West 2021:
Day 23 - Jordan, MN


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West 2021: [Day 1 - Oakdale] [Day 2 - Fargo] [Day 3 - Beaver Lake] [Day 4 - Bismarck] [Day 5 - Little Missouri] [Day 6 - Miles City] [Day 7 - Billings] [Day 8 - Missoula] [Day 9 - Steamboat Rock] [Day 10 - Bay View] [Day 11 - Seattle] [Day 12 - Seattle] [Day 13 - Seattle] [Day 14 - Millersvania] [Day 15 - Yakima River Canyon] [Day 16 - Farewell Bend] [Day 17 - Bruneau Dunes] [Day 18 - Craters of the Moon] [Day 19 - Grand Tetons] [Day 20 - Buffalo Bill] [Day 21 - Buffalo] [Day 22 - Badlands] [Day 23 - Jordan] [Day 24 - Trempealeau] [Day 25 - Heading Home]

Tuesday, May 25, 2021: After a quick tank dump, we were on the road by 7 AM.
Pretty.
As we passed this shelter, we noticed that hundreds of birds were flying around it and landing on the walls.
Here's a closer look on the other side of the shelter. We have no idea what these funny little birds are.
Here's some South Dakota scenery, ...
... and some more. Note the small human skeleton who is walking the dinosaur skeleton on a leash.
We entered Fort Pierre National Grassland.
We passed yet another variation on the Lewis and Clark Trail sign.
Welcome to Historic Fort Pierre!
Right across the Missouri River is the town of Pierre.
Near the town center we started to see the Trail of Governors, featuring statues of most of the white men who were governors of the state of South Dakota. Here's one, ....
... and another, ...
... and another, ...
... and another, ...
... and another, ...
... and here's another. They all had distinct personalities.
Pierre is the capital of South Dakota, so we were here to see its capitol building.
Here's some pretty detail on the dome.
Pretty scenery.
We pulled over as far as we possibly could when an entire house came down the road toward us.
For real. An entire house.
We had lunch at Taco John's when we arrived in Huron.
Huron's vintage theater building still shows movies, something we hadn't encountered much on this trip.
We were in town to see South Dakota's Merci Train boxcar. It was in great shape.
It had a plaque at one end, facing the street.
There was a sign on the end of the boxcar above it.
Here's the other side of the boxcar. Seeing this one made it official: we had now seen more Merci Train boxcars (22) that we hadn't seen (21). Even though there were 49 boxcars to begin with, six of them have been lost or destroyed over time.
The South Dakota State Fair is in Huron too.
We passed several huge things on our way out of town, starting with this blade for a windmill.
Here's a large white bison statue. We promised that it is the very last bison statue you'll see in this travelog.
This guy is billed as the World's Largest Pheasant, but the ones we saw on the Enchanted Highway a couple of weeks earlier looked pretty close.
We passed through the small town of DeSmet, ...
... which is a name instantly recognizable to fans of the Little House series.
There's a street named Ingalls Avenue, of course.
Signs direct you to the local cemetery to see the Ingalls Family Gravesites.
Here they are. Laura isn't here, ...
... but there's Pa, ...
... Ma, ...
... Laura and Almanzo's baby son, ...
... Mary, ...
... and Carrie.
Here we have the shores of Silver Lake.
We passed something Tom couldn't identify and Debbie thought was a honey farm, then this sign just down the road confirmed it. We were near Bruce, South Dakota, which is a Honey of a Place to Bee!
Welcome (back) to Minnesota! It was hard to believe that it had been twenty days since we had been in Minnesota.
Another gas station, another cheerful window wash from Tom.
We were excited to get to Upper Sioux Agency State Park around 4:00 PM and get to our campsite.
We drove around for a while, trying to find the campground. Back at the entrance, we finally found an information board with a piece of paper on it explaining that the road was closed, and even though the campsite was less than a quarter mile away, we would have to drive 25 minutes to get to it. We reasoned that we would have the same detour the next morning, so we chose to eat the cost of our prepaid campsite and get closer to the Twin Cities instead.
We drove along the Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway.
There's the lovely Minnesota River.
Less than two hours later, we were pulling into KOA Minneapolis Southwest Holiday.
The campground was very uncrowded, so we had no one around us.
After delicious freeze-dried beef stroganoff for dinner (and a Grand Teton beer), ...
... we treated ourselves to showers with KOA's running water, something that another sign at Sioux Agency told us may not be available due to a broken water pipe. Ahhh, it's so nice to see towels hanging up like curtains after a shower.
As the sun was going down, we took pictures of the view to our left ...
... and to our right.

Day 24 >


West 2021: [Day 1 - Oakdale] [Day 2 - Fargo] [Day 3 - Beaver Lake] [Day 4 - Bismarck] [Day 5 - Little Missouri] [Day 6 - Miles City] [Day 7 - Billings] [Day 8 - Missoula] [Day 9 - Steamboat Rock] [Day 10 - Bay View] [Day 11 - Seattle] [Day 12 - Seattle] [Day 13 - Seattle] [Day 14 - Millersvania] [Day 15 - Yakima River Canyon] [Day 16 - Farewell Bend] [Day 17 - Bruneau Dunes] [Day 18 - Craters of the Moon] [Day 19 - Grand Tetons] [Day 20 - Buffalo Bill] [Day 21 - Buffalo] [Day 22 - Badlands] [Day 23 - Jordan] [Day 24 - Trempealeau] [Day 25 - Heading Home]

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