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June 18-19, 2011
31st Annual Show
Western Dakota Gem & Mineral Society
Central States Fairgrounds Event Center
800 San Francisco St.
Sat. 9-5, Sun. 9-4
This was a new location this year, in the event center over at the fairgrounds. There was lots of room to spread out and plenty of parking space, but sometimes that isn't what it takes to get people to come by. Folks, we'll let you know if the show is going to be here next year or not. It was never busy, a lot of the vendors were pretty unhappy, if not all of the vendors. We made expenses but we didn't make enough money to cover what was sold, so we will probably not do this show again. You can't be in business to give stuff away. I'm going to miss my dear friend Annette, who I only get to see at this show. I think that the location could be really great, but how do you get the public to show up? Still, Paula and Mike, the people in charge, worked their butts off and put in a lot of hours with always a smile. They were new at the job and everything was a learning experience, and it is our understanding that no one else in the club was willing to give them any words of wisdom, which I think is just mean, let alone selfish. Paula, Mike - please listen to your vendors. Next year can you put everyone closer to each other and please remember that people who have done the show before need to be closer to the front door than people who are brand new? That is so unfair, when someone has paid their dues over the years to see brand new people get placed by the front door .... Oh, and something I forgot to mention on my review sheet: in the mornings on the local news when they were telling everyone about the "happenings" that day, like the Arts and Crafts fair downtown - the rock show was never mentioned. Fliers are wonderful and It was nice of you to pass out fliers for the month, but your vendors make their sales from tourists in Rapid City. The locals have never really done a lot for us. Next year, please have us listed on tourist boards and the local news every morning. The Arts and Crafts fair was so busy people couldn't move around. The Club should not have their show on the same weekend, it should not be on Father's Day, AND if the show is on the same weekend as the Arts and Crafts fair, then the Club should have had a booth at the Fair to hand out free admission to people for the Rock and Gem show. Also, how about the information / things to do channel at the hotels? Every hotel in town was full - you need to figure out how to notify the tourists; that's where the sales at the Rapid City show have always come from. TOURISTS
If you look at our photos, you'll get an idea of the wonderful, quality products that were at this show. Slow or not, complaints or not, I think you'll see a lot of smiles and those of you reviewing this will wish you'd been able to attend ... so put it on your calendar for next year!
We always stay at a decent place but as cheap as possible, when we do shows out of town. Rapid City is a very expensive place to stay. Usually we stay in a cabin at the KOA and it is about $10 cheaper, but this year we splurged and stayed at Motel 6. Motel 6 in Rapid City is like no Motel 6 we ever stayed in. The floors were cork instead of dirty blue carpeting. The walls were freshly painted, the colors bright, the light bulbs bright enough to read - usually we take a clip-on light to cheap motels so we can see to read or do make-up or whatever. The sink and faucets were new but as usual the water pressure in the sink was very poor. The TV was a brand new 32" flat screen, not one of those cruddy little 25" TVs that you can't see the picture on, they are so small. It cost an extra $3 per day but we had a fridge and microwave, so we could have a cold glass of wine every night when we got back to the room. The first morning I almost got the soap out of my hair before the hot water was gone, but an hour later when Mark showered it was hot again. The other three days we didn't have a problem, but we did get up early and try to beat the rush, just in case.
Food in Rapid City - why don't the Clubs who are putting on the shows ever have an information sheet for the vendors? Every town has places that the locals eat at because it's so good, the prices are so great, it's out of the way, etc. Vendors drive hundreds and hundreds of miles and when we get there we have to pay for a hotel and eat in tourist traps - yes, we can find our own place to stay, thanks to the internet, but what about meals? We get so sick of Denny's, Burger King, McDonald's. Why not allow us to enjoy the real Rapid City and help us save some money? (or Colorado Springs, Moab, Wichita, Kansas City, etc.). You guys seem to forget how much it costs us not only to drive to your show, but pay for hotel and pay for food too. Our costs are not just the space rental at the shows. We don't just twitch our noses and appear.
Well, readers, we actually found a couple of great places in Rapid City and here's the scoop: Four years ago we were driving up LaCrosse and saw the sign for Philly Ted's Cheesesteaks. We pulled in there and it was FANTASTIC! It's only a sandwich, but my mouth waters for another from the last bite until a year later when we finally get to have one again. Philly Ted's is on the west side of LaCrosse really close to Walmart. It might be across the street, actually. PHILLY TED'S CHEESESTEAKS. We've had cheesesteaks here in Denver at several places and they aren't as good. He's got great meat and great bread. We always eat at Philly Ted's once, usually on setup day for lunch, because we just can't wait any longer .
Mongolian Grill - Right next door to Philly Ted's is the Mongolian Grill. It was really good, too. It isn't any different than any other Mongolian Grill, there's nothing special about it, it's just a good place to go. The veggies are fresh, you choose what you want and they cook it for you. Yum.
