Will Denisa fall at Sioux Falls this time?

After leaving the Corn Palace, we made the 1.5 hour drive through the agricultural fields of South Dakota to the state's largest city--Sioux Falls. We have mixed emotions about this place because in Denisa's mind she equates Sioux Falls with "painful falls." We were here for the 4th of July in 2018, and we enjoyed the patriotic parade and a free community barbecue lunch. But Denisa stepped off an unusually tall curb and got the worst sprained ankle of her life. She couldn't walk at all for a week, and then not without a limp for over a month! Because of her clumsiness, we didn't see anything else in Sioux Falls that day. So we wanted to try it again. We arrived on another summer holiday seven years later, hoping for better results. You can be sure that she walked carefully and approached curbs with unusual respect on this return visit.

We parked the pickup and trailer at the empty farmers market parking lot, and walked to the Sioux Falls visitor center. We climbed up the 83 steps into the tower for our first view of Falls Park. We saw lots of people hiking and biking the trails on this beautiful Labor Day holiday.

We hiked down to the center of Falls Park, to see the Big Sioux River tumbling over the red quartzite rocks. We had made it to the Sioux Falls falls without falling!

We walked to the Arc of Dreams--the stainless steel structure that arches over the river. While the arch is about a football field in length, you might notice that the two segments do not quite meet in the middle.

The Arc of Dreams is a tribute to dreamers past and present. That 15-foot gap represents the leap of faith that dreamers must take to see their dreams come true. Denisa just thought it looked like the leap she took when she stumbled off the curb where she fell last time.

Looking straight up to the blue sky, that's quite a leap of faith! It's interesting that this structure was made by the same artist that built the "Dignity of Earth and Sky" statue we saw at the South Dakota rest stop yesterday. Artist Dale Lamphere made his home state proud!

We continued walking along the river, where the flower pots were overflowing. Denisa was almost camouflaged with all those colorful blooms--and she still hasn't fallen in Sioux Falls.

Our next destination was Sculpturewalk 2025. For the last 22 years, Sioux Falls has invited sculptors to display their works of art in their downtown. They also invite visitors to take a ballot and vote for their favorite. Each year's people's choice winner is purchased and then becomes a permanent part of the city's downtown. The ballot brochure included prices, as individuals and businesses could also purchase the sculptures. For example, "Down Feather Portal" could be purchased for $10,000.

One of Mark's favorites was "Strength and Courage." He obviously has expensive taste, because it had a price tag of $40,000.

"Lupine" was only $10,000 . . .

and "Archway" was $6,200. 

But our people's choice vote went to "The Last Man Standing," a $30,000 statue of a saluting veteran standing up from his wheel chair. (When we checked back on the voting results, we found that the city purchased a modern abstract sculpture from a local artist that hadn't caught our eye or our camera lens.)

Sculpture judging was good exercise, as we walked all over the riverfront and downtown Sioux Falls. We worked up an appetite, so we stopped at the Blarney Stone Pub on Phillips Avenue for chicken and bacon pot pie. It was great, and the end of our successful (and accident-free) visit to Sioux Falls. We still had a 2.5-hour drive to our last destination of the day. That drive took us through the corner of Iowa--our 13th state of this journey.

We were just settling into becoming Iowans, when we crossed over the Missouri River . . .

and entered Nebraska--our 14th state.

Our last overnight camping spot was another Boondockers Welcome. Our hosts lived at the top of a very steep gravel hill.

Once at the top, we were delighted to meet our hosts for the evening. We love meeting the locals, and they had some especially welcoming pets. They travel in a van-size RV with their three Bernese Mountain dogs. Even though they weigh over 100 pounds each, these pets think they are lap dogs, and love to be loved. We enjoyed our time with all five of our hosts!

This was our last camp site on this two-month journey, and it was a dandy. We have enjoyed the hospitality of Boondocker Welcome, as we stayed with seven different hosts on this trip. We also enjoyed our stop at Sioux Falls, where Denisa managed to not fall this year!

South Dakota's Lesser Known Tourist Stops

We went to the church service at the local church near our campground in Rapid City, South Dakota, and then were on the road by 11:00. We didn't pull off at the normal tourist stops on this route--Badlands National Park, Walls Drug, and the Missile Site National Historic Site. We made those three stops on a trip two years ago. But we did stop at two of the state's lesser known tourist stops. The first one was at a South Dakota rest area to see the "Dignity of Earth and Sky" statue.

