About Mark Petruska

I'm a writer/editor and self-published author leaving the Pacific Northwest for a fresh start in Rapid City, South Dakota in 2018.

Week One Done

Posted on May 18, 2019 by Mark Petruska

My first “week” at the new job is now in the can and I am loving every minute of it! I put week in parentheses because it was actually three days, but starting on a Wednesday had its perks. Namely the preceding long weekend.

An Ode to Doris

Posted on May 12, 2019 by Mark Petruska

I have become obsessed with learning all I can about the woman whose house we are buying. Fortunately, in this day and age, info is pretty easy to come by. Googling her name brought up her obituary and a whole lot of info. Here’s what we know: Doris was 79 when she passed away on February 10. She was a lifelong Rapid City resident, a teacher, and a respected artist renowned for her pottery. She also apparently baked a mean gingerbread cookie. Guests left comments on her online obit, including this gem:

Doris was our neighbor for 39 years. She will be missed. We watched our children grow up together with the band of other neighborhood children, and took joy in seeing grandchildren perched on the “giant rocks” in Doris’ backyard as their parents had before them. We know that Doris has found the peace that she shared with us every day as we looked upon the beauty and tranquility of her garden.

I feel like we have big shoes to fill. More than one person mentioned the backyard and those rocks. They are a prominent feature; I even asked the inspector about them last week. He said they most likely were dug up out of the ground when the basement was being built. Considering she lived there for four decades, I’m sure the house has all kinds of her energy in there. I will admit, I was trying to find out if she died on the property. I found no evidence either way, but if I’m really curious I can always check the county clerk’s office for her death certificate, which lists where a person expires. I do know that she is buried in the cemetery adjacent to the neighborhood. We’ll have to pay our respects one day. Also, if I can ever get my hands on a piece of her pottery, I would love to have that in the house as an ode to Doris.

Meanwhile, we continue to experience odd events around the apartment. Friday night, for instance, the TV downstairs turned on by itself in the middle of the night. I only know this because I woke up at 1:30 and heard voices in the living room. Freaked me out pretty good. Tara suspects Sydney might have accidentally stepped on the remote control and powered the television on. This is a perfectly plausible scenario.

Or would be, if she weren’t sleeping in our bed with us that night.

So, we are joking that it’s Doris. We don’t really believe the deceased owner of the house we are buying is hanging around us all of a sudden, but it’s interesting that these events (the TV and lamp coming on by themselves, loud banging noises in the empty kitchen) started happening as soon as we made an offer on the place.

After venturing out of town the past two weekends we were hoping for a quieter, more relaxing one this time around, but we needed to get flooring and carpeting picked out because our estimated closing date of June 7 will be here in no time. So we ended up visiting several home improvement and flooring stores and finally found things we liked at Lowe’s.

We ended up choosing bamboo flooring for the living room, kitchen, and hallway; vinyl sheeting for the bathrooms; and new carpeting for the bedrooms. (We aren’t changing a thing in the basement!) We definitely wanted hardwood, and not only was bamboo the most reasonably priced, but my research shows it’s very durable and is an especially good choice for pets. So, bamboo it is! Lowe’s will be setting up an appointment to take measurements before giving us an estimate. We have a rough idea of what it will cost but are curious to see the final numbers. It sounds like the timing will work out well; they said it’ll take around 4-6 weeks for the contractors to do the installation, which would give us time to strip the wallpaper and paint first.

After all that running around, we dropped in to Murphy’s Pub & Grill for a celebratory dinner. We toasted to my new job, our new house, and Doris in the same place where we made that fateful (and very smart) decision 19 months ago to roll the dice and move to Rapid City. It seemed both appropriate and full-circle.

The buffalo meatloaf was featured on the Travel Channel and is pretty legendary.

Today, I decided to explore the hiking trails in the hills above our neighborhood. The trailhead is a five-minute jaunt from our front door, and it connects to the entire network of Skyline Wilderness trails that offer great views of the Black Hills to the west, downtown to the east, and the vast prairie. We can even walk to Dinosaur Park from our house. This hiking nerd could not be happier.

View from the trail in our neighborhood. Our house is somewhere in the center of this photo.

Speaking of, I plan to hike Black Elk Peak – the highest point east of the Rockies – tomorrow. I want to take advantage of my two extra days of freedom before starting my new job. Tara warned me not to fall off a cliff, and I assured her I would be careful. (This particular trail doesn’t traverse any particularly steep precipices, so I’ll be fine.) I told her yeah, that would really suck for you. She replied, it would suck for you even more.

Touché.

Lenny Kravitz: Good Luck Charm

Posted on May 9, 2019 by Mark Petruska

If it seems like I’m posting more often than usual these days, that’s because I’m posting more often than usual these days. What can I say? There is a lot going on in my life and I want to record it all for posterity.

Plus, I’ve had lots of requests for house pics, so there is that.

