South Dakota Trip Day Ten and HOME

Hello Family, Friends, and Blog Followers!

We are writing to you today from home, in NE Wisconsin. As you can see, it is still green for the most part in Wisconsin, just a few leaves are beginning to turn.

We arrived home last night, and have been spending today recouping from the trip, as well as unloading the car, doing laundry, and sorting through the stuff we brought home. I've taken photos of some of the things we brought home from South Dakota. After scrolling through the pictures, please see the final paragraph at the end.

The ultimate and must-have souvenir...the t-shirt:
A red clay pot from Sioux Pottery in Rapid City:

More pottery pieces from Sioux Pottery:

This is a print of an original painting by a local artist who lives and works in the Black Hills. We purchased it in a lovely art gallery in Hill City. The scene is Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park.

This is an amusing print we picked up at Pioneer Auto Museum. You can see how it appeals to Denis' engineer's mind:

We brought home some reading material:

This necklace is just gorgeous, and the photo just doesn't do it justice. The stone is a Fairburn Agate, which is mined in the Black Hills area. This piece was also made by a local artisan.

Denis has begun a new collection: flattened souvenir pennies. We have pennies from Wall Drug, the Corn Palace, Mt Rushmore, the Badlands, Ft. Hays, and the Air and Space Museum. These are fun!

What trip out west would be complete without a collection of wooden nickels?

Here are some stone pieces that appealed to the both of us. The vase and the wine holder in the next picture are made by a gentleman who lives in Spearfish. They are of Black Hills alabaster, which he mines himself. The egg on the holder is a polished stone, and is the newest addition to Denis' rock and mineral collection.

We also brought back some little trinkets for the grandkids, but since they are reading this too, I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Final thoughts. We had a grand time on this road trip to South Dakota. The one thing that struck the both of us the most was the wide-openess of the prairie. We thought about the pioneers who came to live here...those who survived and stayed on, and those who didn't. I wonder about the "broken dreams" of those who lived in the abandoned homesteads that remain along the roadside. The natural beauty of the plains, of the hills, rivers, and rock formations thrilled us. We were very impressed with the city of Sioux Falls. We spent our entire time there in the downtown area. It is a vital downtown that blends both the old (and preserved) and the new. Our least favorite place was Deadwood. Yes, the town is rich in old buildings and steeped in history, which appealed to us. What we weren't thrilled with, though, was that it has turned into something of a "mini-Vegas", with slot machines and table gambling in almost every store-front. I did notice, however, that clinking sound of real coins dropping into the trays of the slot machines.

Many thanks to those who traveled with us through this blog. Thank you for your comments and for letting us know that you were watching. Please come back again soon. Denis and I are going on a weekend trip to northern Wisconsin in a couple of weeks. Fall colors should be at peak, and we'll send some photos of our weekend in the woods.

Susan and Denis

Hello friends and family,

We had a very relaxing day today. We had no schedule or itinerary to follow. We didn't even use the car today. Since our hotel is centrally located downtown, we used our own feet as transportation. The day started out foggy and cool, but once the fog lifted, the day was sunny and warm.

We visited Falls Park, featuring the waterfalls that the city is named after. The rock in the falls is a rose colored quartzite, and very pretty. Many of the older downtown buildings are made from this stone, quarried from this area. Sioux Falls' downtown also has a collection of art scuptures on display called Sculpturewalk. We walked the downtown area and found many of the sculptures on display. The art pieces range from life-like to abstract. The annual downtown art and craft fair was also held this year, featuring local artisans. We found some interesting things, and one especially reminded us of home...Wisconsin cheese!

Tomorrow we will spend our last day out and will be in Wisconsin tomorrw night. We may stay out another night, or we may push on to home. Our last post will be from home sometime on Monday. To our families, we brought goodies for the grandchildren. To our co-workers, we will see you bright and early on Tuesday morning.

Susan and Denis


Falls Park:

Sculpturewalk:

Susan's favorite:

Denis' favorite:

Historic Buildings downtown:

South Dakota Trip Day Eight

Greetings from Sioux Falls, SD! We have the first leg of our journey home completed, and are now in Sioux Falls until Sunday morning. We plan to spend tomorrow walking around the downtown area. There are art pieces (sculptures) on the downtown streets, as well as an Arts Festival downtown. It is a day of R & R, with no set plan or itinerary. I'll send some select pictures of the art and Falls Park tomorrow night.

I want to tell you the story of Belvidere. It is a small town along I-90, and we were starting to get low on gas, so we decided to give Belvidere a chance. They had a gas station (sort of) close to the highway, but the price was very high. In the distance was the town of Belvidere, so we decided to look for a station a little further from the road. We found no gas station, or people for that matter. What we found was a town as close to a ghost town as it could be. The "town" was two streets long and two streets wide (gravel, no pavement except for the main road through town). The only two living things we saw were two dogs who did not look friendly. So, we turned around, bypassed the station on the exit, and drove on to find gas further down the road. Here are some images of Belvidere:

This was the meat market!

