I appreciate your loyalty in checking this blog after my looooong absence. A blog can be a challenging thing when you have no internet. And I mean NONE. Go to a Starbucks you say? The nearest one was an hour and a half away. We are whole-heartedly embracing this "small town" thing. I valiantly tried to steal Wi-Fi from the neighbor (aka: Hawkmaster) this week, but it proved unsuccessful. We are now in a motel with sufficient internet connection, so, I will spend this week catching you up!
First, I want to say - we have not been affected by the blizzard-ing! We were in the Black Hills last week. (More about that later...) But we got out just in time. We were under a winter weather advisory for a couple days, but all we got was a ton of rain and wind - which we kind of like. It reminds us of home. :)
Backing up...
When last I wrote, we were in Faulkton, population: 737.
This really was an amazing way to kick off our tour. What a neat community! They even have an Arts Council which is incredible in a town of that size. It was nice to spend the week somewhere where we were clearly valued!
We made the front page of the paper (an extensive article and interview), and the Reader Board!
Our shows went very well. The kids were excited and did a really great job.
We also found plenty of interesting things to do. Faulkton has a lovely golf course. Golf people (not a technical term) describe it as "a hidden gem" because you really don't expect it. The couple we were staying with lent us their golf cart and we hit the links (actually a technical term) one morning. We had the course to ourselves, which is good because I don't exactly play at a competitive pace. We had a lot of fun. I couldn't use my arms for a couple days after, but who needs those anyway??
Faulkton is also home to the Pickler Mansion, sometimes called the Pink Castle, because of its unique outer appearance.
(For some reason, we forgot to take a picture, so this is one I got off the internet)
Usually it is closed after Labor Day, but one simple phone call got us the royal treatment - a private tour by an extremely nice local tour guide. The Pink Castle is a 19th century Victorian Mansion that belonged to South Dakota's first Congressman, John A. Pickler. It is complete with all genuine furniture and artifacts, owned and used by the Pickler Family - including a vintage gramophone that still works!
Faulkton is also known as "The Carousel City"................
.............because they have a carousel!!!
Again, the Carousel is usually only open between Memorial Day and Labor Day and we had narrowly missed that window. We once again called upon Small Town kindness and called the woman with the keys to the carousel. She happily came over and gave us a ride!! So fun. It actually goes pretty quick for a merry-go-round. As our boss, Jen, said - "I bet kids puke on that thing." (We did not puke.)
On Saturday night, we made an appearance at the local movie theatre. They are only open three nights a week, and they only play one movie per weekend. They are currently raising money to convert over to digital, so we were happy to pay our share. Our share was not very much, anyway. We got a Large popcorn for $3. What a steal! We saw "Turbo", an adorable tale about a super speedy snail. This movie had already come and gone from theatres before we even left Washington - but better late than never for the children of Faulkton! It was a really cute movie, but I got a little sad near the end when I realized this was probably the part of the movie where Claire would climb up on my lap and almost fall asleep. Thankfully, Harrison is good company too.
So, thank you Faulkton for all the Happy Times...
Harrison was sad to leave,
but we had to set off on our next adventure!
I figure that's enough for now, but I promise, thanks to this complimentary wi-fi, that I will blog faithfully this week, and we will be caught up in no time!
We hope all our friends and family are well.
LOVE,
Carolyn and Harrison
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