This stainless steel statue was gifted to the state, and her clothing is patterned after the traditional garments of the Native American women of the 1850s. Three Lakota women were used as models for the face of Dignity. Not exactly a size 6, she is 50 feet tall, and 32 feet wide. Her quilt is made of 128 diamonds that are four feet across, and painted in the colors of the South Dakota water and sky. LED lights highlight the diamonds after dark, and we bet she's a beauty at night.

To stretch our legs, we took a hike down the walking path that starts at the rest area.

We took a picture from the viewpoint overlooking the Missouri River.

We hustled back to the visitor center, only to find that it closed just minutes before. But Denisa took a picture of the museum's replica of the boat used by Lewis and Clark as they made their way up the Missouri River on their great adventure. The Lewis and Clark expedition spent a night here in 1904.

We were making the long drive across South Dakota through fields of corn, wheat, and maize, and a surprising number of fields of sunflowers as we drove along I-90 all day. 

We drove through rain much of the day with an unusual weather advisory warning of "Reduced visibility ahead."

The other stop of the day was at the Sodak natural Foods truck. We learned that "Sodak" is short for South Dakota, and all the beef, pork, chicken, and lamb comes from a ranch 13 miles down the gravel road. They positioned the food truck here along I-90, and plan to build a restaurant on this same land in the near future. For now, we can say that we were one of their first customers, and our beef platter was very good.

We had reservations at our next Boondockers Welcome site just outside Mitchell, South Dakota. We parked in the field behind a local's house, and we had our first mosquito swarm of the summer. We were lucky that this was our first time to be bothered by bugs for this long trip. We had planned to eat at our host's Bistro, but they were closed for Labor Day. So instead, we took a walk down Mitchell's Main Street. This town is best known for its corn.

Mitchell is famous for its Corn Palace, and we got there when it opened at 9:00. The entire outside of the palace is covered with local grain products. In the United States in the late 1800's, there were 34 different corn prairie palaces. All the rest have come and gone, and this is the world's only Corn Palace now.

The indoor lobby has many signboards, describing the history of the Corn Palace and the celebrities that have visited Mitchell, South Dakota, for the annual Corn Festival. They also have displays explaining the process of cutting the cobs in half and attaching them to the walls. Corn is grown in many different colors to make the shading possible for the murals that adorn the inside and outside walls of the palace.

Corn murals line the arena walls in the interior of the palace.

The indoor murals have been up for many years, and are based on South Dakota history. We were surprised at the large number of people visiting the Corn Palace this morning. Then we discovered that they were hosting the state children's pedal tractor pull. 

We would have stayed to watch the competition, as they add an increasing amount of weight to the trailer as the children pedal the tractor. But things didn't start until 11:00, and we had plenty of miles to travel this day. Later this year, the Corn Palace will host the national pedal pull competition, where the state winners will all vie for the national title.

We thought the columns in the foyer were nicely tiled to look like huge multi-colored corn cobs.

The many-colored real cobs were also on display.

While the inside murals stay for years, the outside murals are replaced every year. The theme for the 2025 murals were "Wonders of the World." At one time the plans were painstakingly colored and plotted by hand. Now the images are computer-generated into a giant paint-by-number grid that will use local seeds and cobs instead of paint.

The murals were still a work in progress in August. Looking at the side of the Corn Palace, we could see that most of the work was done on the murals.

But the decorative finishes around the murals were not completed. You can see Denisa standing at the base of the wall to give some degree of the size of the palace.

We took a closer picture of the finished mural of Australia's Opera House.

Besides using corn cobs, they also make use of native grasses and seeds. This section had the grasses outlining the stars, and the golden straw stars. The star of the show in Mitchell, South Dakota is definitely the Corn Palace. Even though we drove right by some of South Dakota's biggest tourist sites, we'll give a big thumbs up to some of the state's lesser known stops.