Yesterday, we had our home inspection. These things are always a little nerve-wracking; the inspector could discover something seriously wrong with the house that forces you to back out of the deal. Fortunately, that did not happen. Instead, he concluded our house is in very good shape. It has been well-maintained and obviously cared for; the foundation is solid, the roof is new, and there are no major issues to worry about. There are a few minor concerns, mostly electrical-related issues, but those are easy fixes. We’ll need to have the heating ducts cleaned, replace some outlets with GFCIs, that sort of thing. A chimney inspection is probably a wise idea, too. But all in all, everything looks great. After hearing the story behind our purchase – the out-of-state sellers handling their mom’s estate, the offer they accepted without countering, what we will end up paying – and thoroughly examining the property, he concluded that we are getting a great deal, especially for this part of town.

What a relief!

Oh, fun fact: the day we first went to look at the house, I was listening to a Lenny Kravitz playlist I made on Spotify. We ended up putting in the offer and it was accepted the next day. So on the way over to the inspection, I figured I’d play Lenny again. And we passed with flying colors. Lenny Kravitz, it seems, is my good luck charm.

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Next step? The bank will order an appraisal. These are taking about four weeks currently, which is a lot faster than we’d figured. After that, we’ll close. Great!…

…except for the fact that our apartment lease does not expire until July 25.

Nothing much we can do about that. Everything has happened much more quickly than anticipated. We hope to take advantage of the overlap by doing the painting and remodeling before actually moving in. But how hard is it going to be to go back to a small apartment every night once we have the keys to a beautiful home? It’ll all just depend on our contractor’s schedule. Apparently a lot of them are booked pretty far in advance. Tara took measurements of all the upstairs rooms this morning so we’ll know exactly how much flooring and carpeting is needed. We plan to jump right on that and start looking at samples as soon as possible. Like, tonight. The clock is ticking!

Worst case scenario, we can “live” in the basement while they’re working on the upstairs. I mean, that’s where we’ll be spending most of our time anyway. We’d just have to keep Sydney corralled.

She is going to love moving for the second summer in a row.

Measuring for the hardwood floors.

We love these vintage angled cabinets!

All appliances are included.

Yes, that is snow you see falling. On May 8.

The grass in the backyard is so green right now!

Work has been slow this week. Tomorrow is my last day! Seems like I was just freaking out over giving my two-week’s notice. I’ve had a few proposals to work on and some loose ends to tie up, but otherwise, not a lot to do. I am definitely feeling a disconnect this week. The company just landed a huge contract, one that will be a real game-changer, and everybody has been meeting behind closed doors all week strategizing over the details. I am happy for them, but man, are they going to have their work cut out for them. This company is going to look dramatically different a year from now; I don’t know whether to feel relieved that I’m getting out now, or melancholy about missing out on this big opportunity. Maybe a little of both? My boss has made it a point to remind me at least once a day that “you can still stay!”, ha. I appreciate that, but I am following my heart and excited to begin my new job next Wednesday.

This weekend we might be driving to Sundance, Wyoming to buy a table and chairs Tara found online. “They’ll be perfect for game nights!” she declared. She is not wrong about that. It’s adorable to see her so excited over house stuff.

Dakota Thunder vs. Salem Sue

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Mark Petruska

North Dakota is weird.

Don’t get me wrong. I like weird! I’m the guy who drove miles out of his way to check out Carhenge, after all. I’m simply making an observation.

If you’re wondering what makes North Dakota weird, let’s start with the state’s odd obsession with giant animals. During our weekend visit, we paid homage to both the world’s largest buffalo and the world’s largest Holstein cow.

Dakota Thunder, the pride of Jamestown.

Salem Sue. Don’t ask me to explain the veins because I have no freakin’ idea.

You could see Sue from miles away on the interstate. We had to pull over and check her out!

DT looms large over the landscape, too.

I haven’t bothered to verify either of those claims, but make no mistake about it, each is unequivocally pretty damn big. I’m not sure which I liked better, Dakota Thunder or Salem Sue. Both were located on ridges with sweeping views of the surrounding prairie, so that was a draw. And they both satisfied my kitsch-loving heart equally.

Overall, we had a good time. Lots of driving, but also, lots of hanging out with our blogging friend Karri and her best friend, Ryan. We hit the road Friday at 1:00 for the six-hour trek to Jamestown. The first 3/4 of the trip was over two-lane county roads with a ratio of about 100 cows to every person. The good news? I was able to drive 80 mph most of the way, which shaved about half an hour off our travel time. We didn’t hit an interstate until we got to Mandan and connected with I-94. Jamestown was about another hour from there. We finally rolled into town around 8:00, having lost an hour to the Central time zone. Karri and Ryan beat us by about 30 minutes.

