Our last goal for our trip, before getting back to Iowa was a stop in Sioux Falls, the first stop outside of Iowa in the fall. Gary had lost his driver’s license a long time ago, who knows where, and had to get it officially replaced. He had probably given it to someone as identification, as we all do, and both he and the person who asked for it forgot to give it back to him. He hadn’t noticed it for a while, until someone else asked for his identification. Oops, I don’t have it and, by this time, had forgotten where he last had it out of his wallet. He called SD, they sent a paper copy and he had at least a semblance of an id. We also continually monitored our credit cards and financial records to ensure that they had not been compromised. They hadn’t.
So, here we are in Sioux Falls, getting a new license. I also wanted to get a library card so I could borrow e-books from the local library. I had in the past gotten them from West Des Moines, where we lived but, had been ‘disowned’ by them and had to find a new library. Obviously, we need to have library cards from where we pay taxes. Duh.
We had a reservation at a local campground - well, at least I had a reservation. The campground had misplaced it so they had only a ‘buddy’ sight for us. ‘Buddy sight?’ Ah, yes, a sight where two rigs back in and hook up (there are two sets of hook-ups in this exceptionally long campsite). It’s designed for families or for people who travel together and want to be close to each other in the campground. We were in the back campsite so the people in the front campsite had to be leaving before we did. At least, that’s the theory and the campground promised us that they would only put people in front of us who were heading out before us.
We parked, set up and remembered the great problem with this campground - it is within a stone’s throw of Interstate 29. Well, at least, our bed is on the other side. Well, yeah, but the whole bedroom is on both sides and thus faces the highway. To compound the noise, we are on an entrance ramp for this same highway and we could hear the motorcycles go through all 129 gears. They don’t have that many, you say. It sure sounds like that to me. And, what about that pickup with the bad muffler? And those trucks with the jake brakes? Yep, all those. Hey, where are my ear plugs?
We had a late lunch and then decided to take our walk for the day, down the trail along the river. Neat trail system in Sioux Falls, you can even bike around the whole city (and the airport) by trail. There are several trails within the city and along several rivers that pass through the city. A very nice amenity. (I was reading a column in the Des Moines Register recently called ‘2 Cents Worth’ where people can speak their minds about local issues. The first letter one day was from some one carping about spending money on trails when city streets needed repair. This person wondered why trails were important. Well, how about a nice amenity, how about bringing new families into town, how about businesses along the trails, how about exercise, how about adding to the beauty of an area. All sorts of reasons for trails that I can see.)
We headed north along the trail towards the County Fair Grounds where they were holding an everyone can race their own car kind of day. Just pay your money, slap the number on the car and try your hand at the course they had laid out using orange traffic cones. And, were the cars ever lining up. Vroom, vroom and they were off.
But the fairgrounds also had a campground - far from the noise of Interstate 29 - that we wanted to check out. next time, maybe, we’ll find ourselves here.
When we got back to the campground, we met our ‘buddies.’ Sure enough, there was an RV in front of us. But, they were a fun couple and we enjoyed talking with them.
The next day, Monday, we had breakfast with our ‘buddies’, stopped in to get Gary’s license and my library card. Missions accomplished and we then took off on Tuesday heading for Fort Dodge, Iowa where my brother, Jack, lived.
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