BEDA Day 25 - South Dakota

As a kid growing up, I spent a good amount of time every summer in South Dakota.  My mom grew up there and we would go every year to visit my grandparents.  My grandpa died when I was 6 but my grandma is still alive at 101 years of age!  She lived in South Dakota, in her own home, until she was 100.  Last fall, my mom went out and moved grandma to upstate New York to live with my aunt (my mom's sister) and her family.

South Dakota in the summer is, in a word, HOT.  And muggy.  And buggy.  Okay, that's three words.  

This morning I got to thinking about South Dakota (or SoDak as we call it sometimes) because I was drinking McDonald's coffee.  My grandma, bless her heart, drinks instant coffee and it's horrible.  So for the last five years or so, since I've been a coffee drinker, I have had to venture out to find decent caffeination. 

Get this: they have no Starbucks in her town.  No.  Starbucks.  At.  All.

They did have a coffee shop called Latté Da, but the prices weren't impressive.  So I went to the next best place.. Mickey D's!  Any size coffee for a dollar.  And it's actually good!  So I would buy like 4 large coffees and put them in the fridge and be set for a few days at Grandma's.

The other day, our coffee pot broke, so I've been doing the Mickey D's coffee trick here at home while I wait for the replacement pot to be shipped from Amazon.  And it reminded me of my grandma.  So I started thinking about SoDak memories....

-Playing croquet in my grandma's front yard with my aunt, uncle, cousin, mom and grandma.  When I was really young (like 3) they let me hit the ball as many times as I wanted.  I basically ran around the yard whacking the ball repeatedly until it went through all the wickets and hit the stake.  Then I'd yell, "I WIN!"

-Using the rolling ottoman as a surfboard in grandma's long basement, and hearing the sickening crunch when the ottoman rolled over dead crickets on the floor.

-Swimming in the town pool with my uncle and him swimming up behind me under water and scaring the heck out of me.  I always begged him, "Again!  Again!"

-Eating watermelon with my uncle in grandma's driveway and spitting the seeds as far as we could.  And lighting fireworks there on the the 4th of July.

-Playing on grandpa's stationary bike.. which apparently I thought was hilarious!

-Playing in grandma's giant backyard.

the view

-Visiting the museums around the area.

-Posing for pictures in front of grandma's old, out of tune piano.

-Watching Back to the Future on grandma's old Zenith TV.

-Later, when I was older, riding a bike I bought for $40 at Walmart all around the town, exploring, going to Hyvee and buying a journal and pens, buying soda at Carey's, going into the used bookstore in downtown.

-Taking Corky there in 2009 and running to the cemetery and back, racing down the road, Corky tripped and fell and rolled.  Lol!

-Going to Sioux City, IA, in the summer of 2012 and visiting the Mid America Air Museum to satisfy my inner aviation geek.

-Visiting my grandma there in 2012 for Christmas... taking her to church and opening gifts.  We lit a pine scented candle so it would smell like there was a Christmas tree.  We baked scones and cookies and took grandma to Dairy Queen (her favorite) and it snowed and snowed and snowed.

The ubiquitous bathroom selfie

Thank you, McD's

I don't know if I'll ever see my grandma again.  She's 101 and kind of on her way out.  But at least I have lots of memories... at least I have those.