July 3 & 4 Matney (Bess' side) and Greenleaf (Al's side) cousins reunion

    Both days we spent time having lunch, visiting and exchanging pictures and memories.  Sunday afternoon Tom played and sang for an hour or so.  Both evenings we ate dinner at restaurants.  21 years ago one side had a reunion in a park.  It was 98 degrees with 95% humidity and lots of bugs.  Those of us who hadn't lived with humidity for years were miserable.  Linda and I decided we weren't doing that this time.  It wasn't as hot this week, but humid and there was some rain Sat nite and Sunday.  These plans were perfect.
    We all had so many laughs and tears and decided we will do this again in a year or two.  It had been 21 years since I had seen a lot of these kids and since our wedding 41 years ago for at least one.  Both sides of our family were so very close when we were young and there were some of us that were more like brothers and sisters instead of cousins.  There are so few aunts and uncles left and we enjoyed stories about them.  Imagine them talking about my dad's jokes and stories he always told!  They all loved him dearly then and now.

On Linda's 60th birthday

opening her Middle Sister wine.  Label has 3 women stick figures,

with the middle woman having red hair

Ev, Linda, Brenda, Bess        

June 30 Ev's hometown, Sioux City, Iowa

    Wed.
    We drove down from Sioux Falls this morning - about 80 miles- to settle in at a KOA in No. Siooux City, S.D., just 3 miles from Sioux City.  We found there are only occasionally trains going by, but it is next to the interstate and that traffic never stops.  This is a tiny town, but has become a bedroom community to S.C. because there aren't any income taxes and land and taxes are probably cheaper.  Beautiful homes in new subdivisions now.  New assisted living center, etc.  So many little casinos here.
    We drove around to some places in S.C. that I haven't seen for countless years.  War Eagle was an Indian chief who helped keep the peace between Indians and whites in the area.  One Frenchman married 2 of his daughters eventually.  When I was in 3rd or 4th grade I went on a field trip to see his grave on a cliff above the river, along with visiting Sgt. Floyd's grave.  He was the only person on the
 L & C expedition to die-they think from appendicitis.  You can see 3 states from War Eagle's grave-IA., NB, and S.D.
    We went downtown and I saw all the old bldgs I remember from my childhood - Bekins where a grandpa worked, Robb Ross where my uncle worked on equipment that made peanut butter and other foods, Palmer Candy company, and what little is left of the stockyards that used to be about the 3rd largest in the country when I was a child.  Morrell Company recently laid off 800 workers and the Feds are stepping in with $6.5 million to retrain them. Tom said "to do what?  Be rocket scientists?" 
    My sister, Linda, and her husband flew into Omaha from Phoenix a few minutes before Bess arrived from Denver, and they all rode to S.C.  We didn't see them that night.  Thursday was Linda's 60th so we met them for breakfast, spent the day together and all went to dinner.  My favorite cousin buddy spent a couple of hours with us in the afternoon.  We hadn't see each other in 21 years!
Friday
    Bess, Linda and my cousin came out to see our camper and to go to lunch with me.  We then went to visit a couple in their 80's- he's mom's cousin.  Tom took the truck for our second oil change of the trip and then to a transportation museum by the old Air base (Air Guard base now for many years) with Linda's husband and his 91 year old dad.  Lots of WWII stuff on display.  We spent late afternoon visiting and waiting for Brenda and Bryan to get in at 7.  Ate and had Linda's birthday.  She is the middle sister and has red hair.  I found a bottle of wine in Des Moines with the brand name of The Middle Sister and on the label the middle woman has pinkish red hair.  It was so late by the time she opened gifts that we decided we'll drink it Sat. night so she can take the empty bottle home and fill it with colored water.  Tom said it is so unbelievably fun to hear my 2 sisters and I giggle and have so much fun, even after being around the 3 of us for 46 years.
    Saturday and Sunday are the big days for the cousins reunion we have been planning and will be great fun!  We'll leave here Monday a.m. to spend 3 days crossing Neb. and may not have internet part of that time.  Hope everyone will have a great weekend.

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

June 28-29 Sioux Falls, S.D.

