Travel to Sioux Falls, SD

Friday the 19th

Woke up this morning to a warm, muggy, overcast sky - but it wasn't raining. Well it wasn't raining until I was ready to take the kids for their morning walk, heh, heh. Fortunately it was pretty much just a few drops coming down and we didn't really get very wet.

After breakfast and cleaning up we set out to find US-18. We'd been following it since we passed through Verona Wisconsin, just south of Madison, nearly 215 miles to this point. Sometimes a divided highway with really good pavement, mostly a two lane country road with passable pavement. As we pulled out of the Oakwood RV Park and headed for our first turn we saw a "Road Closed Ahead" sign. Naturally it was the road we wanted. So being flexible and knowing where we wanted to go we headed into Clear Lake to find the Post Office and a grocery store. Within a mile we came to another intersection with, you guessed it, another "Road Closed" sign.

What could we do? Well, as I said earlier, being flexible and knowing where we wanted to go, we asked one of the workmen how to get to town. Following his directions we realized that it wasn't going to be that easy. So, continuing our policy of flexibility and seeing a "This Way To US-18" sign we kept going figuring we'd have other opportunities to find a Postal Box and grocery store.

Shortly after that we made our turn and got on US-18 headed west... for about another 185 miles. It really is a very beautiful drive even with roads that leave something to be desired. As posted in other reports, the fields and farms, small towns and farming communities a something to see. The planted fields are all different colors of green while the fields lying fallow are golden. In places where the ground is freshly plowed the soil is so rich it is almost black. One thing not seen are signs of poverty. The homes and farm buildings all are well maintained with coats of white or barn red paint. Occasionally we pass a dilapidated barn or abandoned building but there are no junk cars strewn around, roadsides and lawn are mowed, driveways are plowed flat and flower gardens are everywhere. There is obviously a different type of mentality at work here in the mid west and it's really cool!

We pass through Britt and Algona and arrive in Cylinder Iowa where Tina spotted a Post Office and plenty of parking across the street. Now before you get the wrong impression, Cylinder has a population of 110 with less than 50 houses. But it does have a post office, right on main street. And it too, is a cute place though rather quiet. We drop off our mail an get back on the road passing huge fields of mustard in bloom. Passing through Emmetsburg we arrive at the toen of Spencer which is much larger than Cylinder with a population of 11,300 and is a very busy town with a thriving downtown and residential community - quite a contrast. We stopped here for groceries and while parked in their lot Tina fixed us a nice lunch.

Back on the road again we continued to follow US-18 West through Hartley, Sanborn, Shelden, Hull, Perkins, Rock Valley and Canton before getting on I-29 North into Sioux Falls and the Sioux Falls KOA. Arriving at check-in we find that they only have room for us tonight. They are full tomorrow due to the Regional Soccer Championships being held here in town. We take what we can get figuring we'd find something for tomorrow night later.

We get set up in our site and get the laptop out. We manage to find a site for tomorrow about five miles away no problem.

So we settle in and before we know it we're in the middle of another huge thunderstorm. An hour later the sun is out and there is very little sign that it has recently rained buckets. Later, after Tina made another great dinner, Sioux Falls was presented with an Air Force FA-18 flyover. There were at least four fighter jets and they made two passes. Tina was able to capture a photo of one of the planes.

Looks like that's it for today. Tomorrow we plan to see a little bit of the area before moving on towards Mt Rushmore.

Distance for today, 208 miles. Total for the trip so far, 8,596 miles.