Pauly's Pizza. We found this place last year on the last night of the show. It was really late and nothing was open other than Burger King or Denny's so we decided not to eat dinner, just go back to the cabin and eat some chips and have a glass of wine, even though we were starved, exhausted - Sundays are tough - you are stuck at the show all day and then it takes hours and hours to break down the booth and load up the trailer - well, we got on the wrong street somehow, heading back to the KOA, and saw this place, and since it was still open we thought, "Why not?" It is on St. Patrick, a few blocks east of Campbell. (If you continue east on St. Patrick when you leave, you come out right at the driveway to the KOA) Anyway, their pizza is pretty good. It's not great, but the crust is good, the toppings are good, they make it fresh. It's nothing like Pizza Hut where you have extra salt added to everything. They have a bar, lots of beer - they do NOT have margaritas. Isn't that weird? They have very strange, bottled fruity drinks that aren't very good, but they do have beer and wine and sodas. Their salads and sandwiches are just wonderful. The best spinach salad I've ever had anywhere we had this year at Pauly's. It was absolutely delicious and we'll definitely keep Pauly's on our dinner list. Both time we went to Pauly's the service was excellent. They are so nice and pleasant.
This year on our last night we went to Arnold's Diner, next to our motel. It's in the Ramada Inn parking lot, right at Lacrosse and I-90. The service wasn't very good, the waitresses kept telling us that they'd been here since noon and it'd been busy and they were so tired - oh, boo hoo, I say - lots of people now days don't have a job at all, so gee, let's cry and whine because we had customers all day! - we had to pay the same for our food no matter what ...... we'd really prefer good service for our money, wouldn't you? - anyway, the food was decent and I'd eat there again, I just wouldn't go there late on a Sunday. We had to try the fried pickles as an appetizer and they were delicious. They were breaded pickle spears but not the kind of breading that is hard on your teeth, the pickles themselves were not real strong in flavor with a ranch dressing dip and they were just wonderful. Then we had burgers which were fine and the fries were good. Not as good as an Outback burger, but I didn't have to worry about the seasoning Outback puts on almost everything (that I'm allergic to). So, if you are in Rapid City and don't know where to go to eat, Arnold's is safe, Pauly's is good, Philly Ted's is wonderful, and if you need to fill in one more night you can go to the Mongolian Grill. They also have several Chain restaurants: TGI Friday's, Outback, Boston's - but why go there when you can go to those places any time at home?
Oh, I just remembered one more place. We went there three or four years ago and it was great, and we went to the same place in Billings, Montana, two years ago and it was really good: Fudrucker's - It's also a chain, but only up in the north. It'll be new to you if you're from the south, west, or east. It's just a burger place but they have good meat and you can order by 1/4 pound, 1/3 pound, 1/2 pound, doubles, triples, etc. beef, buffalo, they have dozens of choices to get it exactly how you want along with quite a few sides. Then they have a huge topping bar of sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pickles, etc., to dress your sandwich however you want. I forgot all about that place or we might have gone there instead of Arnold's - but then we wouldn't have gotten to experience that wonderful fried pickle :) Fudruckers is at the mall, which is north of I-90 and west of Lacrosse about a half of a block.
We found a place for breakfast four years ago that was very good and homey, but it's a casino now. We've looked and looked, but haven't found anything similar. We found a neat little coffee place with food downtown last year, but when we got their pancakes the batter was old and had gone sour and they didn't even comp the purchase; they made us pay for them anyway! There's Denny's - have you ever noticed how everything tastes the same at Denny's, no matter what you order? - and there's McDonald's - we went to Denny's the first day and the food was okay, the service totally stunk - the other days we went to McDonald's and got coffee - and then we ate bananas, oranges, and trail mix at the show. We went to Perkins one time, two years ago, and it was so expensive! The carpet was filthy - at 7:30 in the morning! It was also a lot more expensive than Denny's. We'll never go back there. Surely there are good places for breakfast that the locals like to go to. Well, look at our photos and maybe you'll want to plan a trip to Rapid City during their gem show next year even if there isn't anywhere decent to get breakfast.
Our next show is the next weekend, in Colorado Springs, Colorado
The link for that report is on the right at the top of column two
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| This vendor had beautiful sliced and polished agates and agate geodes |
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| This vendor always has lots of interesting items |
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| One of the Club members supervising the Kid area |
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| another mineral vendor |
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| Another vendor at the Rapid City show |
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| Philly Ted's street sign |
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| Philly Ted's |
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| Pauly's |
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| This is one side of our booth. We had a great setup but it was way, far away from anything that was going on :( |
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| Back of our booth - we carry so many books! Check our books pages - we'll be adding new all the time |
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| Our friends, Greg and Carolyn Tunnicliff, they put on the big show in Buena Vista Colorado in August |
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| Isn't she cute? The girl in the Espresso / Smoothie booth |
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| This guy was our neighbor at the Kansas City Show. He has real nice stuff |
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| OH, my Gosh! this jewelry was beautiful - lots of Baltic Amber - if I still had a job to go to every day I would have had to buy some of this beautiful jewelry! |
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| Terry (bending over in front) the Fossil Guy, from Northglenn, Colorado. We do a lot of the same shows. |
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| Brad's Dad and Kathy - why can't I remember his name? They are from Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and carry lots of fossils and other really neat stuff |
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| One of the Mineral dealers |
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| One of the jewelry vendors. She had lovely pieces with really unusual settings |
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| Ellen, the club President and one of the members |
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| Looks like a happy customer just found a treasure |
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| One of the mineral dealers and a potential customer |
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| This vendor is from Rapid City and does really beautiful wire wrapping. I sat through a demonstration; maybe some day I'll be brave enough to try to make something |
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| Look how huge this place was! Big enough for ten times the vendors that attended |
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| Motel 6 in Rapid City, South Dakota |
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| Arnold's Diner |
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| Arnold's |
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