Sioux Falls, SD - A Buddy Site

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.

Devil's Tower NM - Phonolite Porphyry

What in the world is phonolite porphyry? Darned if I’ve ever heard of it before. Well, phonolite is a type of igneous rock which forms Devil’s Tower which formed about 1.5 miles below the surface of the earth and then pushed up through the sedimentary rock layers about 50 million years ago. Then, all those sedimentary rock layers around it eroded and what is left is this massive chunk of rock towering over the countryside around it. You can see it for miles and, though it looks like a giant prehistoric tree stump, it’s quite impressive. It sticks straight up, has strange furrows on its sides, is flat on top and stands alone in the lowlands surrounding it.

One of the Native American legends explaining its formation is this: two young girls are playing in the woods near it when they are chased by an enormous bear. They climb on top of a nearby rock but it is way too short to protect them and keep them out of the bear’s reach. Then the Great Spirit sees them and makes the rock grow higher and higher until the bear cannot reach them. As he attempts to climb the rock, his claws leave large vertical grooves in the rock. There are other legends but this seems to be the most prevalent one.

This site is sacred to the Native American Plains tribes. This is the place where White Buffalo Calf Woman taught the people how to perform the seven sacred ceremonies (prayer rituals). This is where White Buffalo Calf Woman taught the people how to live in a good way. She also gave them a sacred pipe, and before she left, she promised to return. And then she turned into a white buffalo. There are many sacred bundles on trees in the area.

Both Gary and I had always wanted to see Devil’s Tower NM but hadn’t been able to come close to it in previous journeys. This trip, it’s right on our way back to Iowa. There is a campground inside the Monument but, since it’s about 94 degrees out and humid, we decided that it would be nice to have air conditioning and got a site in the KOA right out side the park boundaries. We took our walk in the evening and woke to see this marvelous sight outside our windows.

Now, the Indians call it Bear Lodge and it is on some early maps as Bear Lodge.

However, Col. Richard Dodge named it Devil’s Tower in 1875 when he was leading a military expedition to confirm reports of gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota and to scout the area around this. His interpreter thought that someone was saying ‘Bad God’s Tower.’ He translated that into Devil’s Tower and unfortunately that name has stuck.

The ‘first’ men to ascend the Tower were William Rogers and Willard Ripley on July 4, 1893, to celebrate July 4th. Interestingly, there was already a US flag on the top of the Monument - maybe the ‘first’ ascent was on July 3. They used a wooden ladder which can still be seen near the top of the Monument wedged into the cracks. Their wives served refreshments during the climb but 2 years later Linnie Rogers, William’s wife, used the same ladder and made the first ascent by a woman. Now, that’s confidence in her husband. I don’t care who built that ladder, climbing Devil’s Monument is not my choice.

Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devil’s Tower the first National Monument under the new Antiquities Act in 182. His act made Wyoming the home to the first National Park (Yellowstone) and the first National Monument. During the Great Depression, the CCC built many buildings and some picnic areas and built a trail around the base of the tower.

My favorite story about daredevils getting to the top of the tower is the story of George Hopkins who, in 1941, parachuted onto the tower. No problem except that he did not have permission to do so and - the rope which he was going to use to get down, didn’t land on the summit of the Tower with him. He was obviously up the Tower without a rope and stayed there for 6 days in cold, rain and 50 mph rains until a rescue team finally rescued him.

Thousands of climbers ascend the tower annually. However, since the Tower is sacred to several Native American tribes, they object to this climbing. Climbers claim a right to climb on Federal Land. A compromise was reached in which climbers would voluntarily not climb during the month of June when the tribes are conducting their ceremonies. Sounds like a good compromise to me but some climbers objected and sued the National Park Service claiming a violation of the first amendment - keeping the government out of religion. They lost.

When Devil’s Tower was used in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, the tourist traffic increased immensely.

We walked around the tower and then took the outside trail too.

Beautiful walk through pine trees, and the rolling plains grasslands.

There is also a nice monument in the campground area that we found. Called the ’Wind Circle’, it was carved by Japanese artist Junkyu Muto as the third in a series of 7 ‘peace sculptures’ planned for significant sites around the world. The artist designed it to resemble the image of a puff of smoke from a sacred pipe.

Our hiking and exploring done, we headed back to the campground for the night.