The new hitch seems to be working like a dream. Yay! The only time we really felt any swaying today was when we got hit by a super strong gust of wind. It made the drive to our next campground much more pleasant (the lack of swaying, not the wind).
Dignity of Earth and Sky
I had hoped to make two stops on our way to Midland, South Dakota, where we are staying tonight. The first was the Corn Palace in Mitchell. And the second was the Dignity of Earth and Sky statue at the rest area in Chamberlain.
Greg put his foot down over going to the Corn Palace, so that was a no-go. I didn’t give him a choice about seeing the Dignity statue. We were going!
Dignity of Earth and Sky is a 50-foot high stainless steel statue that depicts a Native American woman holding a star quilt. I thought it was pretty impressive.
I felt a little like I was taking my life in my hands by following this path, but I did it anyway.
Also at the rest area is a Lewis and Clark interpretive center. Greg and I took a tour through that as well.
Then we hopped in the car to continue our journey.
Almost immediately after leaving the rest area, we crossed over the Missouri River.And we got to see some hills! Okay, one hill.And lots of fields of sunflowers.And a whole lot a nothin’.
When we arrived at the campground, the temperature was 100 degrees.
Needless to say, there was no way I was going to be able to drag Greg outside to do any additional sightseeing. Sigh.
Tomorrow we are off to Hill City, where the real fun begins.
The last two days have been a bust. Our plan yesterday had been to ride our bikes on the greenway along the river.
We loaded the bikes onto the car, and just as we were getting ready to head off, Greg got an alert on his phone that lightning was in the area. We decided to wait until after the thunderstorms had passed, but sadly, every time we checked the weather report, it looked like thunderstorms were imminent.
We eventually took the bikes back off the car and went to the movies instead. We can happily attest that the new Fantastic Four movie is worth the money — assuming you like science fiction, that is.
The thunderstorms waited until the middle of the night before they hit, and boy, did they hit! It was quite the show of thunder, lightning, and wind.
Lucky Greg got to go out in the pouring rain at 2:00 a.m. to make sure the cover hadn’t blown off the bikes.
New hitch!
This morning, we hitched up the trailer and took it into Sioux Falls to get the new hitch installed.
While we were waiting in the showroom, I had the pleasure of visiting with an elderly gentleman who was waiting for a pickup truck that was getting a sprayed-in bed liner.
From what he told me, his post-retirement job is to pick up used trucks from auto auctions and deliver them to the truck dealership he works for. He gets paid $8 an hour, which he told me is a raise from his original payment of $6 an hour.
There is no doubt in my mind that if he voted, he voted for Trump. I’m coming to the conclusion that Americans have pretty similar values. The differences between them are their experiences (largely resulting from where they live) and media exposure.
These guys looked like they were conducting major surgery while they worked. It was hilarious.
Weekday camping
I absolutely love camping during the week (as opposed to weekend camping).
We are currently staying at a Yogi Bear Jellystone campground, which is geared toward families. This place was absolutely packed this weekend. Look at it now!
We practically have the place to ourselves. Weekday camping is THE BEST!
Tomorrow, we are off to Midland, South Dakota. It’s a one-night stop on our way to our final destination on this leg of the trip: Hill City, South Dakota.
This morning, Greg and I took the Prairie and Bison Bus Tour at Blue Mounds State Park.
We got to see the bison herd almost as soon as the tour started.The prairie was beautiful and so different from anything I’ve seen before.
I learned some pretty cool facts on the tour:
The prairie needs to be burned every few years to keep it healthy and prevent it from evolving. People have been burning prairies for thousands of years.
No bison currently living in the US is purebred due to cattle/bison inbreeding many years ago by ranchers.
Only 4% of the original long grass prairie remains in the U.S.
The soil that makes up the prairie of Blue Mounds State Park is at most 3 ft. deep. Underneath the soil is up to 350 ft of Sioux quartzsite. Because of that, the root system goes sideways rather than down.
Bison like to hang out together, so it is rare to find one on its own.
The various parks that breed bison swap the bulls between them in order to prevent too much inbreeding.
We saw some cool wildlife on our tour, too. Thanks to another woman on the tour, who had a powerful set of binoculars, we got to see a red tail hawk and a falcon. We also got to see some pheasants.
