Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Roger here...  In the past, Sioux Falls was one of those places that I have driven through to get somewhere else - Badlands, Black Hills, Yellowstone, Wall Drug!  We really did not know too much about the city, other than there was a waterfall on the Big Sioux River and that it was the largest city in South Dakota.    I don't know what it was like in the past when we whizzed by, not getting off Interstate 90, but I must say that right now it is an impressive place.  

On the first full day of our visit, we crated the dogs and drove to Falls Park.  

(Ironically, there is also a Falls Park in my hometown of Pendleton, IN.  The waterfall in the Pendleton park is pretty nice, especially by Indiana standards.  However, it does not compare to the 

 Falls of Sioux Falls, which are actually a series of falls over an expansive area.)

  Dianne's comments:  I wish the sun had been out to really show how pretty the falls were.  The rock, unlike the limestone we have in Indiana, is pink quartzite and very pretty.  It is also called "jasper" (like our dog).   This pink quartzite was quarried and used to build the older buildings in town, giving them all a pink hue.  I can only imagine how lovely they are in bright sunlight.   They no longer use the stone to build buildings, but now crush it into a paving material that is used on roadways, which we noticed on the interstates as we drove into the area.  Back to Roger....

At the park, we hopped on one of the free, narrated trolleys that move people to the center of the city. We passed a magnificent church 

and departed the trolley at the furthest point from the park, intending to walk back.

It was a grey day and a little chilly, but that did not detract from the obvious improvements that have occurred in Sioux Falls.

  One of the most impressive features were the statues that

 artists have placed all along the town - 55 in all.  During the course of the year residents and visitors can vote for their favorite statue, which the city then purchases for permanent display.  At the end of the year, new statues take the place of the old. 

 There were literally statues of all kinds everywhere you looked.  My favorite was the high-fiving dog.  (Dianne here --  I think it looks like a whippet, don't you??)

 I couldn't resist acting a little silly while a lady on the sidewalk stared at me.  Oh well, I don't know her.

During the walk we stopped at an outdoor store where Dianne bought a new t-shirt.  We then spent a lot of time in the city museum, which is housed in the mammoth old former court house.  What a magnificent old stone building!  

There 

were several interesting exhibits.

  Dianne liked the Native American beading displays. 

 I liked the rooms that were dedicated to the Sioux Falls drive-in restaurants

 of the fifties and sixties. 

 The rooms dedicated to the trapping of

 beaver for gentlemen's top hats, the voyageurs, and trading during pioneer times were fascinating. 

In the gift shop Dianne bought a historical book and a couple of small gifts for our granddaughter. 

(Dianne here -- The book I purchased is a fascinating account of the Blizzard of 1888, also known as the "Children's Blizzard" [which is also the name of the book] by David Laskin.   It took place in this area, the Nebraska/Dakota Territory plains.   I'm reading it now, and it really gives me a vivid picture of the hardships the Northern European immigrants faced when they settled here; most not realizing what they were getting into, having believed the railroad companies' propaganda they had seen in Europe.   Now you know I'm a total nerd, with my birding and love of local history.  Maybe this will make up for being "outed" for watching Paris Hilton in the Simple Life! [see Arkansas blog....])

 We then took a short walk to the Phillips Street Diner

 for lunch - really good diner-type food.  (Dianne again:   I had the best egg salad sandwiches ever, served on homemade sourdough rolls.  Roger had a toasted cheese/roast beef sandwich and some really, really good french fries.  We split an order of chocolate cake for dessert.)

After lunch, we walked back to Falls Park, climbed the five-story observation tower to take more views and photos of the falls, and headed back to the car.  We were both very impressed by the architecture, the cleanliness, the civic pride, and the successful attempts to make Sioux Falls an outstanding city.

We are Now So-Daks!!

Roger here...  We are a few days behind with our blogs and have a lot to report.  It is raining right now, so hopefully we will have some time to catch up.  This blog will cover the three-day (two-night) trip from Arkansas to Sioux Falls, where we obtained our South Dakota drivers licenses and became residents of South Dakota, as illustrated by our new cowboy hats!