    Blue sky and 81 degrees with humidity not bad.  This weekend they had a big storm come through that took away some of the mosquitoes and the heat index of 110 they had at the end of last week-thank you!  A clerk at a gas station said he's a farm boy and his relatives are all worried about their crops because of all the rain.  I wa surprised at the number of small casinos on all the busy streets all over town.
     We drove downtown to find the Sheriff's office to give them those pictures.  Just a few blocks above downtown on a hill is a plainly marked historical district with gorgeous homes and old churches.  Some homes had plaques saying they were built in the 1890's.  One close to the cathedral is now a Knights of Columbus Hall.  The church is St. and Joseph's Cathedral.  One old house had a metal sign by the garage saying Packer Backer Blvd.  Tom dropped me off at a mansion and went back downtown to the Old County Courthouse Museum.  In the late 1890's the building cost $132,000 to build.
    The Pettigrew Mansion - built in 1889.  This museum and the courthouse one are supported by donors, the City and the County so don't charge admission.  Mr. Pettigrew was a surveyor and eventually a Realtor and developer.  There was a picture of a lady holding a sign with his company name, Pettirew and Tate, and her dress had words written all over it:  farmland, commercial properties, city lots, businesses.  He eventually platted 16 residential areas in town and was instrumental in getting many people to build and invest in Sioux Falls.
    He was a business associate of Mr. Tiffany and has a beautiful Tiffany chandelier in one room.  Many of the lower floor rooms had pocket doors.  Each room had a different type of wood paneling (all imported since there was little wood in this area then).  So the doors were made of different woods on each side, to match the walls.
   

June 28-29 Pictures of Big Sioux Falls in downtown Sioux Falls

the ruins of the old mill that used to be
7 stories high.  In the 1950's a fire started,
burning all the interior floors   

this is standing on the walkway up to the old hydro
plant which is now a restaurant

It is estimated that the river and
falls have looked like this for about
10,000 years.  The area used to be
covered with an ocean

                                   The City has built a beautiful park around
                                   the river and falls

old hydro plant

                                   

June 28-29 Pictures of Sioux Falls, S.D.

Across this bridge is the John Morrell Plant in S.F.  We were told they slaughter 1500 hogs per hour, but don't know how many hours they are open daily

pink quartzite rock at the Falls Park in downtown

top picture is the Catholic cathedral in Sioux Falls
large building on the right is the County Courthouse Museum

June 27-28 Sioux Falls, S.D. area

    Driving 130 or so miles today.  I read that S.D. has 31,300 small farms averaging 1400 acres.  Again, being from the Midwest ( a city girl, though), I am glad to see these small farms making it.  We see mainly corn, soybeans and cattle.  In Marshall, Mn. we saw a huge corn processing plant and a Schwan's food plant.  Also passed two Old Home Bakery outlet stores this morning in towns.  That brought bake memories of their large bakery on the edge of our Iowa town and the wonderful aroma of the bread as you drove past it on the highway.  Outside of Jasper, Mn. a farm had a big display of all kinds of windmills, including a Dutch one.  Later, driving through a small town, a yard had 7 or 8 windmills.
    Although S.F. is only about 80 miles from my hometown in Iowa, I don't remember ever being in the town, only driving by on the Interstate.  I read that its pop. is 160,000, making it the largest town in S.D., with Rapid City being second.  We made reservations at Palisades State Park, a few miles out of town.  So we drove through Brandon that had a large residential area under construction and a nice golf course.  We've seen many nice ones, spread all over in the small towns, too.  Jim will be happy, Linda!
     The park has some cute log cabins that can be rented.  The KOA campgrounds all have those, too, so if you don't have an RV or tent, you can still camp out.  Our spot had a babbling brook behind some trees and the lady next to us said the little gorge would be infested with mosquitoes.  I never walked down into there.   It was a very quiet park.
     We drove around the park, seeing large, pink quartzite rock formations.  We were walking on the bridge above the Split Rock Creek and were going to go down by where people were swimming and picnicing, saw a Sheriff get out of his car with something in his hand and realized they were all watching something in the creek.  Two men had decided to let the current take them downstream, but one got deeper and further than he wanted.  The Sheriff kept throwing this thing that looked like a frisbee on a long string, but it would float away from the man.  Just as the fire dept showed up, the man latched onto it and the Sheriff walked out on rocks to get close to him.  They were having him checked out by the EMS when we left.  Tom got a couple of good pics of the rescue and the man walking onto shore.  He asked the other sheriffs who showed up if they thought the dept. would like them.  They said that'd be neat.  We went to their office downtown S.F. twice and no one there could make a decision about copying them off his disc since the Watch Commander was out of the office both times.
    One afternoon we drove 6 miles from camp to Garretson.  It is very small and its claim to fame is being near Devil's Gulch.   Jesse James and his gang robbed a bank in Northfield, MN., not far away.  Two of his men were killed in the bank and he escaped by jumping his horse across the gulch.  We then drove to Split Rock Park, where the "Norwegian cruise line", the Jesse James pontoon boat, was tying up for the day.  He gives tours to the Jesse James cave.  We never saw anything about it and figured it was a tourist gimmick.

Palisades State Park with quartzite rock formations-very pink