It’s been almost 2 months since I visited South Dakota, but lately every time I get stressed about an inevitable airplane delay, meeting a story deadline, or watching the not-so-slow demise of my stock market holdings, my thoughts return to Besler’s Cadillac Ranch, located along the beautiful Redwater River in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I’m not sure if it’s because of their peaceful surroundings, the slower pace, the warmth and hospitality provided by the whole Besler family, or just the good-looking manly cowboys working there-providing such a welcome change from San Francisco’s typical male who is hard at work getting in touch with himself and his feminine side- UGH!

So I’ve been thinking…who wants to join me on one helluva fun Girlfriend Getaway to Sunny D.-where the men are men (with good looks, hearts and values-some might actually call you ma’am and tip their cowboy hat) and the Wild West is alive and well. Or if you go for the more modern type- either in Harley bad-boy form or wealthy & just trying to be bad, you’ll find no shortage of them either at the nabe town of Sturgis during their big Motorcycle Rally.

But back to the ranch. Here’s what I’m planning…we could set up base-camp at the ranch, which has acres of beautiful grounds to explore, brand new private cabins (or campgrounds for those who lean in that direction–certainly not me!), lots of horses for riding, and their own rodeo champion “Horse Whisperer” who is amazing. We saw him whisper sweet nothings to a horse that had never been ridden, gently rub him all over, then take complete command, saddle him up and ride him all within about an hour’s time. Just imagine what he could teach our men!)

There is a huge new Bar/ Barn for partying and Rosemary Besler is a superb cook. Too bad her son is married-what a doll- but he promised he has a lot of single friends and they even have a cowboy band…to serenade us under the stars.


I asked them if they could teach us some Basic 101 Cowgirl stuff and no prob…we’d:
– learn how to saddle up and ride
– watch the horse-whisper work his magic
– learn how to rope, shoot, hunt, fish, shoe a horse and ???
– go inner tubing down their river
– campfires under incredible star-filled wide open skies
– take in a real rodeo
– have a gala cowboy dance at the barn with some two-stepping ( *who knows..if you get real lucky, the Besler’s even have an adorable wedding chapel.)

And of course, we wanna look nice so we’ll take a mosey into town for some mani/ pedi’s and massages using the local wild berry products. After which we’ll check out Sturgis’s art scene- which is hoppin’ and get fitted for some real cowboy boots.

I want to wait until the weather warms up…so lemme know who wants to come with.