After checking in and freshening up, Tara and I walked over to a taphouse (fancy name for “bar and grill”) conveniently located between their motel and ours. We timed it perfectly because they were just walking up to the place when we got there. I’d told Tara I wanted to mess around with them and asked her to play along, but my wife cannot keep a straight face to save her life. I introduced her as “Tu-Rah” in a high-pitched voice and hoped to keep up the charade for at least half an hour, but “Tear-Uh” started laughing right off the bat and outed me. The jig was up before it even got started.

I need to teach my wife how to develop a poker face. A p-p-p-poker face.

You never know what a person is going to be like in real life after only knowing their online persona, but Karri and I go back more than 15 years (!) and I was pretty confident we’d get along just fine. Sure enough, we found her to be very outgoing and bubbly. Sure, she talked funny (being Canadian and all), but she was our kind of people. She and Tara really hit it off. Ryan’s a good guy, too. It’s hard to explain their relationship to outsiders; Karri is married, but not to Ryan. She visits him in the U.S. for three weeks at a stretch twice a year (he lives in International Falls, Minnesota – the icebox of America) and he makes the trip north to hang out with her and Pat, too. It’s an unconventional friendship but completely innocent and works for them. She calls them her “mantourage,” lol. Ryan seems quiet and reserved, but man, he’s got this deadpan humor that catches you off guard when he decides to let loose. At one point he said something so goddamn funny I literally spit my beer out. Karri pointed out later that he was actually reading aloud something I had written, but he was doing it in a funny voice and I just lost it. He and I are similar in many regards – certainly from a humor standpoint.

It’s a good thing we all got along so well, because we spent an awful lot of time together. Closed down the taphouse Friday night, then met up for breakfast at Perkin’s Saturday morning and didn’t part ways until 13 hours later (minus a 30-minute break to freshen up). We drove around Jamestown, visited Dakota Thunder, went shopping at Goodwill (because what else is there to do in North Dakota?), killed a few hours in a little pub downtown, and hung out in their room for a few more hours talking and laughing. We ended up ordering Domino’s for a late dinner before finally calling it a night around 11:00. Said our goodbyes then because we were hitting the road bright and early Sunday. Long drive home and all.

We took a longer route home because we were initially planning on detouring through Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but when we got there it was overcast and cold AF and actually started snowing a little, plus Tara had forgotten her camera and Rapid City was still another four hours away. We’re planning on coming back and making a weekend of it – taking our time exploring the park as well as the Enchanted Highway and spending the night in Dickinson. Possibly this summer if time permits, but we’ve got a house to move into and lots of work to do there, so we’ll see how that pans out.

We finally got home around 3:00 and still had to do our grocery shopping, so we drove to Safeway, but not before swinging by our house first. The For Sale sign had an “Under Contract” banner on top and that was a beautiful sight to behold. The sellers cashed our earnest money check and our realtor has a signed purchase agreement, so it’s all pretty official now. We’ve scheduled a home inspection for Wednesday morning, so barring anything unforeseen (knock on wood) things will really start moving fast.

Once we were finally home for good we fired up Saturday Night Live (Adam Sandler killed it BTW), plopped down on the loveseat, and relaxed for the first time in days. And then some very weird things started happening…

First, the living room lamp turned on by itself. It’s got a three-way bulb and you actually have to turn the switch three times to get it to cycle through all the settings. The weird thing is, it turned on to the middle setting. I thought maybe the bulb was loose so I checked that, but nope – it was screwed in pretty solidly. A little while later, right in the middle of SNL, the TV switched itself to Netflix. “What the hell is going on?!” I asked, perplexed. As soon as the words left my mouth, there was a loud bang from the kitchen…but nobody was in there. We just looked at each other, perplexed. Tara joked that it’s the owner of the house we’re buying. She did just pass away, after all. I’ve had experiences of this sort in my life before, but never in that apartment. Tara swears she heard strange noises in the middle of the night, too. Hmm…

It’s my last week of work here at PSI. Everybody is in really good spirits because we just landed a huge five-year government contract worth a LOT of money. It’s the elusive big break they have been seeking for 10+ years and will completely change the face of the company. Kind of bittersweet that I won’t be around to see them reap the rewards, but at the same time they will be adding a lot more staff and you never know how things will shake out in the long run. I’m happy for them and also happy for me, for landing this great new job opportunity.

It’s a win/win for us all.

“Cue the Deer!”

Posted on May 3, 2019 by Mark Petruska

Have you ever seen the movie “Funny Farm” starring Chevy Chase? It’s a 1988 comedy about a NYC sportswriter who moves to a small town in Vermont to pursue his dream of writing a novel. Andy Farmer and his wife, Elizabeth, have a difficult time fitting in with the oddball locals, and eventually decide to sell their house. In order to entice potential buyers, they pay the townsfolk to help make a good impression. Much hilarity ensues, including one scene in which Andy picks up a walkie-talkie and instructs a co-conspirator to “Cue the deer!” At that point a baby doe is released from a pen and trots across the yard, thoroughly charming the couple looking at the house. funnyfarm

It’s a great, underrated film. Check it out.

