Sioux Falls - Another place, another embarrassing episode

Following an overnight stay in Madison, Wisconsin, where they don’t serve alcohol after 9pm and the dusty roads and rickety gas stations look like they could feature in Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’, we were headed for Sioux Falls.

We had seen some of the world’s major cities like Boston, Toronto and Chicago, but we were leaving the cosmopolitan and getting back to nature.

Sioux Falls was just a one-night stop over and after visiting Falls Park, which lies on the Big Sioux River, we headed for the coolest hotel ever.

The Ramada Inn was home to the Buccaneer Water Park which had hot tubs, waterslides, huge pools and even a pirate ship. After a hurried dinner we all piled into the hot tubs, vodka and lemonade in hand and relaxed the evening away.

I stayed in the hot tub a little too long, not realising just how hot it actually was. When Steph suggested we go on the water slide I hurriedly jumped from the tub and started making my way up the spiral staircase. I was probably about half way up when a very strange, dizzy feeling came over me. My vision blurred and I couldn’t hear. I thought, ‘Shit, I’m going to faint. How frigging embarrassing.’ I had visions of lifeguards attempting to carry my lifeless body down the cramped staircase. Luckily I managed to get back down the stairs with Steph’s help, consciousness intact. The worst thing was, everyone thought I had wimped out at the top and was too scared to go on the slide, as if!

An hour later we were tucked up in bed and looking forward to seeing the iconic Mount Rushmore the following day.