Not So Easy

I'll bet you thought I changed my name, or slit my throat... not so. 

Ellsworth AFB was our usual stop for doctor appointments, and we usually don't play tourist too much. One of our days out was to to Cabela's for new shoes. Come to find out, Carol is a pretty good fisherman...

I was not as lucky this trip...

I decided to look for ways to prepare the fish Carol reeled in.

These sauces are not for the faint-at-heart, as the names indicate.

While we were at Ellsworth AFB we got a call about an illness in the Wisconsin Matteson family, so Carol flew over to stay with our son, wife and grandchildren for awhile. 

When the cat was away, the mouse played (I'm the mouse). 

One day I decided to drive out to Wall, about 40 miles from Rapid City. Wall Drug is he big tourist attraction in the town, with many little shops and a restaurant too. In one of the shops I found a fitting sign for my funeral... (WARNING to the those not familiar with my humor)...

Yes, I have a dry sense of humor.

I also stopped by the head office of the Wall Meat Company, which isn't saying too much, it is a small meat processing building with an office, and a walk-in freezer. After the day in Wall, I headed back to Ellsworth AFB for the night.

The next day I decided to make a run to Deadwood to see what kind of trouble I could get into. Roaming the streets was a real treat, darting amongst the rain drops. One of the stops was at a jerky shop that had some interesting choices, one of which was python jerky, which I have yet to open. Just up the street was a new place that didn't exist the last time Carol and I visited. This new place is a bourbon tasting room, with some very nice whiskeys, and I bought one for Carol...

Their other whiskeys were pretty good too. 

After a little bit of the snake I headed over to Mustang Sally's for lunch. From lunch I hit the streets again, this time on the other side of the. One of the stops allowed me the opportunity to transport back in time where I sometimes feel I could fit in.

I felt I could have lived a miner's solitary life.

One of the days that Carol was away proved to be a challenging day...

Beside heavy rains and gusty winds (over 35 MPH), there was hail. The hail came down for about 15 to 20 minutes, and most of it was the size of gum balls; fortunately there was no damage to the truck or trailer. The third photo is the road in front of our site.

The next day was a blustery day, but I took a ride to the local mall for some wall walking exercise. Of course while I was driving it started to rain again, which made me glad the mall was an indoor mall.

Several years ago when we were here there was a couple selling Legos at the weekend flea market held in the mall. Before we left from that trip, they rented a store in the mall to sell their Legos. I was pleasantly surprised that they were still there and doing well. For those of us that grew up with Legos, they have come a long way...

In my youth they did not have fancy sets like this, the child had to use their imagination to create.

I continued my mall walking figuring while I was there I would renew our vehicle registrations. To my surprise they upgraded the kiosk for registration renewal...

No, you do not get free chips, or drink with your new registration. They decided to move the kiosk to a nearby DMV office. What is great about South Dakota is the easy opportunity to renew online. Here is a great example for registering in South Dakota... California registration was $1,600 for both truck and trailer, here is $350, although this year was $30 more, they threw in new plates for the truck.

Carol did come back before we needed to leave Ellsworth AFB, so we were able to shuffle off to our next stop together. That next stop put us in the middle of nowhere, which is easy to do in South Dakota.

As you might be able to see, there wasn't much, the closest town was about 14 miles, in either direction. The good note though, diesel prices were under $3.50 a gallon. The stay at this park was a short one, but we still took a road trip into Mitchell, SD. Our purpose for this road trip was simple... what changes were made to the Corn Palace since our last visit. With exception of the COVID years, the theme on the outside of the building changes. This year's theme was "Under the Big Top".

For those of you that follow this blog on a fairly consistent basis, you may remember me talking about how the creations are accomplished. For those that don't remember, or are new, here is a refresher. There is a local farm that produces most of the 14 varieties of corn used to make these fantastic murals. Besides the ears of corn, they also use the husks, and several grains and herbs. Again, this is done yearly. The theme for next year will represent famous folks in history that were born in South Dakota.

For you geography buffs... what state do you think we headed to next... if you thought, or said Minnesota... you were right.

This is all there is to our stop in Minnesota. Our resting point was in Welcome, MN. The town is a small town with nice people, population is less than 1,000.

Not much else to add as we made preps to enter Wisconsin.