Tara and I found ourselves living a scene from “Funny Farm” Wednesday afternoon. We had gone to look at a house, a new listing she had emailed to me at 1:00. Stepping out of the car, it was love at first sight. The house was situated in a quiet neighborhood at the base of the Dakota Hogback Ridge, a mountain range that separates the east and west sides of Rapid City and is home to Dinosaur Park, with great views of the Black Hills to the west. Standing there, we heard the soft whistle of a distant train and the cooing of mourning doves. And then a super friendly neighbor across the street waved to us and gave us a great, big “Hello!” The only thing missing was the deer, come to think of it.

house1

In any case, I was ready to sign on the dotted line right then and there, and our realtor hadn’t even shown up yet. He finally arrived an eternity and a half later and we got to see the inside. The house is an estate; the owner passed away, and her four adult children were handling the transaction from out of state. The interior was definitely dated, but it had a lot of great features – huge kitchen, beautifully landscaped backyard, vintage vertical angled cabinet doors in the bathroom, and a basement that would truly be perfect for our ’70s-loving sensibilities, including the FAKE WOOD PANELING I covet so much and green carpet. Seriously, when we gave our realtor our wish list, we requested the following:

West side location
3 BR, 2 BA minimum
Central A/C
Basement
Fireplace
Fake wood paneling

We didn’t actually expect to find a house with all those things, but this one was IT. Interesting history with the listing. It hit the market 16 days earlier, but they dropped the price $21,000 Wednesday because nobody liked the decor. Everybody’s feedback was so negative! What does it say about me and Tara that we love what others loathed?

Never mind. Rhetorical question.

In any case, we really liked the house, and decided to make an offer on the spot. The previous weekend, we had found a listing we liked on Sunday afternoon, but by the time we emailed our realtor Monday morning requesting a showing, it was already under contract. Lesson learned: if we liked something, we’d waste no time going after it.

Now, this house is in a very desirable neighborhood and with the drop in price was listed pretty competitively with others nearby. Plus, our realtor was impressed, saying “it has good bones.” (I imagine that’s the first thing realtors are taught to say in realtor school.) I wanted to make a full-price offer because I was afraid somebody else would swoop in with a better one and steal it away from us. There were fresh footprints in the snow out back, evidence that others had been by that day to check it out. But Tara wanted to go lower. We’ll have to tear out all the upstairs carpeting (it’s everywhere – even in the kitchen and bathrooms), remove wallpaper, and paint the walls. There is work to be done. So, we ended up making an offer for $6,000 under the reduced price.

Thursday was agony, waiting for a response. I didn’t get a whole lot of work done. And then, at 3:30, Tara called me with the good news. Our offer was accepted. They didn’t even bother countering.

GUYS, WE JUST BOUGHT A HOUSE!!

The kitchen is huge! And…carpeted. That’ll have to go.

How good will our lava lamps look down here?!

Love the backyard and the view to the west. We’ll be able to catch some amazing sunsets!

It’s amazing how quickly this all happened. We barely started our search and only looked at one other property! Hell, it’s amazing this happened at all. Five years ago, fresh off a short sale, my credit in the toilet, home ownership seemed like a distant dream. It took a move to South Dakota to seal the deal. That, the dream job I just landed, and the fact that Tara’s entire department is losing their jobs in Vancouver, WA just goes to show how smart we were to move out here.

Now the fun begins. Home inspections, interior work, packing, moving. Feels like we just did those last two things! Probably because we just did those last two things less than a year ago.

All totally worth it, of course.

May Day (South Dakota-style)

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Mark Petruska

Happy May Day from South Dakota!

Yes, that photo was taken today. Its’ been quite a snowy couple of days. 5″ of heavy, wet snow on Tuesday, and several more inches today. They say that Rapid City has now recorded its 4th-snowiest winter of all time. To that I say…umm, winter ended about 40 days ago! It’s been quite the ride.

(Sorry, Ron.)

Despite the snow these past two days, there have been plenty of signs of spring. Namely, the pasqueflowers (or Pulsatilla if you’re a genus genius). They are also called prairie crocus, Easter flower, wind flower, May Day flower, and meadow anemone. They’re the South Dakota state flower and quite beautiful, adding a nice splash of color to contrast the monochromatic prairie grass. The name is derived from pasakh, the Hebrew word for Passover, the time of year in which these flowers traditionally bloom. Bet you didn’t know I had mad botany skillz.

Or mad Googling skillz. Whatever!

We had seen pasqueflower photos, but it wasn’t until our trip to Wind Cave National Park a couple of weekends ago that we saw one in person for the first time. Tara and I whipped out our cameras and took about a dozen combined pictures of this one solitary specimen. A couple of days later I decided to take a hike along Skyline Wilderness Trail in Rapid City and stumbled upon hundreds and hundreds of them. Made me laugh over my excitement at spotting one flower. They sure are beautiful, huh?