Due to the fact that we have been, and will be, staying in some pretty pricey campgrounds, costing more than we have budgeted (New Orleans, Sioux Falls), we needed a few less expensive overnight options to even out the costs.  Full days of driving en-route to a destination are an ideal time to "Walmart" it.  (In our case the destination was Sioux Falls, SD).  In the RV world it is pretty well known that most Walmarts allow overnight RV parking, benefiting from the inevitable purchases that the RVers make in their stores during the stay.    For the RVer it is simply a matter of arriving in the early evening and finding a spot as far away from the entrance as possible.  In our experience, there are usually several other RVs in the lot, forming a mini-parking area.  The etiquette is that you go into the store to ask permission, and that you do not do anything other than park - no opening slides, putting down jacks, getting out lawn chairs, setting up the grill for a barbecue, etc.  We generally feel pretty safe in the well-lit lots, especially if there are other RVs nearby.  If we ever have a bad feeling about one of the parking lots, it is merely a matter of putting the key in the ignition and leaving.  

Day One...  The trip was pretty uneventful.  We traveled from Ozark, Arkansas to a Walmart in Harrisonville, MO - just south of Kansas City.  We traversed through beautiful, green mountains and forests in Arkansas, traveling through Fayetteville, home of the Razorbacks.  We then entered southwestern Missouri, where the terrain flattened and looked more like our home in central Indiana.  We intended to stay in Nevada, MO, but it was too early to stop, so we drove for another hour, arriving in Harrisonville, where there were six other RVs in the Walmart lot.  After the stop we went into the store and bought a week's worth of groceries.   (Dianne here -- Before we left the next morning, I even picked up some debris in the grassy area next to our RV, so that we left the spot better than it was when we arrived -- another "etiquette" thing about Walmarting.)

Day two...  We left the parking lot at about 10:00 a.m. for a second full day of driving.  We were soon in the Kansas City area.  The route took us across the state line into Kansas for a few miles.  We then entered Iowa, where we traveled for the rest of the day.  We stopped at one of the Sioux City, IA Walmarts, bought a few items, including a new battery for my watch (can't stand not knowing what time it is) and retired early.   (Another Dianne note:  Roger's "anal-retentiveness" was in full force when he was without his watch.  He drove me NUTS until he got a new battery.  I kept reminding him that he was now retired and didn't even need a watch.)

Day three...  Our destination at Sioux Falls was only a couple of hours from Sioux City.  So, we slept a little later than normal.  Shortly after departure we entered South Dakota, soon to be our new official residence.  Our arrival in South Dakota marked four new states for our motorhome in a little more than two days.  (See the photo of Dianne adding the new states to our map.)  We use this map for states the MOTORHOME

 has been in with us, since we have already each been in most of the states before now.

  Along the way we passed the small town of Beresford, South Dakota that we will mention again in a future post.  We were scheduled to stay at the Jellystone Yogi Bear RV Park and knew that we would be arriving before check-in time.  Dianne called ahead and received permission to check in early   :-).  Our early arrival allowed time for us to accomplish several of the nuts and bolts tasks that prompted our trip to Sioux Falls.

  Our first stop was to pick up our mail from the very efficient mail forwarding service, Alternative Resources, that we have been using since we left Indiana last December.  We then walked a few doors down to the Department of Motor Vehicles, where we waited for a while and received our new South Dakota drivers licenses.  (Dianne will tell you about a really cool experience that she had at the license branch).  We then walked to an insurance office in the complex to discuss changing our auto insurance from Indiana to South Dakota, which Dianne did later in the day by phone.  Finally, we stopped by Barnes and Noble to buy a few books using a gift card that I received from friends when I retired.   It was great to get the mail/drivers licenses hassles out of the way a day early, allowing us two full days to explore Sioux Falls. 

Dianne here -- Here is one for the "Small World" department:

As we entered the license branch, I was dismayed to see an entire ROOM FULL of people waiting their turn.   We had gotten so spoiled by our local license branch in Pendleton, Indiana, who are always very efficient, friendly, and there is usually not a terrible wait.  We filled out our paperwork and took a number.  There were five or six workers processing the applicants.   The woman on my end, who appeared to be in charge, was very "no nonsense", to put it kindly.  However, after waiting a while, I saw how expertly and quickly she was moving the large crowd, so my opinion changed, but  I still secretly hoped I would get another clerk!

Roger's number was called first, and he went farther down the line to be processed by a woman named Cheryl.   I sat wondering how it was going and awaiting my turn.  After a while, he motioned for me to join him in line with his clerk, which I was more than happy to do.   

