June 29 Sioux Falls, S.D.

    Driving into town from the campground we read the many billboards along the highway.  One says it's only 291 miles to Wall Drug.  A food drive-in's sign says "Senor Weiner - you know you want me".  The Safety Council has one with a motorcyclist on it, holding a helmet.  It reads "Definition of headstrong."
    Travel tip:  pick up brochures and look for coupons, ask for any discounts a venue offers etc.  At the big railroad museum in Wisc. I was waiting in the lobby right after Tom paid full price to enter when a lady asked if there were any discounts.  The clerk said "There are coupon books on the rack for various places and there is a $2.00 coupon in it for here."
    We had a buy one get one free admission coupon for a tourist trap cowboy town.  It was neat for kids, but hokey for us.  But there were a couple of interesting things.  There was a big map that showed the old Dakota Territory, which was 350,000 sq miles and now is made up of Wyo., Mont., North and South Dakotas.  It was part of the Louisiana Purchase.  They have raised buffalo here for 40 years and had information about the uses of every part of their body and skin etc.  The Indians made baby powder from the buffalo chips.
    They had buildings fixed up like businesses etc and one was a bar showing Jack McCall shooting Wild Bill Hickock in a bar.  He was holding 2 aces and 2 eights at the time - thus this hand was named Deadman's hand.
    From there we walked through some Japanese Gardens along a lake (free)  and then the nearby Veteran's Memorial Park.  It was a very nice 3-4 acre park with many gardens, statues, plaques.  Sioux Falls has beautiful parks and we saw 2 large pool complexes just in the areas we drove through.
    Next we toured the USS South Dakota battleship museum.  Again, free admission.  Groups built this museum with the outline of the ship on the grounds and a building holding items from the scrapped ship inside.  She served in one of the 2 battles between Japanese and American battleships and is the most decorated battleship of WWII.  We watched an interesting movie about her.  She shot down 64 enemy planes in all.  On special holidays they fly flags all over the outline of the ship.  Crewmembers represented all 48 states.
    On the way back to the campground we drove through the nearby town called Corson, a tiny town but it has the Midwest Railcar Repair shop. 

 In the outline of the battleship

we were watching this squirrel in
the Japanese gardens and he stood
to look up at us

                                                                       this statue shows an angel holding a soldier and is entitled "Going Home"

                               at the campground