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I’m sure we’ll see them again once the snow melts! (This shouldn’t take long since it’ll be pushing 60° by tomorrow.)

I forgot to recount an interesting experience I had while hiking the Homestake Trail last Saturday. TrailLink describes it thusly:

More than a century ago, steam locomotives lugged supplies from Deadwood to Lead and to the miners at Homestake Mine, once the largest goldmine in the Western Hemisphere. This narrow-gauge track fell out of use in the early 20th century, and with it was lost a storied history that connected the two cities. Today, the Homestake Railroad Grade Trail as its name suggests follows the same route as the old Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley railroad.

This has quickly become a favorite hike in the Black Hills because of the history and solitude. It’s lightly trafficked – we didn’t see another soul the entire four miles – and the views are amazing. There are still sections of railroad track partially buried in a few places. You are following the same route that ferried passengers to and from their homes in Deadwood to their mining jobs in Lead some 130 years ago.

elk horn train

As we were walking along, I swore I could hear distant sounds from the past: the chugging of the steam locomotive as it traversed the ridge, the clatter of the rails, the laughter and cursing of men long since dead, headed home to wives or to the saloon for whiskey. I could picture them, dirty and disheveled, crowded close together, tired after a day of backbreaking work. These images were vivid in my mind. I’m sure they were nothing more than the byproduct of an overactive imagination, but for a few minutes, it felt like I was witness to a slice of pioneer life circa 1890. It wasn’t like seeing a ghost, but rather, feeling the presence of a whole locomotive full of them. I guess? Hard to explain, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Mutual Admiration

Posted on April 28, 2019 by Mark Petruska

Gather ’round, folks. I’ve got a story to share.

Our tale begins on January 2, 2018. We were six months away from leaving the PNW for South Dakota, and while I’d hoped to be able to keep my job with Fuel and work remotely, management wasn’t on board with the plan. While scrolling through Instagram that day, I came across a post from a publishing and media company in Rapid City. Intrigued, I visited their website, and decided on the spot this was a place I wanted to work. They are a small group of creative professionals whose core business is print publishing; they produce a number of magazines, including Black Hills Visitor, a regional travel planning guide, and provide marketing services to locally owned businesses – everything from web development and social media management to design. Everything they do is right up my alley. The only problem? They weren’t hiring a content writer (or any other position, for that matter).

I decided to reach out to them anyway, so I drafted a cold contact letter introducing myself, letting them know I’d be moving out there that summer, and if they ever needed a copywriter I’d love to chat. I submitted it through their website and honestly expected nothing to come of it, so when they emailed me back two hours later to set up a phone interview, I was shocked.

A week later, I had a great conversation with the owner and the managing director. They asked me to send in work samples and promised they’d talk about adding a writing position to the team. I tried not to get my hopes up, but was so excited, Tara and I began discussing the possibility of me moving out here early. A few weeks later, they got back to me and said, while they were impressed with my work, they weren’t ready to add to their team yet. They asked me to keep in touch and stop by when I got to town. I was disappointed but hardly surprised; it had felt like a long-shot anyway.

Exactly six months later, on July 2, I did indeed stop by their office. It was my first day freelancing and I wandered over on my lunch break, since the coffee shop where I was working is located in the same building, immediately next door. The managing director was happy to see me and gave me a tour. Unfortunately, the owner wasn’t in, and I tried a few more times to see him over the summer but he was never available. I finally stopped trying, afraid I’d appear desperate (or they’d think I was a stalker, ha).

Oh, well. It was a nice dream, but clearly not meant to be.

Or so I thought…

Fast-forward to a few weeks ago. Suddenly, a job posting appeared. For a Senior Content Writer. For this very company. Now, I have been gainfully employed since the beginning of the year and was enjoying my job (despite the many challenges in government proposal work), so I debated even responding. But I had too much sort-of history with these guys, and besides, this was truly my Dream Job. Writing creative copy about this place I love so much?! I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by without at least trying, so I applied online. Figured, maybe they won’t even call.

They called.

Two interviews later, they offered me the job. Let me repeat: THEY OFFERED ME THE JOB.

I accepted without hesitation. How could I not?! This is everything I wanted. And they wanted me. I guess you could call it a case of mutual admiration. Ironically enough, I have John Mellencamp to thank for this job. At least partly; my second interview was the day after the concert, and I happened to mention to the owner that we had gone. “That was a great show, wasn’t it?” he replied. Now, I’d had no idea he had gone to the same concert or was even a fan. For half the interview, we chatted about Mellencamp and rock music while the managing director and creative director looked on with bemusement. Those tickets were the best investment we ever made! (The show was awesome, by the way. I’d gush over that more, but this story is long enough as it is.)

