Aug 8, 2012 - South Dakota

We set out today for our eventual destination, Farm Island State Recreation Area in South Dakota. We’ll follow the Missouri north and west. But we decided early on to see if we could track down the mystery of where Private Shannon was. Turns out twelve little towns along the route he possibly took searching for those horses all had erected some kind of plaque, statue, memorial or something. So on the main highway it would say “Lewis and Clark Historical Site.” But in the years since this seemed like a good idea, many of the memorials had...

Jul 14, 2012 - South Dakota-Visiting Madison and Pierre

Greetings from South Dakota and the capital city of Pierre where the great Missouri River bisects the state into two geographically and socially distinct halves know to its residents as “East River” and “West River”. Eastern South Dakota is home to most of its population and crops while the western section is dominated by ranching and is home to most of the state’s tourism. We spent 5 days in our hometown of Madison, South Dakota where we renewed our driver’s licenses (mine was VERY expired!), met with our CPA and conducted other business....

Jul 11, 2012 - Pierre, SD

Today was a mirror image of the ride to Casper, WY last week. It was 117 miles, but this time the 20 mph wind was mostly on our rear quarter (for those trig afficionados -- giving 71% the benefit of a tailwind). We finished the ride 2+ hours faster than last time. My aching butt was thankful for that. The ride was mostly through agricultural country -- wheat, corn, hay -- crops off to the horizon. It's daunting to think of nothing but wheat fields from here to the Canadian Border and beyond. Hundreds of miles of wheat. That's a lot of...

Jul 7, 2012 - Orient, South Dakota!

My my my, well after finishing my blog last night I went downstairs to get ready for bed on Joan's couch, so I turned off all the light and just had an impulse to turn around and look at the stairs and all I see are shining cat eyes staring at me, which means Joan's psycho cat was coming down to get me, so I ran up the stairs after it. It didn't bother me again. Or at least not that I know of... Aunt Mich woke me up at 6:30 this morning, and it was absolutely freezing so I grabbed my blanket and ran to the bathroom, where I turned on the...

Jul 6, 2012 - Last Day at Gramma's House :(

Aunt Mich woke me up this morning at about 8:30 a.m. because Carrie's boys were coming over because she had some errands to run. I got up from the couch that I had stupidly slept on, leaving my back in need of some serious cracking. I got myself ready and headed upstairs where Erica was eating breakfast. I made myself an English muffin and finished it as the boys were coming in. We went outside while Carrie snuck out, and Erica, Gramma, Aunt Mich and I sat outside as they ran across the yard. They were definitely adorable, and they loved...

Jul 6, 2012 - South Dakota Scenery

After finishing my blog yesterday, Erica, Gramma, Joan and I started getting ready to go see the dam. But before we could go, Carrie? and her two twin boys Graydon and Connor came over. We played with them for awhile and then left. The scenery here is so beautiful, and the rolling hills are absolutely gorgeous. No one can really understand why I take so many pictures of the hills, and I'm just like "You don't see these on the Eastern Shore, you see corn. And grain. And other fields." We were out for about an hour going from place to place...

Jul 5, 2012 - Catching up

First of all, I'm sorry I haven't kept my blog up for a couple of days. They've been very long and eventful, but all very good days. By the time I get back to Gramma's at night I am exhausted and don't feel like uploading pictures or writing paragraphs, but since we aren't doing anything at the moment, they encouraged me to upload it in case I didn't feel like doing it again. Here goes. Starting on Tuesday morning, Aunt Mich woke me up and gave me an hour to get ready. By the time I finished eating and doing everything I needed to do, it...

Jun 24, 2012 - Moving On

/// Broken Arrow Campground Custer, SD Monday - June 25, 2012 Low Temperature: 62 degrees High Temperature: 84 degrees -- Woke to heavy fog this A.M. After taking care of some buisness in Custer we returned to the Broken Arrow and hooked up the ponies to our wagon. After bidding farewells to our friends we hit the road by 9:30 A.M. The fog gradually lifted to overcast skies. Traffic was light today. We ran into some very light mist that required my running the windshield wipers a few times but the road surface was never wet. We stopped...

Jun 9, 2012 - Capital - Pierre, SD 2012

A little of the beaten track, Pierre is the capital of South Dakota. It is one of the few capitals that is not near a major highway. You have to really want to visit Pierre to go there. Pierre is one of the very few states that has remained the capital since statehood. In this case, 1889. The city was picked because it was the very center of the state. It was name after an american fur trader of french origin. Pierre is the second least populated capital in the US with Montpelier, Vermont being the least populated capital in US. We stayed...

May 26, 2011 - Ellsworth AFB - Oahe Dam and Pierre

Off to an early start this morning. Today’s destination was over 150 miles east of here in South Dakota’s capital city, Pierre. We packed our lunch and left the FamCamp shortly before 9:00 a.m. under bright blue skies and promises of lots of sunshine! We got on I-90E for approximately 40 miles before getting off on US Hwy 14 so we could see more of the countryside versus interstate. What we found was breathtaking national grasslands on either side of the road with beautiful gentle rolling hills as far as the eye could see. We ran into...

Jun 25, 2010 - Pierre, SD

Fri, 25 Jun: A 180 mile trip from Sterling, ND to South Dakota's capital city, Pierre. We're parked in the Super WalMart parking lot north of town (and welcomed gladly, a gesture we repaid with grocery shopping). It is warm, but a nice breeze is keeping us cool. Thunderstorms predicted for later this evening, which seems to be a daily treat in these parts. The day started out cloudy and for the first portion of the day we were in and out of drizzle. That, combined with yesterday's US 85 muddy detour, has our coach and car a uniform color of...

Jan 30, 2010 - South Dakota Capitol

We got out of Wall early in the morning (another very cold morning) and drove direct to Pierre to collect another state capitol. We nearly had the building to ourselves. We wandered around for about 30 minutes, then hit the road to cover some serious miles. We had an irrestible urge to stop at Buffalo Ridge (just west of Sioux Falls) to visit the 1880 town/bison food shop/gas station at exit 390. What an odd and fantastic place, even with the replica town and its creepy animatronic residents shut down for the winter.