South Dakota Addendum

My friends Ed and Barbara Hull used to tell of how when their kids were young each of their family trips managed to turn into an odyssey. Broken-down cars, surprise illnesses, violent storms stranding them--the gamut. I remember when I was young on one of our annual summer camping trips the limbo of car trouble and having to pass the time in a parking lot with Stu and Amy, giving Mom and Dad some space while they figured out how to climb out of the little small-town-mechanic gravitational well that had trapped us in its small, expensive little orbit.

We'd planned to drive to Sioux Falls from Mitchell, depart at 11:30 for Chicago, and with a one-hour layer be on our way to Rochester and home by 4:40.

The FAA rearranged those plans a little, finding problems with a couple of screws on the plane which grounded it, awaiting confirmation from the plane's manufacturer in Brazil that it was airworthy. The delay grew hour after hour longer as we wandered the single concourse of Joe Foss International Airport, becoming better and better friends with the nice woman running the gift shop there. Ran into the pilot in the rest room and he couldn't have been more exasperated. The delays made our connection in Chicago impossible and the airline's solution was for us to fly on Friday. Susan persisted and we found a way to make it to Buffalo by midnight, where we would get a rental to drive home to Rochester. As the afternoon passed by and it became increasingly clear the plane wasn't going anywhere we switched to a 5:45 flight to Chicago. 

We made it eventually. And Susan and the boys managed the amazing feat of maintaining good attitudes the whole way. Well, okay, Josh fussed over dinner at a Chili's in Chicago, but that's a very long day for a three-year-old.

Glad to be home.

Sam and his kindle and Susan alerting relatives of the latest news

A good attitude, as I said.  :-)

Josh met a friend in the Sioux Falls airport (FSD), a beautiful two-inch moth. He's not scare of bugs and happily petted it.

Finally, in the air! On the first leg Josh didn't sleep a wink. (He didn't on the flights out either.)

Susan and Sam, happy to sit down for a leisurely dinner in Chicago.

The final flight home--well, to Buffalo, anyway. Don't let Sam's expression fool you--he was a great traveler.

South Dakota, Part 7: The Dakota Discovery Museum

Before I forget, I need to mention that a neighbor of R&P is an elderly fellow who no longer has a license to drive, so he gets around town on his riding lawn mower.

If that's  not local color, I am not sure what is. :-)

Okay, some souvenirs from the last day:

R&P got a sitter so the four of us could go out to a steak place. The above is half of the appetizers. The first and third of these really caught my eye. See if you can guess which we got! 

We went to the Dakota Discovery Museum which is a truly class act--it's an excellent museum, and very well run. Out back is an old (read: vintage) train car:

One of the main artists featured in the museum is Charles Hargens, who did a lot of Western-themed illustrations, including a cover to the Saturday Night Post. Here's one I particularly liked:

It's traditional wisdom in the Plains to face off grizzlies with a broom. They are notorious neat freaks. 

Sam liked this one best

 

The museum also has a recreation of Hargens' studio. In it is a stuffed eagle. When we entered the museum Josh asked about the bird and ran upstairs right to it. Who knew?

The eagle:

Tomorrow morning we set sail for home.

Btw, the answer was the fried pickles. So good we ordered a second basket.

South Dakota: Incident Music

South Dakota, Part 6: Day trip to Sioux Falls

I did some reading ahead of time and found a pair of attractions in Sioux Falls which I thought might be fun: Thunder Road, which has mini golf, bungee trampolining, go-carts, etc., and the Great Plains Zoo.

Mini golf has been a big hit in the past. Unfortunately, Josh isn't quite up to focusing on it, and preferred to wing around like a fighter harassing the supply lines. We were trapped behind a large party, which we quickly caught up to, so we eventually just had to split up, Ruth and Susan and Josh going off while Sam and I finished our 18. 

Josh emplored us for a ride in these little powered boats. But he'd envisioned riding with mommy, and when he was denied this, he despondently insisted he couldn't work the steering wheel, and just puttered around in sad little circles for five minutes. 

Sam was in heaven, treated to a bungee jump by Aunt Ruth. (I am happy to say the prices in Sioux Falls are considerably lower than in Lake Placid!)

Then on to the zoo. It's comparable in size to the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester. Perhaps a little smaller in holdings, but not being trapped between the city and a river, it is free to spread out. 

We first saw their albino alligators. They don't do well in nature: bad camouflage, vulnerable to UV. Perfect for zoos.

They have a large herd of giraffes. 

A pleasant break was the train ride around the safari grounds. We saw two lazy cheetahs as well as quite a number of rabbits and squirrels. 

