A Trip Back to the Tundra

 Last Thursday we flew back to South Dakota to attend a very special event on Saturday in Rapid City. It was windy on our drive from Sioux Falls to Rapid City but the temperatures were in the 30ºs. There was hardly any snow (NOT like last year!) from the southeast part of the state to the west central area. The drive was uneventful, just the way we like it!

We were in Rapid City for the weekend to attend the 2025 SD Junior Honors Choirs. There were two, the Women's Choir composed of 7th-9th graders and the Mixed Choir, also 7th-9th graders from across the state.

Last year Miss W was in the Women's Choir of the 2024 SD Junior Honors Choir. Here is last year's post from the concert. 

Kyle Peterson, a SD composer, was featured in two of their choral numbers. The students met and conversed with Kyle through a Zoom call during their weekend rehearsal.

The former Rapid City Central High School was the location of the concert. 

The stage waiting for the singers.

The theater has balcony seating on three sides. The theater holds 800+.

waiting for group photo

Mixed Choir group photo

the Women's Choir

sopranos and tenors

the conductor for the Mixed Choir

a little clapping and some movement

some of the details in the auditorium

Besides the Performing Arts Center, the building also serves as the Alternative High School.

History of Rapid City High School :

• The building was originally built in 1923 
• It was the first site of Rapid City Central High School 
• The school was also known as Dakota Junior High School and Dakota Middle School 
• In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge announced his decision not to run for president from the school 
• The school was renamed Coolidge High School after Coolidge's visit 
• The school moved to a new location on Mount Rushmore Road North in 1978 
• The original location was renovated and reopened as Rapid City High School in 2013 

Features: 

• The school is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
• It also hosts the Performing Arts Center of Rapid City

New Year's Day ~ 2025

 It has become a tradition for me to host a geocaching event to end the current year or to welcome the new one. This year was my seventh event on either the 31st of December or the 1st of January. The temperature at 9:00 in the morning was a bit chilly, but the sun was shining. Hubby and I furnished donuts for those attending the Hello 2025 event at Flatiron Park in Apache Junction. Providing donuts is a small thank you to the area geocachers for placing geocaches and to thank them for supporting my events.

I try to greet every one who comes to the event. 

Cade, age 3 was the youngest attendee. He came with his grandpa who attends most of my AZ events. Cade enjoyed the glazed donut and went home with a plastic cobra to add to his animal collection.

If I took the photo, I have added my watermark. Other photos came from Marlene (Eagles Landing from WI) or Sherry (LifeisGuud from WA).

Dick checking out the jeep on the table

AZ residents Paul and his wife and Ann & Howard

geocachers from OR (Dennis) and Bruce from MN (Dennis's wife) and Hubby

Bob also attends all my AZ events

about 50 geocachers attended throughout the 2 hours

Dick and Cat chatting with a visiting geocacher

there were 3 geo pups at the event this year; all were well-behaved

the purpose of a geo event: visit and get to know other geocachers

the virtual souvenir that was awarded that day

I had been awarded a special honor (as have other but not all geocachers) to host an event with special guidelines sometime in 2025. Anyone attending the event got the virtual souvenir. Hubby will host his later this year back in South Dakota.

It was a great start to 2025!

Ending 2024 ~ Some Geocaching

 We ended 2024 by going geocaching with friends, Jon and Sherry. We had (and have, as there are more of them) geocaches by two area geocachers, abeNanna and CacheFamily on our radar. abeNanna are known for their geocaches often titled 'Rusting Away.' You guessed it; the caches usually involve a rusted piece of metal. CacheFamily, a family of 4, have recently started placing gadget and creative geocaches in the area.  Both cachers attended my October event sharing conversations and information. December 30th was the day we chose to follow-up on their suggestions.

four of us wiggled the wooden box until the lid separated from the box

the four cachers

another clever CacheFamily 3-D printed container

Sherry did not have to remove ALL the caps to find the log

another 3-D printed cute container

geocaching in Florence

Hubby and I have found most of the geocaches in the nearby community of Florence, but Jon and Sherry have not. We will need to return as there are several more to find and log.

Another new location for our friends was the Coolidge airport. It was a WWII training center for the 81st Airborne and has some remnants of the base.

the bathhouse

the swimming pool from the shallow end to the deeper end

stone/rock steps from the bathhouse up to the pool

foundations of base buildings, but not barracks

(the barracks have remnants of broken porcelain)

overgrown sidewalk between foundations

another CacheFamily 3-D printed geocache, this one on the base

another photo showing just how dry the desert is this year

This is the only original building from the WWII era. It has been renovated and is used by airport personnel.

The Coolidge airport is an active airport. It houses the air recuse vehicles for Pinal County. None of us knew the purpose of this aircraft.

another better view of the aircraft 

The Coolidge Airport is home to many small private aircraft, like this single engine, one seater plane.

another private plane anchored at the airport

There were several Sprint airplanes in various stages of dismantling on the other side of the airport. 

We visited this airport for geocaching on two previous occasions. The last time we were there we watched people jumping from airplanes while getting some geocaches in November 2016: Coolidge Airport

Our first visit was in March 2013: World War II Airports

Sherry getting a cache at the airport

We drove to Coolidge to complete the Adventure Lab set of caches by abeNanna and to find the bonus cache. Sherry, actually Jon, found the Rusting Away geocache at the Coolidge airport. We had found it in 2013.

One of the reasons besides enjoying the day with Jon and Sherry, was to earn this virtual souvenir to end 2024.