In making polite small talk, Cheryl had asked Roger where we were from in Indiana.  After describing where Pendleton is, she asked if we had ever been to the Covered Bridge Festival in Rockville, Indiana (western part of the state, for you non-Hoosiers).   He said no, he had never been to it, but that his wife had, because some of her ancestors were from that area.  She asked what their name was, and when he said "Davies" she asked him to bring me over to her line.  Turns out, Cheryl has been to the Davies Reunion as a child (as I have -- possibly even the same one?) and she is related to me!!   What are the odds of that??  Even more, what are the odds that we would even have made the connection that we were related, in a simple paperwork transaction??  

During my turn, Cheryl and I  had a good discussion about our 

Quaker roots 

and our common Davies relatives.   I could tell she has read the same Davies geneology and history report that I have a copy of.   I'm including a photo of the old Quaker meeting house in Bloomingdale, Indiana (outside of Rockville) where Cheryl's and my Davies ancestors attended.   Roger and I took this photo a couple of years ago when we were camped at Turkey Run State Park.   For my cousins who follow the blog, Cheryl is descended from the "Finney" or "Findlay" branch of the family -- I forget which she said, and I don't have the family history with me to check which it is.

Check back soon as we catch up on our blogs and describe our tourist days in our new home town of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Arkansas Winery Tour & Aux Arc COE Camp

Hi all -- Dianne here.  We drove from Enid Lake, Mississippi all the way across Arkansas to the Aux Arc Corps of Engineers Campground in Ozark, Arkansas.   I'll upload the many, many photos we took and then Roger will describe our very enjoyable Arkansas visit and winery tour.

Roger here...  I'll start with the interesting trip across Arkansas.  As we approached Memphis, Tennessee (still in northern Mississippi) we were startled to see a sign that indicated that we would be entering Interstate 69.  Our home in Indiana is only a mile from I-69 and we knew (or thought we did) that its southern terminus ends in Indianapolis.  It was one of those "Twilight Zone" moments.  We soon discovered that there is indeed a portion of I-69, just a few miles long, in Mississippi.  Really weird.  I assume that if the I-69 extension from Indy to Texas becomes a reality that this section will already be in place and ready to be connected. 

 Traveling through Memphis was pretty miserable.  Lots of one-lane sections in the city where there should have been at least three lanes.  Very bumpy and very confusing -- actually a forced exit from the interstate at one point.

When we entered Arkansas we had a second "Twilight Zone" moment.   It looked EXACTLY like the farmland of our home state of Indiana - flat fields, deciduous trees, open space.  It remained that way until we exited Little Rock in the center of the state.  Almost immediately there were wooded hills, river valleys, and mountains. 

 We were approaching the Ozarks.  As we traveled through Conway, Arkansas, we spotted a car window that was painted with the following, "Conway - Home of Kris Allen - America's Idol".   Dianne and I both watch the show, but did not realize the connection until we saw the sign. 

 We had another celebrity moment in the small town of Ozark, Arkansas when we passed by the Sonic drive-in where Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie worked in the first season of their reality TV show, "The Simple Life".   During the show, they worked a short stint at the Sonic, put an off-color message on the marquee, went across the street to the grocery store in silly costumes during their work shift, and of course were fired.  Dianne did not want anyone to know that we watched the show and thought it was funny, and told me not to put it in the blog.  Oh well.   (Dianne here -- Most of that show [the original "Simple Life" is the only one I watched] took place in 

Altus, AR which was also very near our campground).   There, I've been "outed"  -- Please don't hold it against me!!

When we arrived at the Corps of Engineers Aux Arc Campground, we thought we would be on another lake, but in fact our very wooded site (no satellite here) was directly on the Arkansas River.  How mesmerizing it was to watch the river pass by from nearly every vantage point. 

 The serene atmosphere was completed by a view of Ozark, Arkansas on the other side of a very

 picturesque bridge. 

We were very curious about the name of the campground, Aux Arc, and equally interested in how to pronounce it.  It is obviously French, but I doubted that our friends from Arkansas pronounced it with a French accent.  After a little googling I discovered that the name came from the curving (arc) of the Arkansas River at the point of the town of Ozark.  The pronunciation of Aux Arc is actually OZARK - duh!

We stayed three nights (two full days) at Aux Arc.  We decided to see some of the countryside the first day, and relax by the river the second day.  Chris, our very friendly neighbor in the adjacent campsite from Russelville, Arkansas, visited us with a map of Arkansas that he had highlighted with recommended scenic drives.  He added good places to stop for lunch in the margins of the map.  What a nice guy!   (Dianne here --  So far, Arkansas wins the prize for friendliest people).

