World United States South Dakota Lemmon

The Carlson's Travels 2006

South Dakota May 29, 2006

We left Ellsworth with a lot of things and places unseen. Good excuse to go back and spend some time.

The roads and the weather were good. North of the Black Hills, the land becomes rolling plains, with lots of grass and very few trees. We did get to see a few deer and a lot of antelope, and even managed to get a couple of photos.

We are staying at Shadehill, a South Dakota state park. Our good friends, Jack and Sally Purvis are the campground host here. The RV sites are gravel, with electrical hookups and are surrounded by grass and trees. The birding is great with American goldfinches, grosbeaks, robins, grackles, flycatchers and doves to name a few.

The park is next to Shadehill Reservoir, a lake of about 5,000 acres. Jack says the fishing for walleye, bass, and crappie is pretty good. The nearest town is Lemmon. About 14 miles from the park. Population 1400 or so. The train tracks running through town is actually the state line. There is lots of petrified wood in this area and the town has a park full of it. The ice cream at the Sugar Shack is great.

May 30. This afternoon we went into Lemmon to get our new drivers licenses and register to vote. The DMV office is only open from 1 to 4 on Thursdays and Fridays. We got all that done and now are officially South Dakotans.

June 1: Well, this is a kick back day. The Purvis' have no hosting duty's sooooo .......

Paul & Jack have been fishing ... all day ... didn't get even a nibble until just about sundown, about 8:30 here and then they REALLY started biting The guys caught 10 in about 20 minutes.

Kathie and Sally went to town ... to do laundry ... at the Laundromat ... in the convenience store/tackle shop/casino/ ... at the gas station. They also had lunch together ... without the guys ... so they could bash them without being harassed. It's a girl thing.

Sunday, we went over to Meadow for a Brunch buffet at Smokys. The food was great. The buffet line, was, ah, interesting. The meat was in turkey roasters, the veggies were in crock pots, and the salads were in Tupperware containers.

The rest of the time has been pretty kicked back also. We will leave here on Monday 6-5 and head for Miles City, Mt.