For my money, the most beautiful animal in the zoo was the scarlet ibis. 

We learned on the train ride that an ostrich's eyes are larger than its brain. Certain sexist remarks were then made by certain Manson women. 

Attached to the gift shop is a vast collection of taxidermy. It was owned by a rich businessman who displayed his animals in his hardware store. After he died, someone bought them all and donated them to the zoo. Knowing that most zoos are against taxidermy, I assumed these were just models. When Susan told me the truth, it was a little like being told by the Wax Museum guide that all the people are stuffed. Eerie. But at the same time a truly impressive collection.

There's a bit of a family connection to the taxidermy: Susan and Ruth's grandfather Joe not only was a farmer but also school superintendent, teacher in a colony school, and also did the books for the hunting hardware store owner. Ruth remembers going into the messy back room of the store, mounted animals all around. 

Dove-tails nicely with my concept of a Smell Zoo, which has models of animals, plus little chemical devices that produce the scents of the safari, the savannah, the remote mountains of Tibet, and so on. 

I am sure it will catch on. 

After a long day in the City we were all a little worn out.

 But not too tired for Uncle Paul to offer Sam a trip on his motorcycle!

Josh and Ruth waiting for Sam and Paul to return.

One more day of puttering around Ruth and Paul's...

South Dakota, Part 5

A few other photos related to the gatherings in Brookings and Mitchell...

Jon and Josh

Gene's grandkids

The photography crew

Not sure how to describe this!

In a park near R&P's there's some old play equipment, including this very tall, metal slide. It's a fast one and the boys really enjoy it.

Gabbing at Gene's belated 80th birthday party

Layne with some guy

Shortly after we arrived, Layne fed her fish. She fed them by dumping minnows into the tank. The fish are all the sort you would find in a stream in the midwest: bullhead, cat fish, and I think some musky, though I may be misremembering. They are aggressive fish. She says she a load of scared, hiding minnows will last 1-2 weeks. 

Sam and Katie. Katie showed him how to make a certain type of lanyard. Or started making one for him.

South Dakota, Part 4: Mitchell!

Friday, after a day at the Hillcrest Aquatic Center (which features two tube slides and a very nice spray/splash area for younger kids) in Brookings with the cousins we headed for Mitchell. It's two hours away, another corner in a right isosceles triangle. Mitchell's main attraction for us is Ruth and Paul, but we also toured the other highlights while R&P were off the wedding of a friend of Katie. 

This always means a trip to the Corn Palace, which is, put simply, an auditorium decorated with corn husks. It's actually nicely done, and has more the feel of a civic building than a ruthless tourist trap--though currently the main floor of the auditorium is taken up by the gift shop, as you'll see below.

Before that we went to an air show five minutes away at the regional air port. Showed some neat small planes, and even offered plane rides for kids, though Josh was too small and Sam not quite up for it. Sunday morning an air race started from this airport with some of the planes shown below. A brief trip, but pleasant.

This is a "Long EZ", with a top speed of 180 mph and a range of 1200 miles, built in the garage of Jerry Peck of Kansas.

A formula RG-Blue with a top speed of 235 kts. 

Preparing for the new decorations they put up roofing paper marked up like color-by-numbers paper. 

While Sam was watching a video presentation on the history of the Corn Palace, Josh played on a tractor. Very appropriate. 

Also made a trip to Cabela's. It's a hunting/camping store. Very up-scale. (There's now one in Columbus.) It's the Apple of hunting stores: expensive, but high quality. Which means it's nice to visit but I never feel I can justify purchasing anything. Still, fun to visit.

Rounded out the day with a trip to Corona Village, a nice little Mexican place. Afterward while hanging out outside, Josh made friends a Mitchell boy, who bonded over a huge grass hopper. 

South Dakota, Part 3: The Colorado cousins

Tim and Marlene and their kids Joe (going into his senior year), Megan (going to be a ninth-grader) and Eric (somewhere in between!) were in town for her parents' 25th wedding anniversary. Marlene did much or all of the heavy lifting for their open house which occurred on Friday. Still, they found time to meet up with us. The boys are in heaven playing with the CO cousins; Sam and Megan especially seem to have a lot to talk about. One evening we all went to the nearby Hillcrest Elementary School, which has no fewer than four play grounds, one of them dating back to the 60s. 

Uncle Tim

Susan and Aunt Marlene

Joe, Sam and Megan at the 60s playground

Joe pushing Josh on the swing

Sam and Megan

The girls taught Sam and Josh some sort of little ritual which involves some nonsense collection of words ending with "taser", accompanied with jabbing. Josh really got into it: