Sunday, December 1st, 2019
Rapid City, SD and St. Paul, MN
It’s 8 am MST and I am waking up to the end of a 24-hour blizzard. The weather forecast suggests that conditions will be good enough to fly out of Rapid City at my scheduled time of 7 pm.
At 9 am I meet my parents in the lobby for breakfast. I sit by the window and stare at large drifts of snow. Snowplows have created pathways to the roads and the town is starting to wake after a day-long hibernation. We take our time at breakfast and discuss the very limited options of how to spend the day. The hotel staff says that the road to the airport will be clear, but there is really no chance of visiting anywhere else.
Around 11 am we are checking out of the hotel and my Dad is pulling the rental car around to the lobby pick-up area. When I open the passenger side door, I can not believe my eyes. There is a layer of snow at least 2 inches thick covering two-thirds of the backseat, the entire floor, and most of the passenger’s side seat. My Dad left one of the windows open. I immediately start posting pictures to all of my social media accounts.
As my Mom approaches, I can hear her trademarked, low grumble of dissatisfaction; I recognize this sound from my childhood. Dad continues to pretend this is not really happening.
Eventually, my Dad declares that he will take care of the situation by going to Walmart. I am skeptical but ultimately have no choice. I find a comfortable seat in the hotel lobby and spend some quality time with my Mom.
About 1.5 hours later, my Dad returns. The snow is gone and the seats are covered with bathmats. I can’t stop laughing.
It’s now 1pm. The town remains mostly shut down from the blizzard and my flight does not leave until 7pm. We load into the car to take a drive. Downtown Rapid City is littered with bronze statues of all of the American Presidents. We decide to find each person’s favorite President. I pick Abe Lincoln. His statue is nearly buried in snowdrifts, but we somehow manage to find it and get a picture. Next, we come across the town’s graffiti wall, which runs along the inside of a narrow alleyway. I get out to take some pictures, but the alleyway turns out to be more of a wind tunnel and I can barely stand the cold.
We notice a small spice shop that appears to be open. We wander in and the store manager immediately announces that we can look around but will not be able to buy anything, since the Internet is down. This works well since we did not want to buy anything anyways. Nonetheless, we spend nearly 45 minutes looking at different flavors of salt and talking to the manager. It’s nice to be out of the hotel.
The next stop is the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company. We browse for a while and then end up buying a few truffles. I eat mine on the way back to the car. There is still time to kill and, luckily we find an open coffee shop called Essence of Coffee. I can not drink any more coffee, though, so I opt for a bottle of sparkling water instead.
Around 2:30 pm we start the drive to the airport. In an effort to hide the snow-related debacle, we throw the bathmats into a gas station trash can before returning the rental car. The small airport is packed. All of the flights are running, but they are on a skeleton crew, since not everyone could make it into work. The security line takes nearly an hour. Nonetheless, we are still 3 full hours early for my flight. I luck out by finding a table for 4 in the only restaurant. At least we don’t have to spend all this time at the gate.
My parent’s flight leaves first. We say our goodbyes and then I immediately order another glass of wine. My flight is about 30 minutes late. Once we board we have to wait another 30 minutes to get access to the de-icing machine. By the time we land in Minneapolis-St Paul, I have missed my connecting flight. It’s late and there is no chance of getting home this evening. I check in with customer service and they help book a new flight for tomorrow morning at 11am. Oh well, bonus vacation.
I book a room at the Country Inn and Suites by the Mall of America. It’s an easy cab ride to get there. I finally check in at 11:30 pm. The lobby attendant lets me know the hotel is connected to a TGI Fridays and that they serve food until 2am. I never thought I’d be so excited to go to a TGI Friday’s in a mall!
I easily find a corner table in the bar and order chicken wings plus a glass of cabernet. I am tired and don’t even pretend to look at my phone as I blatantly people watch and eat with my hands. By the time I leave, my wine glass is covered in buffalo sauce as well as part of my face. I don’t even care.
When I return to my room, I am extremely happy at the amount of space and quality of the bedding. I shower and am asleep in plenty of time to catch a good night’s rest.
