Flight to Rapid City; departed 9:20 am, scheduled arrival 9:59. We were about 10 minutes early. Met DG Ken Gifford at baggage area.
DG Ken drove us to his home where we had a glass of icewater while waiting for his wife Bea to come home. Ken had a meeting, so left us before Bea got home. I did some ebay and Debby read. When Bea arrived we chatted for quite a while. Bea has some form of macular dystrophy. She feels her vision is deteriorating, and we chatted about some assistive technology she might consider. I told her I would send her some information about the new breed of electronic magnifiers. It may be just what she needs to read her bible studies, menus, etc.
When Ken got home, we went to lunch at Delmonico’s in downtown Rapid City. Debby and I split the turkey sandwich on focaccia with onion rings – very good! Debby had raspberry sherbet for dessert, and I had the mountain berry crème brulé, also very good.
After lunch, we walked around downtown Rapid City for a while. They are placing bronze statues of all of the presidents on the downtown street corners. We saw JQ Adams, James Monroe, & LBJ up close. Then we visited the Prairie’s Edge shop. It has many native American craft items, and also serves as something of a museum for paintings on hides, native American music & culture.
We went back to Ken & Bea’s to rest a bit, and then got ready for the dinner. The dinner was held at Mount Rushmore, starting at 6:30. We walked around a bit to see some of the new construction, and got pictures taken with the monument in the background.
The dinner was buffet style. We had cheese scalloped potatoes, mixed vegetables (green & wax beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower) and stuffed salmon, all very good. Debby had a rhubarb pie for desert (she hasn’t had rhubarb all summer), and I had the “Fruit of the Forest” pie (rhubarb, strawberry, blueberry, mountain berry, etc), excellent!
The program began with two members giving some anecdotes of things that had happened over the life of the club. They have a great tradition of practical joking and having a lot of fun. Debra did an induction ceremony for three new members (very cool at a 50th anniversary) using the candle lighting at the end. She had combined and revised some suggested ceremonies after learning that they often used candles at their inductions.
Debra gave her anniversary speech, with some historical trivia from 1958. The speech was very well received, as she did her usual great job of conveying her message of “Service From The Heart” combined with President Al’s “Everyday Heroes performing Miracles Through Service”. She really is quite a good public speaker. She has just the right combination of being well prepared but spontaneous, and conveying information as well as eliciting emotional responses. She really speaks from her heart, and it shows!
DG Ken presented us with gifts of a charter night coffee mug, and with black hills gold jewelry. Debby got a pendant, and I got a bison pin. We had left scarves from the woolen mills back at Ken & Bea’s to thank them for hosting us for the day.
The club had two charter members in attendance, and DG Ken had gotten a certificate from LCI to recognize a third as a charter member. Debra had her picture taken with the three of them after the program was over.
After all the festivities were over, Ken drove us up to Sturgis to Aunt Maxine’s place. We got there about 10:00 pm, and sat up a short while chatting, and then went off to bed.