Guestroom Photos

Thursday, October 28, 2010

· What it is Like to Run a Bed and Breakfast

One of our recent guests, Linda LaRoque, asked me, "What is it like to run a Bed and Breakfast?" My answer is below, in green. Linda L. is an author of western contemporary and time travel romance novels! Click on Linda LaRoque's Musings, her blog, where she posted my answer...

What is it like to run a B&B? Without giving it a great deal of thought, I might say that it is much like dancing. Sam and I are partners in this ongoing dance, and when the harmonious music is heard by both of us, the dance is heavenly! However, occasionally one of us may step on the other's toes, or someone may bump into us...and so we take the necessary time - and steps - to readjust to the rhythm. Periodically, the music changes to a different tempo, which can be a bit jarring even when expected, and so again we readjust. More happiness, excitement, variety and adventure are added to the dance when younger dance students (granddaughters) join us. And so it goes—The broad and colorful spectrum of music moving us 'this way and that way' creates a fluid niche in time devoid of boredom. The dance hall fills up seasonally with visiting dancers, who add to the meaning and purpose of our dance, and who generally orchestrate the movements. In short...running a B&B is more like dancing than running.

Linda Brown, Innkeeper, Mountains To Prairies Bed and Breakfast

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

· Fall Colors Grand Finale!


Sam rose early with the sun this morning to take a picture of the trees along the East Main side of Mountains To Prairies Bed and Breakfast here in Hill City, South Dakota. For two days the wind has intermittently been blowing fiercely. The chokecherry bushes outside our kitchen window were stripped of their colorful leaves yesterday. A few flecks of snow are blowing by the window now. Sam's beautiful picture presents the GRAND FINALE of the fall colors!...around our house anyway. Click on

· 2010 Autumn at Mountains To Prairies B&B

to view the whole album (...click on the first small pic and then next and next.) But first, here are two of the previous views around the house...


BUTTERFLY OVER THE LILAC BUSH
(Corner of East Main and Walnut Ave)
BOARDWALK VIEW

Monday, October 25, 2010

· Pony Express Site and Bull Bison

Mountains To Prairies Bed and Breakfast on facebook

This historic location on the outskirts of Pringle along Highway 385 between Custer and Hot Springs represents a busy fragment of the PONY EXPRESS way back when...now collects interesting artifacts (antiques) of that timeframe. Sunday, we were driving south from Hill City, South Dakota to Hot Springs, looking for lingering patches of fall colors...found a lot of rust here! :)

4 new photos

After studying the curious collection of artifacts from the Pony Express days, we toured Wind Cave National Park (enroute to Hot Springs) where we paused to watch a herd of BISON, many of them bulls as shown in this video clip. Click on 'Bulky Bull Bison' to go to the video...

Length:0:41

We also made a short video of a huge COYOTE "stalking his pantry for winter" (Sam says)...sneaking up on some prairie dogs. This video is also on Mountains To Prairies Bed and Breakfast facebook page.

When we finally made it to Hot Springs, we drove and gawked all the way through town to our destination, the Dairy Queen, for a chocolate dipped ice cream cone...and then we turned around to head back home. We did note that Hot Springs has quite a few staircases to heaven (...you have to go see!)

On the way home we looked for a place to take a short hike before darkness settled in...found a turnoff along the Mickelson Trail. But rather than walking on the trail this time, we hiked a skinny winding road off into the woods. Back in there, we climbed onto a plateau which had an old hand-dug ditch around it on three sides and a rocky dropoff on the other end. We puzzled over it for awhile, until Sam came up with the thought that it might have been where a bridge had originally been intended for the railroad, but for some reason they didn't like the location and so moved on down the hill...and so the story concludes that this is why the Mickelson Trail (trails from rails) is down the hill from that location. Go figure.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

· 2010 Autumn at Mountains To Prairies B&B

We just can't get enough of those beautiful fall colors! Here are examples right around M2P...simply click on the first photo, then next, and next...and be sure to read the captions...

Mountains To Prairies Bed and Breakfast on facebook

We are delving into the new autumn season like into a good book, gazing often through the kitchen window at the golden leaves turning before our eyes! We have been enjoying an extended season of fall colors this year, and are just now beginning to lay back into some needed rest and relaxation. But at the same time ideas for near future projects are sprouting up out of that rest. ... Though guests are not as frequent past mid-October, they are certainly as interesting as ever! - October 19 guests biking the Mickelson Trail from Deadwood reached Rochford too close to dark to continue to Hill City. In Rochford's Moonshine Gulch Saloon they conversed with locals. One happened to have shuttle service out of that area, and suggested they bike to Mystic where he would pick them up and bring them to Mountains To Prairies B&B, their Hill City night's lodging. It had been a beautiful fall day for riding the Trail, and their leave day was equally beautiful!

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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

· 2010 Fall Colors Collection

Mountains To Prairies Bed and Breakfast on facebook

Here are photos of FALL COLORS...from the Black Hills all the way to the farm near Center, North Dakota! Click on the first picture, then next and next and...