So, last Friday afternoon, I had a difficult conversation with my employer and turned in a letter of resignation. I really hated doing that, but to their credit, they responded with grace and dignity, were totally supportive, and encouraged me to follow my passions. I gave them two weeks’ notice; my last day there will be May 10, and then I begin my Dream Job May 15.

How’s that for excitement?!

Also exciting: Tara and I are now officially house hunting. We looked at our first one last week, and while the online listing was very appealing, it was less so in person. Great location, but too many cosmetic and structural issues. It needs a new roof, for instance. Even our realtor said it was overpriced. So, we passed – but the search continues. We are in no hurry and are both confident our perfect house is out there, just waiting to be discovered.

Here are a few random pics from last weekend’s adventure. We went to Wind Cave National Park to celebrate National Park Week. Couldn’t have asked for better weather!

Also exciting, Part II: we just spent my birthday weekend in Deadwood. Went for a nice hike along the Homestake Trail, checked into our room at the historic Bullock Hotel, bought tickets for a ghost tour, had a fantastic dinner at FLYT Steakhouse, spent a few hours playing video blackjack, and called it a night. After a nice breakfast and another few rounds of blackjack, we checked out and came home. It was a nice little getaway. Next weekend, we’re driving to Jamestown, North Dakota, to meet a blogging friend I have known for 15+ years.

The Bullock Hotel was built in 1896 by Deadwood’s first sheriff, Seth Bullock, after his hardware store burned down on this very spot.

Our tour guide showed us a photo of an apparition standing beside her at the top of this staircase. Our room just happened to be at the top of this staircase, as well.

The original foundation wall/basement of Seth Bullock’s hardware store, with burn marks from the 1894 fire still visible.

Burned floor joists in the basement.

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Whew! Quite a few things happening in my life right now and they’re all good. 2019 is shaping up to be a pretty great year.

Eyes on the Prize

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Mark Petruska

Exciting times ahead for Team MarTar. Tara and I now have a realtor and have officially been approved for a mortgage loan. That dream of a white picket fence is actually going to come true!

(Only, I’d take a groovy wood-paneled basement over the fence any day.)

house

We haven’t seen our credit scores yet, but based on the low interest rates and a cap of about $310,000 – much higher than we need (or want), especially around here – I’m guessing they’re good.

That’s a small miracle in itself and one that I would like to dwell on for just a moment. Because, five years ago, the idea of ever being able to buy a house again seemed like an impossibility. Tara’s credit was always solid, but mine, not so much.

Long-time readers will recall that I was forced to do a short sale on my townhouse. It’s not like somebody held a gun to my head and threatened me, but like so many others, I was a victim of the 2008 housing crisis and hopelessly upside down in my mortgage. On top of that, I was still recovering from a 20-month unemployment stint and pretty deeply in debt. Extricating myself from the crappy mortgage and digging myself out of that credit hole felt like a Herculean task when we moved in 2014. I will forever be grateful to Tara for giving me the courage to take such a big step and, more than that, for believing in me. For believing in us. After being a homeowner for 18 years, downsizing to an apartment was tough. But always, I had my eyes on the prize.

Now, it’s almost a reality! One that still seems hard to believe. Moving to Rapid City was a crucial step in turning my literal fortunes around; I simply can’t stress that enough! The low cost of living + the freelance contract with Fuel + full-time employment have put me in a better financial position than I would have dreamed possible even a year ago. Next Friday, I will pay off my very last credit card, leaving me virtually debt-free, with only an easily manageable car payment. It’s an amazing feeling and I can’t help but be proud of myself for turning such a dire situation around.

We’ve been looking at houses around here for nearly two years, but suddenly, we’re looking for real. The right one could come along at any moment, and instead of dreaming of a far-off “someday,” we are ready to pounce. This knowledge makes me view every Zillow listing with new eyes.

Pinch me, I’m dreaming! (But don’t, because if I am, I’d rather not wake up). I am looking forward to documenting this exciting journey here.

We had a blizzard last week. It already seems hard to believe, because even though we ended up with 12″ of snow and missed two days of work, it has all completely melted. Doesn’t take along in the spring, when the temperature can rebound into the 60s in a day or two.

I would guess we’re done with snow for the season, but I certainly wouldn’t put money on that!

Tonight, we have tickets to see John Mellencamp. I’ve been a fan for decades but have never seen him live; we had an opportunity a few years ago in Portland and passed for some stupid reason. I immediately regretted that, so when he announced a tour date in Rapid City of all places, we jumped on it. He’s playing at the civic center downtown and I’m pretty excited. We plan on dinner out first. Possibly Italian, but maybe Mexican. It’ll be a quasi-celebration of sorts for this new journey upon which we are about to embark.

