Friday was kind of a slow day for us. We got up at 5 AM so we could watch the weather and the tennis at Wimbledon, hung about the house so we could learn the rules and finally went over to the South Dakota School of Mining and Technology (the Home of the Hard Rockers) where we could catch up on email.
John offered to write today’s blog about our accommodations –
Mary has asked me to be guest blogger for our post regarding Audrie’s Abend Haus B & B (Heinrich Cottage) just outside of Rapid City, South Dakota. It’s a charming cabin located beside a babbling brook. (Yes, it does indeed babble, although I think with a German accent.)
By now you must know that Mary and I are serious tech weenies and devoted foodies, so we had to deal with what this cottage does NOT have: no telephone, no cell phone service (blocked by the breathtaking canyon walls carved over millenia by the aforementioned babbling brook), no Internet (accounting for the tardiness of these posts), and no cooking facilities other than a microwave oven.
You must also know that we are tennis hounds, so we were glad to find that the cottage DID have a nice TV and enough cable service to provide us with ESPN2 and NBC so we could watch the competition and the rain that are Wimbledon. But being on Mountain Time is tricky since no program schedule announcement is ever made in that dialect.
The Heinrich Cottage was also chock full of helpful signs announcing the rules of the house, an example of which is shown here. There were instructions on how to shower, how to take off makeup, how to use the hot tub, how to prepare the breakfasts that were mysteriously provided to us each day when while we were out, and many more. (PS: despite following the microwave egg-poaching instructions perfectly, one egg still exploded inside the oven.)
Probably the most endearing touch was the large bison head mounted on the wall facing the bedroom area. At first we found his gaze somewhat unnerving, but after a while we decided he was actually quite cute. We named him Adolf, in keeping with the naming conventions of the place. We did wonder whether he was responsible for monitoring our compliance with the rules, and whether he was the one who told the elves that they could come in and deliver breakfast fixin’s for the following day.
