eventually, everyone had eaten breakfast, showered, dressed and agreed to head downtown. We circled a few blocks and parking lots before finding a good spot for all of us to park our cars and make our way into the excitement of it all! Entering Downtown Sturgis during the Rally is nothing short of a challenge. One must be aware of moving bikes, parked bikes, men with large beer bellies, women who forgot to dress, dropped polish dogs, aggressive t-shirt salesmen, tourists who accidently stumbled into this chaos and of course your own two feet. Macradee, Melissa's three year old cousin loves motorcycles, thank goodness that was her focus and she was, in turn the focus of all the Cushing women. We walked her through the downtown vendors and scored her a couple of Biker Babe shirts and an invitation to Kidz Zone while the men of the family enjoyed some refreshment at a couple different establishments.

Having seen all we had come to see (and more), we said good-bye to Grandma and Papa and began making our way to the town park where some church groups around the country had created a kid safe zone. The park was sanctioned off specifically for this group and the purpose of children. They had brought in large inflatable obstacle courses, bouncy houses, and games. Macradee had a blast, all 6 remaining adults stood watching in near jealousy.

Finally able to get our sweet girl out of the fun and games we made our way back to the house where we met up with Grandma and Papa. From here: Harland, Brenda, Rob and Kim headed back downtown to continue their Sturgis experience; Mike prepared to climb a nearby hill and discover what the orange thing was that we could see from the front porch; and the rest stayed behind to enjoy a peaceful evening taking care of Macradee.

Macradee kept Melissa busy at the house, making sure she was coloring and looking through the "bi-knockles" (binoculars) to see if we could find Mike, or any other man for that matter. Grandma and Papa made some paper airplanes for Macradee and she had a fabulous time flying them, even if they merely took a nose dive.

Meanwhile, Mike was booking it up the hill so as to not lose daylight. Little did he know that the rock would be fairly close and easy to get to and within an hour he had reached his ultimate destination. Now was the moment we had all been waiting for, the discovery of a lifetime, Mike was to discover, that at the top of the hill, colored orange was...a rock. Just a rock. A rock covered in orange paint as if by high school prank. Realizing he had a great view of the city, Mike took a few shots and also made a few artistic shots of the hills and vegetation before returning to the house.

Eventually, the day and night activities were finished for the day and all parties made it to bed with many images competing for dream space, but few of us know which of those images won out and what are dreams held this night. For us, the memories are blank, leaving us to conclude the day was simply too full of fun to have memorable dreams - they had been made during the day.

Changing Homes

Day 35: July 31, 2009 - Ten Sleep, WY to Sturgis, SD

Let's Get Ready to Rally!!!

Trivia Question: Out of Mike, Josiah, Abram, Melissa and Mallory; which ones are morning people?

Drum roll please...If you guessed, Melissa, you are absolutely correct!!!

Melissa spent two and a half hours of complete silence and solitude this morning because she is the only freak-of-nature-morning person out of this crew. After 2 hours of meandering and re-organizing, she busted out some pancake mix to curb her own appetite and await the appetites of others. Finally, around 10:30 am, a few of the night-owls and late-birds began to rise and were convinced to eat a few pancakes for breakfast.

The five of us enjoyed some ending conversation and the long process of saying good-bye to cherished friends, new and old. With our good-byes said and the cabin in leaving-condition we loaded ourselves in Nav-E and made our way out of the Big Horn Mountains over to the Black Hills.

As always, the Big Horns were beautiful and we even anticipated a little snow, but did not receive such a blessing. Arriving in Buffalo, we stopped for gas and a sandwich at the Breadboard and made our way onto I-90 with the end goal being Sturgis, SD.

Compared to some of our Road Trip days, the trip was reletively short and upon arrival in Sturgis we were not only greeted by hundreds of thousands of motorcycles and Melissa's wonderful parents, but we were also surprised to see Grandma and Papa Cushing sitting on the front porch awaiting our arrival! What joy it was to see so many of the family members we love in such a short period of time. We joined the four on the porch and began chatting about our travels and awaiting the arrival of three more special guests: Melissa's Uncle Rob, Aunt Kim and sweet cousin Macradee. They eventually arrived and we all enjoyed a meal together and some classic family chatting and being entertained by the youngest. Soon enough, we were all convinced it was time to hit the hay and prepare our bodies for the days to come.