Hot Springs, SD Food Pantry

Colorado and South Dakota – Tuesday, October 22

Before I could leave Colorado, I had to finish off 3 1/2 miles of walking, and Fort Collins was a good place to do that. There was a historic downtown area and fun neighborhoods to walk through. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and since I was out of the mountains at lower elevations there were still trees turning color, and leaves to walk through. It was a little hard to believe I’d been driving in snow yesterday!

Tula and I walked over an hour and finished off the walking, and then the state of Colorado was done. I had walked a little more than 56 miles and made all 7 donations: Brew unto Others-Coffee with a Cause; Livestrong Cancer Foundation; Walk Across America support; Fishers Peak Soup Kitchen; Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity; Air Force Academy; and Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain.

Then it was time to get in the car and head for State #53 – South Dakota! But to get there from Colorado, I had to drive through the southeast part of Wyoming. So we were in the car for several hours driving through about 220 miles in Wyoming. It was early evening by the time I crossed into the southwest corner of South Dakota, and I came to the small town of Edgemont, where Tula and I did our first mile of South Dakota walking. There were a lot of deer and turkeys in this town. Then I headed on to Hot Springs which was the first big town I came to. Last night I had done some donation research, and I saw there was a food pantry in Hot Springs that was open on Tuesdays, and I also read something else that had caught my eye. Their website had a link to a story and when I read through that, I was astonished to see that Cindy, the director of the food pantry in Mukwonago, Wisconsin had recently been in town, and had made a very big donation to the food pantry. I had met Cindy back in Wisconsin when I stopped by to make a donation to her food pantry – it was my first donation in Wisconsin. And I never expected to see her name here in South Dakota! It turns out she had come to Hot Springs to visit her daughter who was on a big mammoth dig in the area, and had decided to make a donation to a food pantry outside of her area! So I wanted to make a donation there also because of the connection with the Mukwonago food pantry. I had called them this morning, and the lady I spoke with said the food pantry would be open til 3, and I had told her if I didn’t make it, I would mail in the donation since the food pantry wouldn’t be open again til Thursday. It was way past 3:00 when I got into town, so I mailed the donation in with a note.

Tula and I walked a mile and a half through town by the light of streetlamps, and along the river where some of the hot springs water continuously pour in. We continued walking while waiting for my Chinese food, and then we settled into the motel. I was only able to walk 2 1/2 miles in South Dakota today, since I had spent a lot of time driving through Wyoming, and finishing up my Colorado walking. But the miles will get made up!