Fairfield Inn By Marriott Sioux Falls

... doing 75-80 we hit a patch of rain for about ½ an hour. As we enter Sioux Falls we see a lot of small buildings with casino signs there is one right out in front of our motel. It appears to just be slot machines how they are run and by whom I am yet to find out.

We are fairly tired after an 800 kilometer drive and crash into bed watching a program about the world trade centers demise as today ids the anniversary of that horrific event

... and it went bankrupt. Two additional owners failed at the same thing. My brain was tired enough to gleefully say to myself “Citizen foils Banker” and chuckle. I later realized that a lot investors probably got hurt as well, thinking the bank knew what it was doing. Hum!
On the way out of downtown, I passed a large quartzite building title “Minnehaha County Admin”. That did make me chuckle. Oh... Ashley. I am feeling as one with Steinbeck. Thanks.

... drive through mostly flat land with no violet mountains, rolling hills or bluffs to change the view. I was left with one large question. Why are large round bales of hay scattered along both sides of the highway? There were lots of agriculture fields and numerous hay fields with mostly round bales either scattered or stacked in long rows. I'll have to google that!!

Charlie and I were glad to stop in Sioux Falls by about 4:00 pm.

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

We entered Sioux Falls around 4pm. It was hot and stuffy when we arrived so after setting up our motor home we went straight to the pool, only to discover that it was completely covered in leaves. it looked as though no one had swam in it in a while. But as we found out its going to take allot more than leaves to stop the pringles from swimming. So we went in anyways. Morgan so ...

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 ...

... since there is no work on the reservation and people in town will not give them jobs, I asked if Rodger was ever going into town and he was very clear: No, never, I drive to the reservation as soon as I'm done here. The people in town are prejudice. They pass their poor situation right onto the kids. Weirdly enough, the kids don't want to get off the reservation. This means that at some point this reservation will dry up and god knows what's going to ...

... Falls doesn't have that. In fact, even Fargo has a Minnesotan counterpart. Does nobody want to play with Sioux Falls? Driving into Sioux Falls, we immediately went to find a hotel. Funny thing is that they're a ton of hotels, but no one wants to let two kids in their early 20's stay with them. We actually got quoted at $75 at one point. Is there a magic imposing-your-morality tax that I was unaware of in South ...

I left South Dakota when there was snow still on the ground, to drive to Dallas, TX. I had a car full of stuff to move, and my cockatiel, Buddy II (he learned to whistle 'Hotel California' since that's pretty much the only album I played all the way down!). I stayed at a rest area one night, where a couple of truckers pulled their trucks close enough to my car so no one could break in while I was sleeping, and they gave me ...