Welcome to South Dakota

It was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and the crowds were beginning to filter into the Big Horn Mountains just as we were hooking up the trailer to leave. It was 46 degrees when we were leaving our camp site on this August weekend. After several days with clouds and rain and a shady site, our lithium battery was down to 40%--the lowest of this journey. While Mark was outside getting ready to leave, a moose cow and calf ran right beside him. What a nice farewell from the Big Horn Mountains! We drove four miles out of our way to dump the tanks at the very nice forest service dump station. (You know you are a hard core Rver when you describe dump stations as "very nice.") Since we were leaving on a steep road we wanted to get the weight of the water out of the tanks.

We found lots of warning signs as we left the top of the Big Horn Mountains. The road out was a very steep 9% grade!

We saw four different signs warning us that this steep grade was hard on brakes. A mandatory brake check requires vehicles with trailers to stop.

It was also interesting that the maximum speed for trucks coming down this mountain road was 20 miles per hour.

In the distance we could see the tallest knob on the mountain. That was where we hiked to the fire lookout tower a couple days before.

The pickup and driver handled this steep drive like experts. The drive took us through the fire damage from last summer's wild fires. Whole mountains were burned all the way to the town of Draper.                

We wound through miles of sharp curves making that steep descent.

We filled up with gasoline in Montana right before we crossed the South Dakota border, where prices went up fifty cents per gallon. Welcome to South Dakota--the 12th state in this journey.

We traveled 282 miles this day, a very large number for us. We were obviously hurrying to get back home. We packed a picnic lunch to eat early because we wanted to be especially hungry for our special treat dinner tonight. We pulled into Three Flags RV Park, a Passport America discount campground in Rapid City, South Dakota, for a one-night stay.

Then we drove several miles to Fort Hays, where we had reservations for the chuckwagon dinner and show. While the buildings at Fort Hays look like they were circa 1880, they were actually built in 1989. This was the movie set for some of the scenes in the movie "Dances with Wolves."

Kevin Costner played the role of John J. Dunbar, and they had a multitude of movie souvenirs displayed around Fort Hays.

This was the room where Dunbar was given his posting orders in one scene from the movie.

Mark stood on the "x" on the floor where Kevin Costner stood while they were filming.

A saw mill and supply house were actually operational and also used in scenes for the movie.

This movie set would have been torn down, but a man by the name of Herman Jones decide to buy it and make it into a South Dakota landmark. Mr. Jones still works in the rope shop, where he shows tourists how to make ropes the way they did it in the 1880's.

This particular rope was made from toilet paper, showing that even quite soft material can form a tough rope when wound tightly enough. While working on his rope, Mr. Jones quoted bible verses and ended his demonstration with a prayer.

We also stopped in at the Tin Shop, where they were making tin pans using a machine from the 1880s. These tin pans can be stamped and personalized for purchase, and they let child volunteers help. Any tin pans not purchased are used as plates for the chuckwagon dinner.

We came for the chuckwagon show, but anyone can stop by to see the outdoor exhibits and photo ops at Fort Hays. They have a recorded tour, with information about each building. We listened to most of them while we waited for the dinner bell.

Visitors can also buy a ticket for the roller coaster that whisks passengers down the mountain. From the top of this hill we could see far into the Black Hills of South Dakota with Mount Rushmore in the distance. Another draw for tourists to visit Fort Hays was the breakfast, with unlimited pancakes.

It was raining when we arrived at Fort Hays. But by the time we rode the bison, the skies were a beautiful shade of blue.

The dinner bell clanged at 6:30, and we formed a line. They piled our tin plate up with our choice of beef or chicken, baked beans, a flattened baked potato, and chunky applesauce. They laid a piece of waxed paper over that layer to add biscuits, honey, and a slice of spice cake on top. We were handed a tin cup filled with our choice of coffee or lemonade, and then we were seated at long lines of picnic tables. Seated close to the other tourists, we soon got to know our neighbors. This Labor Day weekend we ate with a couple celebrating their 29th anniversary, a young couple from Colorado married 14 months ago, and a couple visiting from North Dakota. We realized how small the world was when we found that the husband from North Dakota was actually raised in Oklahoma. When we asked where in Oklahoma, he replied that it was a tiny place that we would have never heard of--Slapout. Doesn't everyone know where Slapout, Oklahoma is?!? He was raised on a farm just 15 miles from where Denisa grew up. Even though we were divided by a different school district and a decade of time, we found we had many friends in common. After visiting and eating, the show started and we had a good hour of wholesome entertainment. Welcome to South Dakota!