I have been driving too long, too far each day and need to slow down, although getting to Michigan for a family beach vacation is part of the reason. Also, distances between points west of the Mississippi are often 100s of miles.
Anyway....I decided today would be easy. The first thing I did was spend three hours in a downtown coffee shop, which was adequate and midwestern - coffee OK and an small omelet with predictable with tiny ham junks, a few barely discernible veggies and cheese but satisfied my morning protein fix.
A guy was sitting at the table next to me, typing away. When he got up to use the restroom, he asked if I would "please, could you like stab someone, or scream or something if they ..." and he gestured toward his stuff. We talked a bit later. He lives in California but came back to Indiana to buy a new Prius, and we talked about what kind of mileage he gets (not as good in the city because of the electrical system kicking in or something...I know I don't have this quite right, but he gets close to 45 mpg on the open road.) He is a photographer and was stopping by the major magazine markets (New York, Chicago, Portland, Seattle) with his portfolio.
(Re gas mileage, if anyone is interested, I am consistently getting 28+ while driving steadily at 70 mph; I am pleased as the specs say 23 in town and 25 on the highway.)
A chatty group of local women came, ate and left, at which time I knew I had stayed long enough.
Next task was to get the oil changed, which I did at LubeRangers for $50.
Then I went to Cabela's and bought a pair of walking shoes. My old Keens were duct-taped and one had a sharp little projection that had given me a blister on my heel last time I wore them, so it was time. I had forgotten that Cabela's is a mostly a hunting and fishing store. Half the clothing items were camouflage patterns. I also bought a freeze-dried camping breakfast and another can of fuel as I intend to stop spending too much money on gas station food or dinners.
There were no NWRs on my agenda today, so I did something on impulse and went to Flandreau, SD. There had been an Indian boarding school there (I never did check this out but have always been interested in this subject. There is, of course, all kinds of information on the web. This site is worth reading: jaie.asu.edu/v35/V35S3run.htm)
Flandreau also has a city park that was on a SD Birding Trail brochure. So I headed there through corn field and hay bales and the neatest cleanest landscape I've ever seen.
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| Near Flandreau, SD |
Flandreau City Park was on the Big Sioux River, and I felt like I was in Zeeland 50 years ago. A baseball game was in progress: teenagers from Madison vs. Flandreau with parents and grandparents in lawn chairs cheering, clean little blond kids running about, a covered picnic pavilion, hot dogs for sale at a concession stand, an announcer, bleachers, uniforms, a perfect bug-less summer evening, ...about as quintessentially 1950s Midwest America as I've seen in a long time. No ambivalent or outright ethnic variety evident; few tattoos; no pink hair; no dirty clothes; no boobs falling out of T-shirts....no evidence of any Native American blood except one teenager.
But there was a tightly shuttered large "Japanese Gardens" building.
And a memorial marker for a Mrs. Joseph Thatcher who died in the aftermath of the Spirit Lake Massacre (in Iowa) while trying to swim across the river just "300 yards east" of this point.
WWW.PANORAMIO. COM
Memorial for Mrs. Joseph Thatcher - One of four settler women taken captive in the Spirit Lake Massacre in March of 1857 by by a Wahpetuke band of Santee Sioux led by Inkpaduta. The uprising was the result of many failures of promised supplies from the government and subsequent treatment of the indians when they went begging for relief in the harsh winter. The marker says she drowned while crossing the Big Sioux River about 300 yards east of the marker. Some accounts say she suffered phlebitis during her captivity and became lame, and although recovering, while crossing the river was pushed into the icy water by braves, clubbed when she tried to climb out, and then shot and left to drown.
And a tiny RV park.
And some homes / cottages along the river. Several of them looked generically cottagey but two or three were obviously very old though perfectly cared for. One had three light lavender clematis vines on one side, growing high on trellises, partially covering windows, but all flower beds were trimmed and weeded. For some reason, I thought of DHC while looking at them and how she would appreciate this scene. Again, I had a profound sense of remembering some of my childhood places and times.
I walked around the park and by the river for 30 minutes and then decided to sit on a picnic table and watch the game for an hour. I made it through 30 minutes, thinking half the time of brother Bill and the thousands of sports events he watched.
I stayed in Brookings right across the street from South Dakota State University and the 40-acre McCrory Gardens, next to a little pond under trees in a Walmart parking lot which often is more pleasant than not. Surprisingly....
I ate at a Perkins...and won't again, but it was an easy walk
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