The high point of our day was a stop at Wall Drug. We had fun looking around at all the stuff, and had fun being silly tourists too. We had lunch in Wall before continuing eastward.

Here is Denis with his new girlfriend:

Here is Susan with her new boyfriend:

The world famous, one and only Wall Drug: (and they really sell drugstore items as well as prescriptions there too!)

More tomorrow from Sioux Falls.

Susan and Denis

South Dakota Trip Day Seven Pictures

Blog followers...we have success after all tonight. Here are today's pictures we'd like to share with you. See you from Sioux Falls tomorrow night.

Fort Hays Chuckwagon and Dinner Theater:

Badlands National Park:

Prairie Dog Town

South Dakota Air and Space Museum, Ellsworth AFB

Minuteman Missile in Silo:

South Dakota Trip Day Six Pictures

Here are the pictures from Day Six. See the narrative in a previous post (scroll down).

Wind Cave:

We've bought a place in the Black Hills. Here is our new homestead: (Hee Hee)

Dinosaur Park:

1880 Train:

South Dakota Trip Day Seven

Hello Blog Followers!

We spent another full day and our last day here in the Black Hills. Although we are reluctant to leave, we will head east toward Wisconsin tomorrow morning.

Today we toured Ellsworth AFB, where we saw military aircraft on display, as well as a Minuteman Missle Silo.

We then headed out to Badlands National Park for the afternoon. After a quick lunch in Wall (not Wall Drug, we will stop by there tomorrow morning on our way east), we headed back to Rapid City for a brief respite before dinner.

Dinner was at Ft. Hays Chuckwagon and Dinner Show. The menu included barbeque beef, baked beans, applesauce, baked potato, hardtack roll and butter, spice cake, and lemonade. We were treated to a stage show after dinner. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

The internet connection here at the hotel has deteriorated over the past two days, making it nearly impossible to send pictures. I will try to send photos from the last two days tomorrow night after we arrive in Sioux Falls.

Until then....
Susan and Denis

South Dakota Trip Day Six

Hello Friends,
I’m sorry this blog post is a day late. Our internet connection was down for reasons unknown. So, rest easy, we didn’t fall off the side of a mountain or anything (although it would have been easy to do—no guardrails in many places!) Here is our post for Wednesday, Sept. 9. I'll send pictures later.

We changed up the itinerary, and swapped Wednesday and Thursday plans. Today we went to Hill City and took a ride on the 1880 train – a steam train that runs between Hill City and Keystone. The route took us past the backside of Mt Rushmore. Guess what it looks like? You got it-trees! After the steam train we visited Wind Cave National Park, and took an underground tour. We were 175 ft below ground at the deepest point. Wind Cave is the 4th longest cave in the world at 132 miles of explored passages, and the end of the cave has not yet been found. Wind Cave is home to a unique formation called boxwork. 95% of the boxwork formations in the world are found in Wind Cave. These were formed millions of years ago when South Dakota was covered with an inland sea. The limestone seabed developed cracks, which filled in with the shells of dead sea animals. Over time, these shells compressed into calcite, and eventually the limestone dissolved and just the calcite fins remain today. We got some great pictures from inside the cave. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Dinosaur Park in Rapid City. This park was created in 1932 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located on Rapid City’s Skyline Drive, which overlooks the city. Life-sized statues of the dinosaurs that roamed here, including Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Tomorrow we are traveling to the Badlands, Wall and Ellsworth AFB.
Susan and Denis

South Dakota Trip Day Five

Hello Blog Followers! We did the northern Black Hills tour today, including Belle Fourche, Sturgis, Deadwood, and picturesque Spearfish Canyon. We encountered our day of bad weather today...it was rainy in the morning, and cold, about 60 degrees. But, as you all know, we can't control the weather, and we came to South Dakota prepared for rain or shine. The weather cleared up by the time we went to Deadwood in the afternoon, so all was good. Here is today's installment of pictures from the Black Hills:

Spearfish Canyon:

In Deadwood, we saw a reenactment of a gunfight featuring these actors:

In Sturgis, we visited the Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame. Here are some of the bikes they had on display:

It was raining in Belle Fourche, so we toured their visitor center, which included a museum of artifacts from the area. Here is a T-Rex jawbone segment they had on display there:

Belle Fourche's claim to fame is that it is the Geographic Center of the United States. Our plan for tomorrow is to ride the 1880 train between Hill City and Keystone, and to tour Wind Cave National Park. More tomorrow from the road.

Susan and Denis