Following Lewis and Clark down the Missouri

SAY GOODBYE TO PIPESTONE

What I got from the Black Hills was a wicked cold. I finally had to break down and go to the Doctor, which with no insurance almost killed me $230 !! It took me awhile before I was feeling well enough to drive, so we stayed at Pipestone a little longer, which really was not bad, since we both have fallen for the little town. Finally Sept 17, we left the town, driving south on Route 75, King of the Highways, which goes from Minn. to Texas. It goes through miles of fields, until you get to the Loess Hills. We followed the hills and river all the way through Iowa.

LOESS HIILS- unique glacier event

Many Americans think of Iowa as having little topographic variation. However, in westernmost Iowa the Loess Hills rise 200 feet above the flat plains forming a narrow band running north-south 200 miles along the Missouri River. The steep angles and sharp bluffs on the western side of the Loess Hills are in sharp contrast to the flat rectangular cropfields of the Missouri River flood plain. From the east, gently rolling hills blend into steep ridges.

Loess (pronounced "luss"), is German for loose or crumbly. It is a gritty, lightweight, porous material composed of tightly packed grains of quartz, feldspar, mica, and other minerals. Loess is the source of most of our Nation's rich agricultural soils and is common in the U.S. and around the world. From the melting of ice from glacier events. google it.

CAMPING AT LEWIS AND CLARK STATE PARK

After driving through Sioux City, we headed south on Rt 29 to Onawa, Iowa. The Omaha Tribe has a reservation there. The state park is on Blue Lake, the sites were beautiful, big trees, falling leaves, view of the lake, and stars. We met some fine people there, a family with 5 kids, camped in a tent next door. It was fun to watch and listen to them. Mike teased them about not catching any fish, course Mike hasn't caught a fish in 15 years!!!. The kids were very bright and well behaved. They asked great questions. I talked with Breanna for a bit and hopes she keeps painting. It seems everyone knew Caleb, even the guy across the road with the white dog. We were very glad to meet them. Hi kids!!! we know you are checking this out.

The state park has a replica of one of the keel boats that Lewis and Clark used. I think 13guys sleep in this small boat, plus all the gear. Hard to imagine. It makes me want to read Lewis and Clark's journals of the trip.

We stayed there for the weekend and it was very pleasant. I highly recommend this state park.

THE BLACK HILLS- GOLD and CRAZY HORSE.

We left early Friday for the 435 mile trip to our campground in the Black Hills. We traveled on I90 and saw 91 Walls Drug Store signs. After you go over the Missouri River, where Lewis and Clark stayed, you notice the environment changes from corn covered prairie land, to scrub brush ranges dotted with black Angus cows in the distance. This area was once a shallow ocean, and that becomes evident when you get to the Bad Lands. There is nothing there except barren land, and some of it looks like Mars. This is the land we gave the Sou ix to live in..we are so generous.

Arriving at Kemps Kamp , Kennedy, SD, around 3pm MT.,this camp is on the side of a mountain in a small valley which was cut out by a stream. The camp was very nice, catering more to tents, with a few RV and pop-ups spots. Each site has a covered picnic area, very nice. We met our neighbors, some cool folks from Ca, or Park City. Kristie and Juan. They were very interested in Mike's Hobo life, and we made them honorary HOBO's.

Saturday, I wanted to go to a cave or mine, so we ended at the BIG THUNDER GOLD MINE. As we drove up to the mine, there was a Western show at the General Store. There was singing and dancing girls, and George Custer, who I booed, everyone laughed. Then I put on my hard hat and went into the mine lead by a cute young man, who I flirted with. Can you say Cougar? The mine tour was neat, the 2 guys who mined it hated each other, and only got about $200 worth of gold for 50 years of work. These guys had gold fever bad.

After the tour, I panned for gold , and only got a few flecks, mainly because I don't have patience for all that. But it was a fun day.

Sunday, we went down town to Kennedy, which is a real tourist town, lots of cool shops,selling Black Hills gold stuff. Also this is where Carrie Ingells, younger sister of Laura, ended up. At 41, she was editor of the newspaper, and married a widower who bought most of the town buildings.

After the shopping spree we drove to the Crazy Horse Monument. We drove past Mount Rushmore. Crazy Horse was having a special night to memorialize the death of Crazy Horse, and the birth of

Crazy Horse sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski. We waited for Evening, after taking turns going into the fabulous museum.There are displays from ever tribe. We met some fine people while we were sitting on the lawn. We talked with Rich and Amy from Florida. Everyone loved petting Dakota. The Lazer Light show was awesome, telling the story of Native Americans, honoring Crazy Horse and Korczak. Also honoring military. Then after the show, was the nightly blast, which was amazing. It was a good day. We got home and were tired. It was very cold that night. Monday, we drove home, but stopped at Wall's Drugstore. It started as a stagecoach depot, where they offered a free glass of water. It is now a whole block of departments of everything from a chapel, restaurant, leather goods, a drug store, museum, tee shirts . We had a buffalo burger, met a lady from Hawaii, bought a few things, and left. No more signs to count. We stopped at Chamberlain on the Missouri and looked over the bluff. Our windshield was covered with bugs, I could barely see. It was a great weekend.