All Shish, No Kebab

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Mark Petruska

One year ago, when we were just beginning the onerous task of preparing for our big move and South Dakota was this great, exciting unknown, I learned about chislic and other regional food favorites of the Midwest. Chislic is simply deep fried cubes of meat, liberally seasoned with garlic salt and other spices. It is traditionally served on toothpicks and accompanied by Saltine crackers. Think of it as a shish kebab that is all shish, no kebab. While its origins are open to debate, most believe GermanRussian emigrants in southeastern South Dakota – some pinpoint Freeman, and have christened a 30-mile radius around the town “Chislic Circle” – are to thank for the dish, which has become an icon of South Dakota. Lamb, beef, and venison are the meat of choice. “Shashlyk” is a popular dish of cubed meat originating in the Crimea region of Russia, so it seems reasonable that this is what evolved into the beloved regional delicacy few people outside of South Dakota have even heard of.

The South Dakota State Legislature passed Senate Bill 96 in 2018, making chislic the official state nosh.

I’m all about trying regional cuisines, and was eager to sample chislic when we moved here. It didn’t take me long to find it, either. Despite claims that chislic is confined to East River – local slang for the area east of the Missouri River, i.e., eastern South Dakota – it’s pretty readily available in the western part of the state. I’ve had the pleasure of trying about half a dozen versions since moving, and I’ve gotta say, I’m a fan. It’s hard to go wrong with fried cubes of meat!

You might notice in this photo that the meat is not skewered. Only once have I had it served with toothpicks (and it has never been accompanied by crackers, Saltines or otherwise). Out in West River, restaurants usually serve chislic with a side of dipping sauce – often a sweet and tangy barbecue sauce. And the meat has always been beef. Sometimes it’s breaded, other times it’s naked. The only thing consistent across the board? It’s always delicious. The photo above was, hands down, my favorite. The meat was so tender it practically melted in your mouth and was perfectly seasoned. This plate didn’t come with any sort of dipping sauce and it didn’t need it. Hats off to The Gaslight Saloon in Rockerville for dishing up my favorite chislic (so far, anyway). Thirsty’s in Rapid City is a close second, and Jake’s Good Time Place in Pierre (technically East River) was both tasty and skewered, so bonus points for them. Regardless, I haven’t had a bad dish of chislic yet. My next goal is to make a homemade version.

We’ve enjoyed a fine stretch of spring weather the past few days. It’s been in the 70s, comfortable enough to stroll around without long sleeves. After the winter we just had, that’s a novelty. We took advantage on Saturday by hiking to the top of Buzzard’s Roost. It’s a great spot with breathtaking views of the Black Hills, located just five miles west of town.

By late afternoon dark storm clouds were piling up to the west and we were treated to our first thunder and lightning of the year. Nothing major, and most of it stayed to the north, but it marks the beginning of storm-chasing season. One of my favorites!

Oh, and speaking of storms…

wsw

Yeah. Winter isn’t quite finished with us yet.

Funky F.C.

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Mark Petruska

Tara was supposed to drive to Ely last Friday to take care of house-related business and visit family, but decided to cancel at the last minute when a snowstorm in Wyoming threatened to make the trip treacherous. Because she already had a suitcase packed and was itching to hit the road, she suggested we drive to Colorado instead. We’d been talking about taking a weekend trip to Fort Collins sometime, and decided, what the heck – there was no time like the present! There were two main draws to F.C.:

Raising Cane’s
Trader Joe’s

If you’re unfamiliar with the former, they are a fast-food chain that serves chicken fingers. Didn’t know chickens had fingers, did ya? I first discovered the place on my road trip in 2011, when I stopped in a Cane’s in Lincoln, Nebraska. I’d only had them a couple of times since – once in Reno and again in Las Vegas – because they haven’t expanded into any of the states where I live yet. Fort Collins would give us an opportunity to satisfy our chicken finger fix.

Trader Joe’s, I’m sure you know. Let’s just say life is hard without a TJ’s in town. It’s probably the one thing I miss most about the PNW. Err…other than family and friends, of course! And while Deb from Fuel recently sent me a care package from Trader Joe’s, it was of course limited to non-perishable items. Kinda hard to send frozen food through the mail! But we had a cooler and figured we could stock up.

I should add, those weren’t the only reasons we decided to make the 333-mile, 5.5-hour drive to Fort Collins. We went seeking adventure and fun and were anxious to visit someplace new. Cane’s and TJ’s were perks. So, Colorado it was!

We hit the road early Saturday morning. It had snowed/sleeted a little bit overnight, so the roads were a little slick – especially the farther south we went, where the snow had been heavier. It was a beautiful drive though, and we passed through small agricultural towns like Lusk and Torrington, where the pace of life is far different than anything I am used to.

Snow-covered hills near Edgemont, SD

Main drag in Lusk, WY

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming

We crossed the Colorado border around 12:30 and made it to Fort Collins about 25 minutes later. Our first impression? Lots of people and traffic! Which is funny, because F.C.’s population is only 165,000. But that’s more than double Rapid City’s, so it felt pretty big to us.

