Exploring Pierre

 9-3-2021 - Friday

We are only about 5 miles from town.  As I said yesterday, Pierre is a very small town, especially for a state capitol.  Population is just under 13,500.  It has a Walmart and Menards, but we haven't seen any other big box stores on either side of the river.  It ranks 8th in size for the state.  So we haven't found too much to explore.  

We saw more of the governor statues but we also found a really nice cowboy/horse one in Ft. Pierre.

We did drive up past a cowboy museum, and a monument commemorating the Verendrye explores who discovered this area in the 1700s.

"Two hundred and seventy years ago, French explorers named Verendrye buried a lead plate on a hill. They were among the first white men to set foot in a land that would later be known as South Dakota. One hundred years ago, Ethel Parish and two friends found the plate while playing on a sunny February day on a hill over Fort Pierre." 

There was a good view of this valley from this hill, and a good view of the winding Missouri River.

And the rolling hills behind the town.

 We have an acquaintance here who owns a fencing business and we tried to find it, but so far we haven't been successful, even though we found it on google.  We will give that another shot before we leave.  Joe wanted to get a haircut, so I told him to drop me at a thrift store and I would shop while he got his haircut.  Well, he was back before I even got halfway through the store.  He said he got to the barbershop between appointments so he got right in.  So I spent my $2.40 on some stencils for scrapbooking, and that was that.

I have a pinched nerve in my neck -- I'm pretty sure it's from carrying a bucket of rocks last week.  So I am babying that a little, on heating pad, naproxin or ibuprophen, and using some voltaren.  It's hard for me to look down -- as in reading, looking at my computer, etc., so I'm not liking it one bit!   I can sympathize with Jeff now about his headaches -- I get it!  We had intended to try to have a "down day" today anyway, so that works in my not-busy-schedule.

Joe grilled hamburgers for dinner and we ate outside -- a rare event this trip.  And then we went for a walk -- an even rarer event.  It was a short walk, but we did make it down by the river, which had a little beach area all along the campground.  One guy was out swimming, and some others were getting ready to head out in kayaks.  The water was perfectly calm.  

But our little walk wore us out, so that was it for the day.  I'm sure tomorrow we will go for a drive -- not much to do in this little town.  Our campground is filling up, though, so we still feel lucky to have gotten a spot here for the holiday weekend.