Rapid City - "Home Sweet Home" - Last Part

I'm concluding this part of the story with the second day I was in Rapid City.  I woke up to another cold, windy day, with snow showers.  While making coffee I watched the news and was so surprised to hear about President Obama's selection for the Nobel Peace award.  I'm a great fan of this President, and while he definitely has his detractors, I believe he does deserve to be recognized for the actions he's taken toward world peace.  And that's all I'll say about it here.

I waited until after the President's speech to go to breakfast.  I walked across the street to a little restaurant named Tally's.  I had a small one-egg breakfast and then headed back to the beauty school for my pedicure.  I had told the hotel clerk that I had an appointment that would take me past the 11:00 checkout time, and he said I could have until noon before I'd be charged for another day.

For the next hour and a half my feet were pampered and I had a lovely conversation with Elisha.  She painted my toenails a wonderful shade of bright coral; however, two coats were taking quite a lot of time to dry, and noon was approaching fast.  I didn't want to put on my shoes because I'd mess up the polish, so I gave my payment to Elisha to take care of, put on my coat, and carried my shoes out the door...I walked barefoot, on the cold pavement - it was a short walk to the hotel, and as weird as it sounds, my feet didn't seem to mind the temperature!  It was also fun to do something I'd never done before, that most females do when they are silly teenagers!

I got back to the hotel just in time to collect my bag out of my room and check out - 12:04 p.m.  As the bus was not leaving until 5:30 I spent the rest of the day speaking with the hotel clerk about the current downtown affairs regarding the historic district - politics as usual - and taking photos of some of the details of the lobby.  For more information about the Alex Johnson Hotel you can go to this link:  http://www.alexjohnson.com/info/history.html 

I also spent some time visiting again with the women in the hotel gift shop, and working some sudoku puzzles.  About 3:00 I left with my bag and headed for a late lunch at the Firehouse Brewery.  I bought a Philly cheese sandwich, ate half and took the rest with me for another meal later, after I boarded the bus.  I then walked down to the bus station around 4:30.  The skies were gray and the wind was harsh.  When I got to the station I inquired about the bus and was told that a decision to run the route would be made later; the bus might not be going because of bad weather (snow) west of Rapid City...Eventually it was decided that the bus would be going as scheduled.  At 5:30 the passengers boarded, and we were off to another adventure!