Our tour guide was delightful.
Palisades State Park
Next, we headed to Palisades State Park. This was a cute park with some beautiful quartzsite cliffs along Split Rock Creek.
I could post about 20 pictures from this park. I thought it was beautiful.
I really wanted to be one of those kayakers!
One more photo, just because.
Falls Park
Next, we headed to Falls Park in downtown Sioux Falls.
The feels-like temp today was between 100 and 103 degrees, despite the cloud cover (humidity over 70 percent), and Greg was beat by this point, so he took a little convincing to keep going. But after a short stint in the air-conditioned camper, he was game.
And in the end, we were both glad that we went. Wow. Falls Park was a pleasant surprise!
It’s a wonderful community park with a water playground for kids, shops, picnic areas, and restaurants. But the highlight of the park is the falls.
You don’t see something like this right in the heart of a city very often. It was very cool. (By the way, that building is a cafe.)
Miscellany
Some observations about Wisconsin and South Dakota:
The names of county roads in Wisconsin are letters of the alphabet (e.g. County Road V, County Road E). In South Dakota, the names of county roads are numbers (e.g. County Road 478, County Road 452).
The roads are so straight!
The fields of crops (corn or soybeans) are so vast that they disappear into the horizon. It’s all farmland here.
People in South Dakota say hi to you when walking past you.
The roads in Wisconsin are in terrible condition. So are a lot of the roads in South Dakota. Even I-90, which is a major highway!
The roads in South Dakota are sparsely traveled. We went nearly 20 miles today and only passed one other car.
We’ve been feeling a bit like we’re driving across the top of the world, even though our elevation is only 1200 ft. above sea level. I think it’s because the landscape is so flat that the horizon is very far away.
Yesterday, we visited Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. Before our tour of the actual cave, we walked the Karst View Trail. It took us past a number of sinkholes in the ground. (A karst is another word for sinkhole. More or less. I think.)
The sinkholes were not particularly interestingBut the wildflowers along the trail were beautiful!
Afterwards, we took a self-guided tour of Cave of the Mounds. This is the first time we’ve been in a cave where we did not have a guide. It was nice because we were able to linger over things that interested us and take pictures without feeling rushed.
Unfortunately, cave pictures never come out well. The contrast between light and dark is too extreme.
Therefore, I will not bore you with a bunch of crappy cave pictures. Just trust me when I say that this was a fun and different cave experience.
Lake Farm Heritage Trail
The weather was actually gorgeous today, so we decided to take a hike.
Wisconsin has been experiencing a lot of flooding in the last week. Consequently, the trail was flooded in a number of places, and we had to turn around and try different routes.
Despite the challenges, we got to see some pretty scenery.
And wildlife!
Monarch butterfly Great blue heron
National Mustard Museum
Next, we headed to the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Middleton is one of the cutest towns I’ve ever seen. I loved it.
We tried a slew of different-flavored mustards, toured the museum, and watched a film about the making of mustard around the world.
And, of course, we bought some mustard!
The Pink Elephant
Apparently, no visit to Madison would be complete without a visit to see the Pink Elephant. So we did that, too!
The pink elephant has been standing on the site of this gas station since the 1960s. It is not the only pink elephant in the country, but it is the only one wearing glasses.
Drumlin Ridge Winery
We finished the day at Drumlin Ridge Winery, where we tasted some wines and enjoyed some snacks.
It was lovely!
In between all of those activities, we managed to make time to see the new Superman movie (it was good but not great), did laundry, went grocery shopping, and did some maintenance on the travel trailer.
This trip has been different from previous trips with the travel trailer because of the amount of maintenance we’ve had to do while traveling.
Greg ended up ordering a new weight distributing hitch for the trailer. It will be delivered to our campground in Sioux Falls and installed before we leave. Not ideal, but hopefully, the new hitch will fix the sway problem.
We’re also having a problem with water backing up into the fresh water tank, so Greg spent some time trying to solve that problem, too.
Ugh. South Dakota is very far away. Greg and I have now passed the 1000-mile mark on our drive out west.
Yesterday, we were in Indiana, so we decided to check out Indiana Dunes National Park. (There is also an Indiana Dunes State Park, but we chose the national park because we wanted to get our national parks passport book stamped.)