How Sioux Falls South Dakota got it's name

The history of Sioux Falls revolves around the Big Sioux River, which 14,000 years ago in the last ice age, carved a path through the valley of dense red quartzite, now called Sioux Quartzite, which is believed to be a billion and half years old. The result is this area of falls.

There were early Mound Builders here as early as 500 BC, who left burial mounds along the river, few are left, but we did see 8 mounds. Most mounds were either raided for artifacts...I call that grave robbing...they call it archaeological research, or plowed under to plant corn.

After the Mound Builder culture, the Plains Indian groups, Lakota, Dakota, etc. camped here. The bison came for the water. And the came trappers, and explorers, like Lewis and Clark...and then greedy land speculators, and pioneers and businesses and then the train, and finally the interstate.

And now Sioux Falls is 150,000 people, looking like every other US small city with strip malls, and big box stores. It has homeless and casinos.

And a great park called FALLS PARK, which we visited. The park has a walkway by the falls which has attracted people for generations. There is the remnants of an old mill. A gift shop and restaurant. It was a nice day trip.

THE END OF THE LINE. A small town near Walnut Grove named Curry, MN

We thought it would be a great day trip on a sunny summer Sunday. We traveled deep into the country, past fields and fields of corn. The huge wind turbines windmills scattered on the ridges. By the way, these things are huge, one rotor can be 40'. There are many wind mills here. We drove towards Walnut Grove, yep the home of Laura Ingells. They have a "festival" there. (Laura ended up in South Dakota. )

We drove into Currie, a small town of many 500 people. Downtown had a bar and some other building that were all closed, due to it being Sunday. At the edge of town, we found THE END OF THE LINE. It is primarily a railroad spot, with so much more. We took the tour, and since no one else was there, we had a VIP tour, just Mike and me and the tour guide.

The history of the place was interesting. In the golden days of steam engine railroad, there were many lines to all these small towns. Corn, Beef, Grain, ice, and people were shipped to Chicago and points east and south. Curry was at the end of the line, which meant the engine had to be turned around so it could do the return trip. This was accomplished by a wooden turntable, which with man power, would turn the engine 180 degrees. It still works, we got a ride.

There is also a railroad museum of the Northwest Illinois Line. There is a restore steam engine, which was found in a junk yard. There is also a little area about HOBO's, with a hooch and signs on the wall, neat.

Besides the train museum is a restore train depot with manikins dressed in period clothes. The people who live in this town donated all sorts of stuff. There is a mill, a General Store, stocked with goodies of the days, a church, which is still used, a train masters house, decked out in all the period antiques, and the Sunrise 1 room Schoolhouse.

The story about the schoolhouse is neat. There was a teacher who taught in this schoolhouse for 60 years. When she retired, a bigger school was built and the building was vacant for years. The End of the line Museum bought the building and refurbished it. The former teacher, who was now in a nursing home, found out about it and gave the museum all her school books, atlases, maps, and the piano that she had. I swear, when I walked in, I could feel this teacher, still standing at her desk, with the reading primer open. The room was exactly how she left it!!

The End of the Line was a great little museum . Worth the trip.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped atWoodstock, MN. We are trying to go to every Woodstock in the Nation. This Woodstock was about 200 poeple, and the main business is a Rehab facilitiy. How Ironic to being sent to rehab in a town called Woodstock-especially considering we are celebrationg the 40th anniversary. However, in a flash of the eye, we drove through the town. After seeing only farms and corn up the way, I turned the car around and there was a table with a FREE sign on it. FREE will always make me stop. There was tomatoes, homegrown garden tomatoes. My mouth was watering..I miss my garden. As Mike was picking them up, the farmer was bringing more stuff. He said it was all fresh, he just picked it, didn't want it to go bad, he said help yourself. Yes sir Mr Farmer, you are the best.

We got tomatoes, cucumers, potatoes, and they were good.. So the moral of the story is..,good people live in every town name Woodstock.

Back to Clear Lake for Fireworks

After the Hobo convention, we stayed until the missing part arrived, by Wednesday-1 week after the tow-we were on the road again. the wonderful folks at Oakwood Campground, let us finish staying 5 days we paid in advance. We mostly recovered and cleaned.

One day, one of the Camp Hosts came to the door and asked if we would like to go to the fireworks. One of the other campers were leaving and could not use the tickets. Our hosts said,"you two have been through so much, we would like you to have the tickets". Thanks sounds good. How very nice. What nice people.

