Hello Hivers how is everyone? I'm actually fantastic because I'm officially on vacation. This is part I of a road trip I'm taking across the state of South Dakota. I will share Eastern South Dakota in this part, a place I grew up at.
My vacation journey started like any other normal weekday(Wednesday). I went to work and had some pressing issues to take care of. I got to a stopping point and asked my boss if it was ok to take off. I had to take my laptop with me because I have to finalize somethings next week. No worries probably an hour or so of work so it won't affect my vacation. I packed the night before just had to throw everything in the car. I also got an oil change for the car before departing.
Outside the city life in Eastern South Dakota you will see miles of crops. We took an exit off the the interstate and drove down a gravel road so I could show my son first hand. One side of the road is miles of soy beans and the other side miles of corn. Sunflowers always find there way in or near these fields. These are wild ones and they are much smaller than the farm raised ones. I hope to show you some sunflowers fields when we visit the western part of the state in a few days.
It's just my son and I going on this trip. My dog Watson was going to go but it will just be too hot for him. We left at 4:00 and arrived about 3 hours later. Dinner was just being pulled out of my mother's oven when we arrived:)
I called my mom a few days ago and she asked what I would like for dinner. I said quiche and she said she hasn't made that in over 30 years. She said she will try for another day and to expect meatloaf. I found out she had to borrow a recipe my sister found for her online because she didn't have the one she used years ago. We arrive and we had quiche for dinner,lol. My son's favorite of hers is tuna macaroni salad so that was the side. The quiche didn't have the appearance I remember but it was sure delicious. Not quite like the one you had recently 
Once darkness set in we went to Falls Park. It's an area filled will much natural quartz located in South Dakota's largest city, Sioux Falls. There are several falls in this stretch of the Big Sioux River. Many couples come here to enjoy this little spectacle of nature. Groups of friends and families frequently visit here as well. When early explorers Lewis & Clark explored the area for than President Jefferson they made many notes of it in their journals.
There are so many view points to see the area. Probably one the best views is in the viewing tower. It's not open at night time though. Another great view is from the walking bridge over the river. If you want to cool off and get a drink or get something to eat and see a decent view you can go into the Falls Overlook Cafe. Even on foot the views are spectacular. My son has never been here at night so we decided to check this out under the lights. It's also my first real photo taking at night.
Thursday morning we hit downtown Sioux Falls. We did a sculpture walk,went to the Big Sioux River, and ended with a pretty cool museum visit. We spent close to four hours checking things out.
So 67 art sculptures are scattered throughout the down town area. Most are among one street's length and a majority can be seen just by walking up one side and turning around coming back on the other side of the street. So this is called, Sculpture Walk Sioux Falls.
Each sculpture is loaned by the artist and installed in the downtown area. This happens in the spring and is continuously displayed all year. The public can vote on the works and the piece that gets the most votes receive the People's Choice Award. The city in turn, will purchase the art from the winner and the sculpture will be placed permanently somewhere in the city.This sculpture walk has been going on for 20 years and it's the first time I have walked it. The map above is much needed or else you won't know where there all located at. I took many pictures of sculptures but I will limit it to just 3 pieces I like the most.
This one is my favorite. It's really neat due to the fact that most of it is made out of butter knifes and forks. Great subject matter of a wolf and an owl. This piece is called, "Owling at the Moon." This was created by Gary Hovey & Jim Perrine of New Knoxville,Ohio. I forget to mention these sculptures are all for sale. Not for everyone to buy though, the price tag on this one is $19,500 USD.
This one I could see outside my pad. It is kind of fitting of me is it not? 😂 Pretty cool sculpture with the shades included 😎. It's no surprise the title of the piece is titled, "Chillin." The artist on this one is located right here in town and his name is Jeffrey Satter. It was my son's favorite. None of these I could see myself ever buying, this one could be yours for $2950 USD.
My third pick, I just could not leave this eagle out. It just too big of a symbol that bleeds everything about my country. I love the pictures that accompany it as well. It's very fitting the title of this sculpture is titled, "American Spirit." The artist is Jefferson Davis and he is located in Woodbine, Iowa. The price to own this piece is set at $9800.
I'm not a good judge of art and there were many sculptures that simply had odd shapes and resembled unknown subject matter to me. I'm not afraid to say I don't know Jack about art. The above pictures are the the past 19 winners of the,"Peoples Choice Awards." It was on the front cover of a brochure that contained the map I used. You will see more of the sculptures in a future blog of mine.
Our next stop was to check out the "Arc of Dreams" sculpture which covers the Big Sioux River. Not a massive structure considering this is a small river. None the less it was cool walking over the bridge and snapping a few photos.
Our last adventure for the morning was checking out an old county courthouse that was converted into a museum. It was a decent sized museum and the best part it was free.
This place had a beautiful feeling to it. One of the first things we saw was a 1908 Farwick Flyer car. This one in particular was Thomas Farwick's car and was completely re-stored in 1955 by himself. It was donated to the museum in 1987. Being a former county court house it offered a lot of history to that. It's oak wood stair ways and floor designing is just cool to see. This court house contains three floors.
One of the things I appreciated here was it's story about John Morrell's presence in town. My father was a foreman for this meat packing plant. Both of my parents grew up in New York and the reason why they moved to South Dakota before I was born was because of this company. My father got a good job offer to work for them. In its glory days John Morrell was one the biggest meat packing plants in the country and it's stock yards were worldly large.
So the museum had a few rooms dedicated to communication and military relics. I will show more of it at another time. I found the history of Morse code very interesting. They had an exhibit here where you can put on headsets and send codes back and forth to each other. My son and I played with it for a few minutes trying to decifer each other's message.
Probably the best part of the museum is it's heritage towards the Native Americans that once thrived here. The exhibits for the Sioux Tribe I thought were one of the better ones I've seen. I took many pictures but I am saving them for another post which I will combine with my findings of the Omaha tribe
I seen at the Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska.
After we were done with are morning activities we returned to my mother's for a late lunch. What you see is a kraut burger with some side salads. The Kraut burger contains hamburger, onions, cabbage and red peppers. The bread is homemade and the ingredients are rolled into it. The bread is cooked all the way through. This was really a tasty little hand held, hehe. Shortly after I took a nap and later that evening I attended a county fair in a small little town about 30 miles away.
Going to these small town fairs is exciting. They draw quite the crowd from other communities large and small. We parked about a mile away from the fair grounds. They had many shuttles that took people back and forth. The shuttles were farm tractors with designed passenger trailers.
Our main focus coming here was to get some fair food. Nothing in my opinion beats a good old corn dog, freshly made lemonade,and of course a plate of some freshly made funnel cake with some powered sugar sprinkled over the top. Not cheap buying food at these venues but the taste of it is just not the same else where. There was no entrance fee getting into the fair so this made it a little more bearable on the wallet. I apologize I didn't take a lot of photos I just wanted to keep walking and exploring all the things to see.
This fair had many activities to do which included about a dozen rides to choose from, all kinds of exhibits, many different food shops, and even a demolition derby. The Derby basically is a competition where the last running and moving car remaining wins. It's like bumper cars without the rubber bumpers.
We spent a great deal of time checking out various farm animals. This included chickens, horses, goats, sheep, steers, and a few others. It was like a petting zoo in most of the tents we visited. I was surprised how gentle the steer was. Many were petting it and this cow enjoyed the attention. We probably spent about two hours here. None of us were interested in riding any of the rides. I guess filling up with some fair foods detered us from it.
Well there you have it, my first part of my vacation. I will be traveling later today to my next destination. I will be back again in a few days to report on that. Take care, be safe and have a great weekend.
