sad day

 9-4-2021 Saturday

We are both saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend, David Johnson, this afternoon.  He lost his battle to cancer today, and will sorely missed by his wife and all his friends.  Rest in Peace, Dave,  we shared many good times together.

We will be heading back to Arizona tomorrow to help Mazie with the details of Dave's death, so this was our last day in Pierre, and in South Dakota.  We are about 1350 miles away so we have some hard driving days ahead of us.  But we have had some good rest here.  We explored more of the countryside today, beginning with driving the other campground right here.  And we found some deer.  We think it is a momma and 2 fawns, you can still see the spots on two of them.

We took the road down to the river and spotted some kind of "bird house or nest" out in this swampy field.  We assume it is something for an endangered specie of bird but didn't find any information.  There were 5 or 6 of these in this field.  It is not attached to the branch in the side of the picture.

Then we headed into town, back to the Capitol area to find the Fighting Stallions monument, which is on the grounds there.

"Fighting Stallions Memorial was constructed by the people of South Dakota as a lasting memorial to eight South Dakotans who perished in an airplane crash on April 19, 1993. The state plane, N86SD, crashed due to propeller assembly failure in poor weather on a farm near Dubuque, Iowa."  "Four state employees, the Governor, and three Sioux Falls corporate leaders were on an economic development mission to save the largest agricultural processing employer in South Dakota."

I had to keep Joe from going the wrong way again in front of the Capitol, but we did finally get a picture from the front.

Then we went out of town to the Oahe Dam.  This is quite an impressive dam, built by the Corp of Engineers, of course.  When Joe saw this sign, he said the castle on it was the insignia he wore on his uniform in the Army, since he was with the Construction Engineers.  I never knew about the insignia (and I thought we had no secrets!) and really never connected him with the Corp of Engineers.

What really amazed us about this dam was how close we could drive to it.  There were roads on both sides, and boat ramps.

The river is beautiful, water very clear.  And there were several fishing boats making use of it -- the current from the dam made for a pretty fast troll, but they were certainly using it.

We watched this one fisherman actually catch a fish, but it was really small.  It's a small white fish in his hand.  Joe talked to a couple getting ready to walk down the bank to fish, and they said they catch walleye, salmon, paddle fish, and one other kind, but he couldn't remember it.  

As we were leaving, an all-weather boat came racing by, and stopped right in this area.  This is probably the kind to have up here, if you want to fish in cold weather.

We continued on past the dam and came out in Ft. Pierre again, so we explored it a little more.  Then we grabbed some lunch and went back to the RV for a while.  Later, we drove back to Pizza Ranch for dinner, and Joe saw there was an events center next door to the restaurant.  It looked like they had a wedding going on, so we drove over there and saw this beautiful set of horses getting ready to give a carriage ride -- we assume to the bride and groom.  The horses were awesome.

After dinner, we drove out to the Walmart to do a little shopping, then headed back to the campground.  As we turned onto our road, we caught a beautiful sunset -- goodbye South Dakota.

It was a beautiful day here, 70s again, and sunny.  It was a bit chilly when I got up though, 59 degrees -- nice.  We were happy to have the opportunity to explore this part of the country, but are ready to head home.  We hope Arizona is over its 100-degrees by the time we get there.  We are going directly to Sierra Vista to Mazie, and they are usually 10-15 degrees cooler than the Phoenix area, so there is hope.

Pierre, South Dakota

 9-2-2021 Thursday

We stayed comfortable with our little 12 volt dc fan last night although Joe did run the generator for a while to watch tv while I played at the casino.  I actually won $200 last night.  So the free camping worked out well.

This morning we walked over to the casino and I remembered I could run my rewards card through the kiosk for a reward.  I got $15 so I told Joe I was going to run it off.  He went over and finished getting the RV ready to go, then drove over to the casino gas pumps.  When he went out the door of the casino, a lightning bolt flashed right in front of him.  Well, the same lightning bolt must have caused a surge of electricity on the newer machines in the casino, including the one I had just transferred my money into, and shut my machine down for about 5 minutes.  It eventually came back on, and I eventually cashed out a little over $10  (you can't just take the money and run, you have to play it in a machine).

It was sprinkling when I walked over to the gas pumps.  Joe said it had rained hard for a couple of minutes.  62 degrees and raining hard again when we pulled out at 8:50.  And it rained off and on most of the day, sometimes pretty hard.

We crossed the state line into South Dakota at 10:20.  Our first interesting site was this beautiful white buffalo statue in Madison, S.D.  It is the advertising symbol of a car dealership there, but it certainly gets your attention.  

A lot of pretty rolling hills in this part of the state, often dotted with cattle.  An Indian Reservation was on one side of our highway through much of this area.

We also saw a lot of crops -- beans and corn mostly, but we drove past 4 huge fields of sunflowers.  We also saw a pumpkin patch.  All of the fields here are gigantic, and the farm equipment we have seen is huge -- covering several rows at a time.  We got behind a few tractors, etc. but they usually don't go very far before they turn off.

Sunflower field at 60 mph.

We took a break for lunch and a half-hour rest, then our highway 34 started zigging and zagging a little as we neared the huge Missouri River.  We had a couple of viewpoints but I couldn't get a very good picture since we didn't stop.  Through here, the Missouri River is bigger than I've ever seen the Mississippi River, I don't know if it gets smaller as it flows south.

Not too far from our turnoff to the campground, we saw these silhouettes of cowboys, horses, Indians.  We may have to drive back down to get a better look at it -- looked like a battle was taking place.

Then we reached our campground.  When I made the reservation yesterday, I was on the phone with the person longer than I have ever been on making a reservation.  I thought we were going to get into children and grandchildren's birthdates before she finished asking questions, but when we got to the gate today, we were all set up, so I guess it was time well spent.

As I said, it had rained most of the day.  When we backed into our campsite, we started sinking into the mud.  We made some pretty big ruts.  So Joe pulled up and got some boards out to put under the jacks, that worked much better.

This is a beautiful campground, we were very lucky to get in here for the holiday weekend.  I think she told us we got the last spot when I called in.  The sites are very roomy, we are right on the bay of the Missouri River.  

There are also cabins to rent.  A couple of them are right by the river.

I found a Pizza Ranch in town, so we drove in for dinner and to look over the town.  It is amazingly small to be the state capitol.  The restaurant was across the river in Ft. Pierre (who knew?), and it is also a very small town.  

A very interesting sight around the town is the "trail of governors" statues.  I took pictures of some we saw and googled it to find out what they represent.  This is what I learned.

"The Trail of Governors is series of life-size bronze statues of former governors of South Dakota in Pierre, the state capital. The project's goal is to place statues of every former governor; as of 2021, twenty-eight statues have been placed."

I guess we will have to chase down the rest of them now.  There is also a statue of horses we need to find.

We drove past the Capitol Building and I took a picture from the back of it.  Joe tried to drive past the front but got on a one-way street the wrong way, so we didn't get that one.  The Capitol was recently restored and looks pretty grand.

Our new Garmin GPS has several features we like, but the "you are going the wrong way" one has come in handy twice now.  

Our drive today was 287 miles, pretty much our max I would say.  Joe was pretty tired by the time we got stopped.  But we had really good roads most of the time, and nice scenery if you like this kind of stuff, which we do.  The only wildlife we saw was geese, both on the ground and in flight.  Not many places for wildlife to hide here since there are few trees and bushes.  We might have passed a prairie dog village but we don't know for sure -- didn't see any animals but it looked like dirt piles like they dig for their homes.  

We are in this campground for 4 nights, leaving on Monday (Labor Day).  No specific plans for our days here -- little down time, little exploring.  That should take care of it.

Minnesota

 9-1-2021 Wednesday

We had a peaceful night at our little campground and packed up this morning. The sites don’t have sewer but the seasonal/permanent residents have installed holding tanks which get pumped when needed. Joe was looking at the one next door, he had not seen anything like it.

 He did a little maintenance on our tow bar. The slide bars are wearing out and getting hard to slide. He tried to get some oil down inside them, so he had me help hold them. I cautioned him to not get oil on himself, but he told me to look at my own pants and I had a big oily/dirty patch on the pant leg.  They are now soaking in the sink.

We got on the road about 9:15 and headed out of Wisconsin. We crossed the Minnesota state line just before 10:00 — not sure exactly when because neither of us saw the sign. I was on the phone making campground reservations for the weekend and spotted a gas station. When we stopped at the gas pump, there was a sign saying we were on Almelund, Minnesta. But at least the gas was cheaper there.

Our intent was to take 95 to 23, but we hit a detour that probably took us 20 miles around whatever we were detouring — we assumed some bridges.  We finally got back on 95, which took us to 23 and through St. Cloud.  St. Cloud is my favorite town in Minnesota so far, this the second time we have been through it, and John and Bridgette have friends who live there.  I just think it is a pretty town, big enough to have most businesses, but not too big, and very clean and well kept. 

As we drove through the countryside, we were surprised to see a field of watermelons.  Didn't know they grew them up here.  And then the next field was pumpkins, a pretty good size field of them.  This is what a pumpkin field looks like from the highway going 60 mph -- a little blurry.

We are staying tonight on the parking lot of Prairie View RV Park and Casino in Granite Fallls, Minnesota.  They do have a pretty nice RV park just down the road, but they also allow RV parking on the casino parking lot, and since the weather has cooled off, we decided we didn't need any hook-ups so that would do.  We drove 210 miles today, had just a bit of a breeze but actually pretty nice driving across country.  We had the windows open most of the day, and the a/c turned off.  We ate dinner at the casino, and I won about $200, so it was a good day!

We found a place in South Dakota to say over the holiday weekend, just south of Pierre.  We have not explored that area, so that should work.  We should arrive there tomorrow.  Rain is predicted, but the windshield needs a good wash, so maybe the rain will take care of that.

Leaving Michigan

 8-31-2021 Tuesday

After much debate last night between the 4 of us, we finally determined that yesterday was Monday, so today must be Tuesday.  It was 55 degrees this morning, I had to turn the a/c off during the night.  And it was lovely outside this morning when we walked down to the Brundiges’ RV say our goodbyes.

Joe talked to a guy yesterday at a propane dealer in town and he told Joe if he brought the RV in by 9:30, he could fill our tank from one of the trucks, so we left the casino parking lot about 8.:45, regretfully turning down Marilyn’s offer to make biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We got the propane tank filled and were officially on the road by 9:10.  The Brundiges got on the road about 10:00, but they were just going to Ishpeming, about 60 miles, to have their electrical problem looked at.  We didn't know where we were going.

Driving through northwest Michigan and into Wisconsin, we mostly saw trees.  I know Minnesota is famous for it's North Woods, but I'm thinking this qualifies too.  Very dense trees, few towns and few houses.  Here's our view from the window.

It was an uneventful drive.  We crossed the Wisconsin state line at 10:55, the temperature got into the mid-70s eventually.   We pulled into one roadside park for a pitstop and walked around a little, these "waysides" are very nice in this part of the country.  We looked for one for our lunch stop but missed it, so we pulled in behind a church and took a break, and had lunch.  At this time, (1:25 p.m.), we had driven 192 miles, so we were making pretty good time.  And then we gained an hour, so it got even better.  Then we continued on.  

One of the sights we saw was Old Smoky, in Ladysmith, Wisconsin.  It is right beside the highway.

"Steam locomotive 1011 was donated to the City of Ladysmith by the Soo Line Railroad in 1961. The 2-8-2 "Mikado" locomotive was built in May 1920 by the American Locomotive Co. at its Brooks plant in Dunkirk, N.Y. It was the first of 23 Class L-2 and L-20 engines built for the Soo Line. The locomotive and tender are 82.5 feet long and weigh 493,100 pounds. Tender 4003 held 10,000 gallons of water and 17.5 tons of coal. It was hand-fired until a stoker was installed in 1939. It has 63-inch driving wheels and operated under 170 psi of steam pressure. It has its original wooden cab. Used in mainline freight service, it made its last run on Jan. 18, 1955 after traveling 1,496,191 miles. It was named Old Smokey by the school children, who raised money to defray the cost of installation."  We didn't stop to tour it, but we probably should have.

Another interesting tidbit today was we passed a large Jennie-O turkey processing plant in Barron, Wisconsin (also right beside our highway).  There was a sign posted on the building offering $5,000 in sign-on bonus.  Hope some people get off their behinds and go get a job!  Thanksgiving is coming.

We got to our campground about 4:00 (5:00 eastern time).  Our roads today have varied between excellent and needs improvement.  We drove 288 miles, and are about 20 miles from the Minnesota state line.  Our campground, called D  N Campground for Do Nothin, is nothing special, a lot of seasonal or permanent units in here, but the price and location were right.

The bridge is out just past the driveway to the campground, which had me worried.  But we are parked right on the Apple River, which is nice.

We have seen several "bigfoots" this summer, but none have been dressed as nicely as this one in the campground.

Joe was pretty tired today so we went for an early dinner and hopefully an early evening.  We drove over to the town of Amery, had a nice dinner, but that little town is also torn up from road construction.  On our way back, we continued out on the main road past our turn-off on to the little town of Balsam Lake, maybe 10 more miles.  It is a very nice little lake town, right on Balsam Lake, well kept.   The lake is pretty, and pretty clear.

And there were some interesting sights here too.  The local landscaping company had an old truck parked out front, the bed full of flowers, but a cool fountain pouring out of the grill in the front. (I missed the fountain, so Joe had to turn around and take me back to see it.)

The truck was parked on a bed of river rocks, and there were more rocks along the outside edge, which I could have spent some time sorting through, but Joe wouldn't let me.  He told me he was sure they would sell me some.

Another sight we had passed on the way into town is this "Moose Theatre" where apparently at some point in time they had some kind of musical performance here.  With a band.  Not sure what the critters have to do with it, but it was eye-catching.  And probably the only moose we will see this trip.

Just a few feet down the road was this "mosquito" work of art.

and this, which I guess is just to get our attention.  (It worked.)

We finally ended our drive, and our day.  We did see some wildlife today:  Joe saw a baby turtle in the road (I missed it); a big rat or mole started to cross the road and Joe honked at it and scared it back into the bushes, 4 deer, 2 sandhill cranes, and a chipmunk.  Things are looking up again.

We hope to get across Minnesota tomorrow, then maybe have a "down day."  We are now planning one day at a time.  Might be time to think about heading for home.