...18 years ago...

We get up and check out at 12. Eat and begin drive across South Dakota to Rapid City. Dan drives - roads are OK. Lee drives - roads get worse. We see signs for "Wall Drug" - sort of the "South of The Border" of the great plains states. He stops there. The roads are ice.

You can stop on by Wall Drug online. (And here too). And yes - South of The Border has a site.

We go in - only open for 5 more minutes. We leave and I drive the 50 miles left to Rapid City. We eat at a pizza joint and call Scott - he meets us there. We drive and see the room we'll play in. Big like the room in Penn State (slightly smaller). He takes us to "Hall Inn" - a bar. We meet lots of people - drink. Dan takes Lee and Dave to a house where they are staying then comes back for us. Takes Joe, Rod and I to Waldo's house to unload gear. Then we go back to bar with him. Dan goes back to the house where Lee and Dave are (we do a 180 in the parking lot before we got in).

I don't know whether we got our free ice water from Wall Drug or not. The was so damn much ice outside anyway!

Drink. Lots of people. We leave at closing about 1AM. Drive to "Hardy's" to eat. We are called "Geeks" by these 2 girls and their boy friends. We verbally assault them and leave - apparently in time because the cops showed up. Back to the house [Waldo's]. Some of the people from the bar show up. Talk. I crash about 2:30 - others shortly after. This is a friendly town.

If I remember correctly, this was a town that only sold "Near Beer". I think it was more than 1 percent alcohol, but less than we were used to. We found we could drink all night with less effect than most everywhere else.