I had read that the National Association of Pyrotechnics was having a week long convention. During the days they had workshops, etc, at night they gave fireworks displays. We could hear the booms some nights. We were going to the finale, the last night, the big wazoo.

We drove to the Fairgrounds at Mason City at dusk. It was like a concert, lines of cars, people all over. We, with tickets, got into the stadium. We had chairs and found a place almost center stage. It was explained that these fireworks would be 100x better than Walt Disney. We noticed alot of people had ear plugs.

After dispensing with the end of convention awards etc, the award winners each gave a display of their work. Now they use computers to set off the displays, which gives a multitude of different visual arrays. Each one of these were amazing. Some of the shells were one of a kind, made special for this event. Bragging Rights. It was explained that some shells take too long to hand fill, and could not be used commercially. Some of these shells took all week to pack. These are the best of the pyrotechnic geniuses..

Unbelievable eye candy.

Then there was what was called the public show, where each company donated several shells for the finale. They didn't donate the small stuff!! One was a Chinese one with a big flash and a ear popping explosion. The guy behinds us saying YEA, YEA...he was getting off!!

There is no comparison of fireworks I have seen...this was 10000000x better and longer than anything I have ever seen.

Imagine unbelievable fireworks of all colors, shells going off on top of each other, the sky was painted sparkles and blooms, and they were playing Pink Floyd music in the background.

IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAT THAT!!!

Hobo Convention Part 2

All the big events happened on Saturday. The street fair was still going with corn steaming and hot coffee.

At 10am was the Giant Parade. I like parades and most are ok, but this was a giant hometown parade. Everyone in town and many from neighboring towns came to watch.Texas Hobo Mike was thinking he was going to get the gravy and biscuits, which he craved all week and are only served on Saturday. He gave a ride up on the Hobo float thinking of those biscuits, only to find the restaurant, like everything else in town, was closed for the parade. This was a real slice of mid-west hometown pride. The classic cars, The Shriner's in their zippy cars, the firetrucks and school band were there. Then came the floats, some very humorous, and then the tractors. first came old classic small tractors, the newer ones, until this giant monster tractor filling the whole street. It looked like an alien. And then the current Hobo King and Queen sat atop the Hobo float, with all our news friends smiling. The parade ended with horses, beautiful prancing down the street, some wearing diapers, others leaving a road apple or two. It was a great parade that lasted almost 2 hours.

At noon everyone in town gathered at the city park for the traditional free hobo Mulligan Stew. The people of Britt make 20 barrels of stew, consisting of 450 lbs beef, 900 lb potatoes,250 lb carrots 100 lb turnips, you get the picture... Everyone either brought dishes or Styrofoam ones were available. We sat under the big oak trees eating our stew and watching the candidates for Hobo Queen and King circulate the crowd for votes. Dakota was directed to a bowl that had spilled and she had plenty, all the while wagging her tail.

Hobo King and Queen coronation. After we all ate, the candidates for Hobo Queen each spoke. Voting was done by applause of the entire town, not just the Hobo's. In order to win, you must be present 3 years at the Hobo Convention. It was very close, but the judges determined Stray Cat as Hobo Queen. Then the men talked, we applauded, and by overwhelming vote, Inkman is the New Hobo King. They were both awarded crowns made out of Folgers coffee cans and a walking stick, which all the former kings and queens signed. songs were song and everyone celebrated. There was more music at the park, but all the 'boes went back to the jungle.

Hawk and his crew were working on dinner when we came back. Everyone was talking about the election and most were pleased. Stray Cat belongs to both sides, both hobo and tramps, and there is hope that she can bring the 2 sides together. It is mainly a generation thing, but physically the tramps are on the other side of the track and box car. Hobo Mike had his walking stick signed and he held it proudly.

That night was the normal entertainment, it started very nicely, but as the evening drew on, the younger tramps, who had been drinking heavily, started playing electric guitars. As a bar owner I saw this so often. Alcohol does NOT MAKE YOU SOUND BETTER!!. It got pretty bad, and then one of the boys lost his pants, playing in boxers, and that was about all I could handle, so we left. The music stopped shortly after.

SUNDAY was somewhat a sad day, as people started packing up, cleaning up and saying goodbye. Some had tents, some had popups, and some slept in the boxcar. Everyone had coffee and you could see their feet were getting itchy to get back on the road. Most of the tramps were going to the Tramp convention in Denver somewhere. Others were headed to Wisconsin for another gathering, some were going home. We were still staying waiting for parts.

I quick took a shower before we cleaned them and closed them. Everything was bleached down with the Hobo King working hard with a few others. I volunteered to scrub the huge pots and pans. Even Hobo Mike worked hard helping with the floors. The jungle fire continued to smolder as we finished up. Ashes were put in bags to take to other gatherings and for next years jungle fire. We watched as everyone slowly left, and then there was just us..

It was a wonderful time, we met some great new friends, and we are going to come back next year.