Rapid City

We drove into Rapid City again today, this time mainly to do our laundry. We went to Laundry World, and it turned out to be another unusual laundry experience. We were greeted on entry and given lots of info about the machines and directed to the free detergent. Signs indicate that it is provided mainly for environmental reasons (it doesn't contain fillers, and the five-gallon buckets it comes in are recycled), but they also mention that this detergent has less tendency to clog washing machine parts. This was also the first laundromat we've ever encountered with tanning beds and an espresso bar.

While we were there, one of the forecast scattered thunderstorms hit and cut the power for a few minutes. It knocked out traffic lights, too. I dropped off our contributions to the imaginatively named Thrift Store nearby, including the large comforter we picked up for our guests to use in Yellowstone.

After the laundry was done, we drove to the Civic Center to visit the Berlin Wall Memorial. Two large segments of the wall, formerly near between Checkpoint Charlie, form the focal point of the memorial, which also includes two tank traps (welded sections of railroad track designed to stop tanks) and several information boards, including photos of East Germans attempting escape and being shot. I found the exhibit very moving.

We walked around the memorial park, which includes a reflecting pond, rose gardens, a band shell, and a veterans memorial. The park was originally dedicated to the 238 victims of the flood of 1972, whose names are inscribed on a monument. Rapid Creek, the site of the flood, flows through the park.

While we were in town we stopped at Best Buy, so Ken could drool over the laptops, and then at Lowe's. We were looking for Jig-a-Loo (a silicone spray, which we didn't find). While we were there we decided to look for the Weber grill that Dennis and Cheryl had recommended--the Weber Go-Anywhere Gas Grill. Lowe's had it for the same price as Amazon, so we bought it (of course, we did have to pay sales tax, but we didn't have to wait until we landed somewhere we could receive UPS deliveries). We'll donate our old lightweight grill, which never really worked well for us.

After dinner, we played a rousing game of Upwords, which Ken narrowly won.