Comfort Suites Sioux Falls

... we see hundreds of windmill generators dotted throughout the corn fields.

Just before we cross from Wisconsin into Minnesota we cross the Mississippi river Cath spies a drive-inn diner complete with waitresses on roller skates. We couldn’t have lunch as our van was too tall to fit under the awning oh well we will try to find another

Next we cross the bridge over the Mississippi and we go under it to explore here we ...

... s edge. Driving through the neighborhood as we were leaving, we passed folks out visiting each other in driveways and front yards.
Settlers came here because of the falls of course - and so did a man named Pettigrew. He knew the falls would be a great source of electrical power and decided to buy 81 acres and drew up plans for an extremely large flour mill. He needed financing and managed to convince a New York banker to come out. Showing Mr. Seney the plans ...

Charlie and I began the drive through the Badlands with mouths gaping. How did anyone ever figure their way through this land. It must be full of skeletal remains. Well, turns out there were some to see. A wooden walk through a "fossil bed" appeared and we stopped. I expected to see fossils in the cracked dried mud, but they were encased in plastic topped boxes. Many signs warning "Rattlers" so we didn't step off .

The next ...

A stop over in this small town after a long day.

We called into Cracker Barrel for a meal before heading for the Holiday Inn. This was the first time visiting Cracker Barrel despite our number of trips to the US in the past. Shame really as the meal was good. It's an early start tomorrow.

Chicago tomorrow

... scooped out as many leaves as she could. The rest we just ignored. The much needed swim however was short lived as the sky started becoming dark and it started to rain. After having showers and making dinner Morgan and I decided that we should go do laundry, while the other kids stayed and watched a movie. Angus came along shortly to help Morgan and i with the laundry, little ...

We started the day at Mount Rushmore. None of us had ever been there before. We used the audio tours again, and learned a great deal about the carvings, the presidents, the Black Hills and the Lakota people. It really is a special place, and we enjoyed the sculptures and hiking around through the park.

After Mt. Rushmore, we traveled through the Wind Cave National Park on our way to Hot Springs. We saw herds of buffalo and elk, and stopped for a close up look at both. It ...

From Indianapolis we headed to South Dakota passing signs for 'Wall Drug' for miles along the interstate?! We spent the evening with Pam & Matt in Sioux Falls.




We had planned to go to a baseball game for the evening and we arrived eagerly a little while before the game started. As we had tickets that included ...

... Territory in the middle of the country is one of the biggest of the country and The Sioux have the majority of the Territory and then there are 4 tribes under the Sioux Nation. The museum has an enormous amount of tributes on display from the tribe, pipes/tipi's/tools/pots/clothing/blanke ts/paperwork etc. Including some of the props from the movie 'Dancing with Wolves" which was filmed in South Dakota. Also a video of how the tribe lived and lots of ...

... food, a water bottle and a perol can. A real bachelor pad - very basic and tidy! I often find myself making statements like 'we' cos I include my van in my adventure. We crossed the Mississippi at La Crosse. It is a huge river at this point, even thousands of miles from where it enters the sea at New Orleans. Travelling across Minnesota was pretty. It is similar to Wisconsin in that it has lots of farmland with farmhouses and corn siloes.