We made the obligatory stop at Raising Cane’s and hit a couple of stores before checking into our motel.

Insert heart emoji

3-Finger Combo, baby!

We relaxed for a bit, enjoying a cold beer before heading into Old Town Fort Collins. Our evening plan involved bar-hopping, so we decided to be responsible adults and call an Uber. Old Town Square was about a ten-minute drive from the La Quinta where we were staying, so we had plenty of time to explore.

Fort Collins is a pretty charming town. It’s got a funky Portland vibe and is definitely geared toward hipsters. It was nice to see so many brewpubs and trendy restaurants – and there is lots of public art. Fun fact: Fort Collins was one of two towns that served as the design inspiration for Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A.

Downtown Fort Collins

Old Town Square

Fountain in Old Town Square

Brewpubs galore!

The weather was decent but chilly, so we were more than happy to step inside for a reprieve from the cold. The Crown Pub was a great first stop. In fact, we enjoyed it so much, we ended up going back later in the evening for dinner. They made an excellent Tom Collins and our appetizer of fire-roasted shishito peppers was fantastic. Eating them is kind of like playing Russian Roulette though, because – according to Wikipedia –

Whether grilled, charred, or skewered, shishito peppers add a kick of flavor to any dish. Just watch out: While the majority of these small green peppers are mild, about one in 10 is spicy enough to make your eyes water.

I knew this going in and had warned Tara, but she was game. Sure enough, right about the point where I had been lulled into a false sense of complacency and was beginning to think maybe we would get lucky and avoid one of the really spicy ones this time, I bit into a hot one. Naturally, Tara found this amusing.

Entrance to the Crown Pub.

The Tom Collins was on point!

Braving the shishito peppers.

Deconstructed chicken breast relleno.

Baked brie appetizer.

In any case, we wandered around Old Town for a while longer, stopping into a few other places, but most were so crowded we couldn’t get a seat or it was too noisy to have a decent conversation. This is why there’s a lot to be said for living in a town of 75,000. Tara summed it up best when she posted to Instagram, Kickin’ around Fort Collins (which very much has a PNW vibe) has made me realize two things: I miss this kind of inclusive environment with left leaning ideals and a shit ton of breweries and such, and I absolutely do not miss all the damn people and traffic. It’ll be a nice place to visit and just as nice to leave.

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Which pretty much sums up F.C. for me, as well. We were back at our motel by 10:00. We grabbed brunch the next morning after checking out of our room and then hit Trader Joe’s to stock up. We filled our cooler with all our favorites – frozen steel cut oatmeal, chicken lime burgers, falafel, Speculoos Cookie Butter, etc. One thing we did not pick up was their famous Two-Buck Chuck; Colorado has weird liquor laws and they aren’t allowed to sell wine or hard alcohol in grocery stores. And yet, they are super liberal with the weed. Go figure.

We pulled out of town around 11:00 and headed for home, but decided to take the slightly longer way, through Nebraska. We were dying to check out Carhenge in Alliance. Think Stonehenge, but replace the rocks with automobiles. It doesn’t get any more kitschy than this, folks! But it was so cool to see.

ch1 ch2 ch3 ch4 ch5

Carhenge was the brainchild of Jim Reinders, an Alliance native who developed a fascination for Stonehenge while living in England. Back home in Nebraska in the summer of 1987, he came up with an idea to create a replica of Stonehenge in physical size and placement to serve as a memorial to his father. 39 vehicles were placed to assume the same proportions as Stonehenge and the monument was dedicated on the Summer Solstice in 1987, with champagne, poetry, songs and a play written by the family.

Reinders’ “Ford Seasons”, comprised only of Fords and inspired by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, suggests the Nebraska landscape’s seasonal changes as wheat is planted, grows, is harvested, and then the field lies barren during a windy winter. Plus there’s a “covered wagon.” Clever!

runza From Carhenge, it was about another 2.5 hours to home. We stopped at Runza in Chadron for dinner to go, wanting to sample this regional Nebraska delicacy. A runza is a bread pocket stuffed with beef, cabbage, and onions – another culinary treat we can thank German-Russian immigrants for. It was delicious!

Finally, we arrived home around 6:20. Talk about a whirlwind 36-hour trip! It was great fun though, and we were able to stock up on things we have missed out on.

This trip also gave us a newfound appreciation for the place we call home. Rapid City may not have a Raising Cane’s or a Trader Joe’s, and the politics may be a little more red than Colorado’s, but it’s also lacking the busy traffic and throngs of people that make finding a spot in a bar on a Saturday night next to impossible in more bustling metropolises.

It once again proves we are living exactly where we should be.

Swinged Cat

"South Dakota is a swinged cat, better than she looks."

Author Archives: Mark Petruska