It was 90° and humid, so we went in the morning and kept our visit brief. We hiked the Succession Trail off of West Beach. It involved lots of steps and slogs through soft sand. (Not a great thing for Greg’s weak ankle, but he made it.)
Thankfully, a brisk breeze made the heat more bearablePart of the trail was in shade, which we appreciated!The reward for our effort was seeing the beautiful blue waters of Lake MichiganAnd about 9 million beach goers!
Before we left for our trip, I managed to complete two assignments for my negative painting class with Rick Surowitz.
Although I don’t hate either one, I’d like to give them another try once I get back home.
Maumee Bay State Park
Yesterday was a weird day. One of my medications, either the Propranolol or the Viibryd (or I guess it could have been the lack of caffeine in the morning), made me extremely tired. I finally dragged myself out of bed around 3:00 p.m., but even then I felt like a zombie.
In a desire to not completely waste the day, Greg and I headed off to Maumee Bay State Park to see if we could do a little hiking.
The marina
This is a cute little park right on Lake Erie. It has a fancy lodge, a marina, a golf course, a small inland lake, two beaches, a campground, and a couple of hiking trails.
Greg and I managed to get our steps in, but I felt like my body was still asleep the entire walk. I was glad when we finally headed back to our campsite.
The trail along the lakeSome lucky home owner has his own personal lighthouse!A prettier view of the marina looking toward the lodge
After a relaxing morning in which I napped and Greg read, we headed to the Flight 93 Memorial.
I had mixed feelings about touring this site. My memories of 9/11 are still vivid in my mind, and I was reluctant to re-traumatize myself.
The walkway to the visitor’s center mimics the flight path of Flight 93.
That said, I’m glad we went. The site is in a naturally beautiful location. I felt like I was standing on top of the world. There were mountains and meadows as far as I could see.
The visitor’s center did a wonderful job of telling the story of that day. I was both moved and informed. I was reminded again of the heroism of Flight 93’s passengers and how many lives they saved through their actions.
After our tour of the visitor center, Greg and I hiked down to Memorial Plaza and the crash site.
Looking back at the visitor’s center We saw a bluebird in one of these treesThe Wall of Names
I was surprised to learn that there were only about 40 people on the plane, and they took a vote before storming the pilot’s cabin.
A boulder now marks the spot where the plane crashed, but I did not take a picture of it. It seemed disrespectful somehow.
Another view of the visitor’s center, walking back from Memorial Plaza
On our way out of the memorial site, we stopped at the Tower of Voices, where 40 chimes represent the 40 people who lost their lives that day. The wind has to blow at 12 to 15 mph in order for the chimes to ring. We got to hear them briefly as we were walking toward the tower.
Greg made a friend at the base of the tower. This little kitten was basically a skeleton covered in fur, but my, did he have a pair of lungs! I was seriously tempted to take him back to our campsite.
Luckily, another tourist gave him some water and called the Rangers. I like to think that he is in good hands tonight.
In preparation for our epic Western camping trip, Greg decided to change out the friction cone in our hitch. We had been having trouble with the back end of the trailer swaying. Greg thought replacing the friction cone might help.
Hitch stew
Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the darn thing out. He tried everything, including all of the suggestions people had on YouTube. Finally, he called the manufacturer for help, and they told him to boil the hitch for 30 minutes.
Weirdly, it worked!
Empty nesters at last
On Saturday we moved Galen to Pittsburgh. He will be sharing an apartment with Neal and Lily and working for Westinghouse, where Neal also works.
It was a grueling day. We had just enough time to unload his stuff before we had to turn around and head for home.
I’m glad for Galen. (At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.) This is a wonderful opportunity for him.
But I’m sad for me. The house feels very empty and strange without him.
The three musketeers
And…we’re off!
As I write this, Greg and I are relaxing at our first campground on our epic Western camping trip. We’re in Bedford, PA, to see the Flight 93 Memorial.
It’s hard for me to believe that the big day has finally arrived. I feel like we’ve been planning it forever.
We are both exhausted. The last few weeks have been frenetic. Hopefully, over the next few days we can begin to recover.
Meanderings & Mind Munchies 