It was that time again…birthday time. I really don’t like my birthday. I tend to get paranoid and weird. This year was a bit of an exception. Usually I start feeling the birthday panic about two weeks out. This year it was about two days. Chrysa is very patient with me around the big day, and I love her for it. It can’t be easy living with a person who is a maniac around a day that most people celebrate.
My birthday mania stems from the fact that I don’t like the idea of getting old. This is compounded by the fact that I will be the big 4-0 next year. This year’s birthday craziness lead me to come up with the “Fit For 40” campaign.
We have been watching a lot of Ninja Warrior these days and we’ve been inspired. Chrysa and I have worked out in gyms, but it seems that the best workouts come from the natural environment. South Dakota has some of the best training grounds ever, so we will forgo the gym while we live here, and concentrate on outdoor workouts. All while trying to be “Fit For 40.”
That brings me to my birthday. Rapid City was hosting a series of bike hill climbs, 5K’s and 10K’s, and a bunch of other events over the weekend of my birthday. This seemed to fit in perfectly with our new fitness goals. I bet you think we kicked ass! We did not! I figured, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? Instead of competing we went to the wonderful town of Deadwood for the Wild Bill days.
We got into the car in the late morning and drove from Rapid City, through some beautiful mountain terrain, and arrived in Deadwood after about 45 minutes. The town is really cool and full of old west history. Deadwood was founded during the Black Hills gold rush and quickly gained a reputation for lawlessness. Notably, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok are buried there.
Deadwood is much more civilized these days, but the town still maintains an old west charm. Along Main Street there are shops to buy souvenirs, plenty of bars, and casinos. Chrysa and I were in town for Wild Bill Days.
During Wild Bill Days you can buy beer from pretty much any establishment and take it with you as you shop or listen to the concert series that was going on. We had a great time drinking our brews, while listening to the music, and watching the dogs dock dive. It was a really nice way to spend an afternoon.
While walking around taking in the sites, Chrysa mentioned that she wanted to try one of the casinos. I hadn’t realized that she had never been in one before. We tried a few slot machines but we quickly grew bored with them. Eventually we sat down at the video black jack machine. Now, Chrysa and I are not what you would call – high rollers. But we did manage to double our money on video black jack. That money went back into the beer fund for the day.
On a whim Chrysa wandered back over to the slots and tried her luck at the Judge Judy video slot machine. After a few failed spins Chrysa was about to cash out. She declared Judge Judy’s machine to be boring. On her final spin she got the big win. Suddenly we were thirty bucks up. Lunch and brews were on the judge. Judy, you now have fans for life, even if we don’t know what you have to do with gambling.
It was a great day and a nice distraction from turning 39. When we got back to Rapid City, a combination of Judge Judy, and birthday money treated us to a sushi dinner at Ichiban. Sushi may seem like an odd choice for a landlocked state, but we have had good luck so far. We’ve had sushi at 2 different places and both times the food was really good.
Obviously we didn’t get our workout in, unless you count 16oz curls, but we treated winning as a sign. The workouts started on Sunday.
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