Thursday, May 24, 2018
We attempted to get an early start, but as usual our best efforts were thwarted. We hadn’t realized that a small cooler we had was not meant for ice cubes. In the morning Dan discovered that the water leaked out of the cooler onto lots of our belongings. This could have been avoided, but like most people, did we bother to read the directions that mentioned only use ice packs? Of course not. Since temperatures reached the low 90’s today, everything dried out by the end of the day.
Yesterday we had passed by Tampico, IL where Ronald Reagan was born, and today we passed by the presidential library of Herbert Hoover in West Branch, IA. It would have been interesting to stop there, but we had a long day of driving ahead of us.
Today we crossed the Mississippi River as we entered Iowa (see photo below) and later followed the Missouri River as it made its way into South Dakota. Across the way was Nebraska. Along the highway we started seeing signs for the “famous” Wall pharmacy, which we plan on visiting tomorrow.
This evening we spent a little time exploring Sioux Falls, SD. One of the towns highlights is Sioux Falls Park. The Park surrounds the town’s waterfalls, part of the Big Sioux River. The remains of an old mill sits on top of a hill. We didn’t spend too much time there because it looked like a storm was brewing and it was time for dinner.
Downtown Sioux Falls is quite charming and consists of several blocks filled with stores and restaurants. We had dinner at the Phillips Avenue Diner. Phillips Avenue is the main street downtown. There was also a sculpture/statue competition taking place in town (it is the largest city in South Dakota) and the streets were lined with fantastical and beautiful works of art. As you can see in photos below a few of them caught our attention. The bear shown below was by an Ohio artist named Hovey.
BY THE WAY WITH WENDY & DAN 