East South Dakota headed home

25 September 2014 – Thursday

We left the camper hooked up to the X5 so we were able to take it easy and left the campground around 8.  We drove back into Pierre and met our guide at the State Capital Building.  It took about an hour but was very interesting.

We then hit the road east again and drove to Wessington Springs where we had lunch and visited the Shakespeare Gardens including a replica of his wife’s (Ann Hathaway) home.  It was hard to believe we were in South Dakota.

Our next stop was Mitchell to see the Corn Palace.  It was being remodeled at the time and originally the visitor centers had told us not to go.  Some other campers we met said it was open and even more interesting because you could see how they produce the murals.

We then drove past Sioux Falls and stayed at Palisades State Park, which is one the smallest state parks in S.D.   Legend said that this is where Jesse James made his ‘jump’ (ala Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid).

We’re going to do some hiking or running tomorrow morning and then scamper across MN and maybe even WI.  We can almost ‘smell the barn’…….

Starting back home

24 September 2014 – Wednesday

We decided to pack up the camper first thing and take it with us to hike and tour the area.  We were underway by 8:30 and drove up the Spearfish Canyon.  It was pretty impressive.  Apparently, Frank Lloyd Wright considered it more magnificent than the Grand Canyon.  Not sure about that, but it was somethin’.

Bridal Viel Falls

We took a short hike to get the bottom of the Spearfish Falls and got a little wet from the spray.  

We skipped another falls and drove through Lead and Deadwood.  We didn’t see anything worth stopping to see so we continued on to Sturgis.  There wasn’t much going on there either but it was easy to see that they’re set up for a bunch of people during ‘bike week’.  Some of the campgrounds seemed to go on forever.

We had decided to stay the night near Pierre, the capital of S.D.  We had heard that the Farm Island State Park was a good place to stay.  The drive across the state looked to be a 180 mile straight line but there was road construction halfway and caused and extra hour travel time, plus we lost an hour due to the time change at the Missouri River.  

We called ahead to schedule a one-hour tour of the State Capital tomorrow morning at 9AM (8AM body time).

We got to the State Park on the river and got an excellent campsite on the slough side of the island in the river.  It was like glass.  The temperature was still in the high 80’s and there were a few mosquitoes, but other than that, it was perfect.  We got set up and grilled chicken for supper.  The A/C is on and tomorrow is supposed to be hotter.

Tomorrow, ,we’re going to have a couple of stops and end up somewhere near Sioux Falls for our last night ins S.D.

Crow Peak - Spearfish S.D.

23 September 2014 – Tuesday

We’re getting used to Mountain Time and were able to sleep in until almost 7.  Had a fairly big breakfast in the camper, updated the blog for yesterday and headed for the Spearfish Visitor Information Center.  They gave us options and information on several good hikes in the area.

Ellen picked out the one that was both the longest and the most difficult at Crow Peak.  It was an ‘out and back’ hike that started around 4,200 feet with the peak at almost 5,800.  It was over 3 miles each way.  It took an hour and 45 minutes to climb to the top.  

We were pooped and rested a bunch.  It only took an hour to descend.

We did some shopping in town and went back to the camper for showers and a big late afternoon lunch.  We then spent some time relaxing and talking about how we get home.  So far we’ve driven 1,665 miles.  Tomorrow we start heading back East toward home.  By the time we had figured out a plan, it was late enough for Ellen to have her glass of wine……

Pine Ridge Reservation

22 September 2014 – Monday

 We got up fairly early to head off to Oglala, which was about an hour away.  Our contact was Sister “Barb”, a Dominican Sister from the Springfield, Illinois order.  She is the Parish Life Coordinator at ‘Our Lady of the Sioux’ in Oglala.  The Compassion Ministry Team at Keith’s church had been making quilts for them for several years and had developed a relationship with them.  We’re still not sure how a Lutheran Church and Catholic Parish got hooked up, but it does seem to work well!

Dave Rooks, who was the Parish Life Coordinator before Sister Barb, also joined us.  He was raised on the reservation but now lives in Rapids City and is a journalist there.

Oglala is a VERY small town on the outskirts of the Badlands.  We had a brief tour of the church, but got back in the car with Dave for a tour of the reservation.  It’s BIG.  We drove well over a hundred miles and saw a lot of different terrain.  As we were driving though a gorgeous valley, Dave told us that it’s the poorest county in the country……

We also visited the cemetery at Wounded Knee where 125 years ago, the 7^th Cavalry massacred 275 people.  They are all buried there in a mass grave.  In the 1970’s, Wounded Knee was at the center of the American Indian Movement (AIM) whose radical purpose was take back the land and traditions that originally belonged to them.

When we returned to the church, Sister Barb had prepared a lunch for us.  Dave had to return home, which was about two hours away to coach a girls soccer team.  Sister Barb finished our tour of the facilities and we had her do a brief video that we can share my church back home.  She gave us a framed photo of the church congregation signed by many of them.

We drove back to camper, loaded up, and headed north through Custer, Lead, Deadwood, and ended up in Spearfish about supper time.  We’re camped in the city campground for two nights.  It has full hook-ups included cable TV so it’s not really roughing it.  We plan to hick the Spearfish Canyon area and explore Deadwood Lead.