Day one...  Since we usually have a glass of wine before dinner, we opted to start the day with a visit to nearby Altus, the wine capital of Arkansas.  We had seen several signs advertising wineries and decided that it might be fun to visit.  We actually stopped at

 three wineries

 (all near each other) and bought a few bottles of wine at each one.  Chateau

 Aux Arc was a beautiful place - great wine shop and beautiful landscaping

 (flowers, pathways, boulders,

 etc.).  We really liked the wines there and bought three different vintages.  The second, an old (late 1800's) winery was in a complex of Swiss Alps-type buildings and called 

Wiederkehr - a couple more bottles and a cool shirt for Dianne, as well as a glass cutting board for the motorhome.  The third winery was called

 Post Familie - also very old, late 1800's.  Dianne has done a little investigating and found that the founders of the last two wineries had determined that the soil and climate of the Altus area was similar to the outstanding wine producing areas of Germany and Switzerland.   We also discovered that this area of Arkansas is considered the premier wine producing area of the South.  Who knew?

Part two of day one....  After all the wine sampling we were hungry.  We followed one of the highlighted roads on Chris's map to the postcard-like small town of 

Paris - one of those county-seat type towns centered around an interesting courthouse. 

 We dined at the

 "Grapevine"

 restaurant, very appropriate considering the morning activities.  This was one of those non-fancy places with great food.  We both had pulled pork sandwiches on homemade bread.  Delicious!  After lunch we continued to follow Chris's highlighted map and went up, up, up 

through Mt. Magazine State 

Park to the top of Mt. Magazine 

 (the highest point in Arkansas).  There were many amazing views and lots of hiking trails that we did not take - too bad the dogs weren't with us.  I got a picture of one of the butterflies

 for which the area is famous.  

Part three of day one....  After we returned, Dianne suggested that I cook our supper (salmon)

 over a wood fire using the fire pit at our campsite.  She had seen our good neighbor, Chris, doing this the night before and decided it would be fun.  It was, and it was yummy.

Day two (relaxation day)...  It was a lazy day by the river.  We spent the day watching the water flow by and listening to a live country-western concert from a nearby pavilion as we sat by the motor home.  We talked again with neighbor, Chris, and his son, who is going to college to be a middle school teacher :-).   I took a picture of a barge going up the river.  Dianne intently tried to identify a new bird (actually listening

 to bird tapes by the river to see if she could match the bird's song).  (Dianne here --  after two days, I finally gave up trying to identify my elusive bird.  I took an audio recording of its song and e-mailed it to our bird expert, Brad, in case he can identify it.  Roger is VERY WORRIED about my bird obsession!!  

Mystery Bird Update:  Our friend, Brad, quickly identified my mystery bird as a Summer Tanager.  He also had this to say about Roger's fear of my bird obsession:  "Roger: The difference between an obsession and an expertise is in the value placed on that obsession/expertise by the observer. In my opinion the more obsessive one is about identifying a particular song, the longer that ID remains in the memory of the birder!!   THANKS, BRAD!!!!!!  I knew you'd understand!!

We saw a couple of scissor-tailed flycatchers with unbelievably long tail feathers.  Dianne, the pyrotechnic queen, built a fire

 from the wood that Chris gave to us before he and his family left.  

We ended the day talking about how we would definitely return to this part of Arkansas.  It is just one of those places that has a good feel to it.

Next up, two days of Walmarting, probably no pictures, as we travel to Sioux Falls.  We will keep you posted.

Enid Lake Corps of Engineers - Northern Mississippi

Hi all -- Dianne here.  We have not updated our blog for two reasons:  We've been boondocking without electricity for a couple of nights, and also I wanted to leave the New Orleans Wedding blog up for a while, because I know there are people checking in just for that (who know the bride).  If you are looking for Jen's wedding, scroll down to the blog just below this one.

After leaving New Orleans, we spent a day driving through Louisiana and Mississippi as we traveled to the northwestern corner of Mississippi.  It was a very pretty drive through the wooded and hilly sections of the state.  Once again, we found ourselves in a beautiful Corps of Engineers campground on a large, scenic lake.  We took several shots of the view from our camp site, including a red-headed woodpecker that Roger captured a shot of as he landed on our stone picnic table.  (Actually it was the bird who landed on the picnic table, not Roger, as my wording made it sound!)

Our time there was too short, only a couple of days, but we enjoyed it thoroughly!

From there we drove to Aux Arc Corps of Engineers campground on the Arkansas River, which had a LOT of nice surprises, so check back soon as we will update the blog again in a day or so!