Finally a Vacation!!

Hello friends and people of read.cash. How have you all been? I believe I have went the longest without posting something here. It's been awhile and I have been busy. I know I told some of you I would share some pictures from my vacation recently. So let me do that.

Well I left on Wednesday afternoon for a six day road trip up to South Dakota (SD). This trip had 3 parts to it. First part was my time in Sioux Falls, SD. Wonder why the city is called such name? Well picture confirmation is above 😂. Part II and Part III involved me from exploring the state from East to West. Once we arrived my mother had food on the table for my son and I. Later on we went to Falls Park (Above) at night. A natural falls off the Big Sioux River right in the city. I grew up in this area and visited this place a lot. It was my son's second time here but his first time seeing it under the lights. A great place to spend time to unwind at.

Thursday morning after momma's breakfast 😋 we headed to downtown Sioux Falls. We went here to experience the "Sculpture Walk." I give you a few sculptures as there were a total of 67. Towards the beginning of the walk there was a map that showed the locations of all of them. To see them all it would take around 12 blocks of walking. The sculptures themselves were made from artists from all around the country and even included some from Canada.

The neat thing about all of this is they have a "People Choice Awards" for them. The winner of that award is picked by normal citizens like you and I. The city buys the award winning art piece and displays the sculpture permanently somewhere within the city. Now every sculpture is for sale but they range in price from $2000 to $30,000.

I voted and picked the sculpture (first photo above) titled, "Owling at the Moon." This piece was constructed mostly out of silverware. That is super cool plus I liked the subject matter and the nifty title. If you want to view all the sculptures just click here.

After our long walk looking at sculptures we walked some more to an old court house that was converted into a museum. This building opened for business in the fall of 1890. A little bit of everything in this building in reference to the history of the area. The thing I liked the most was the history of the Sioux Tribe who once thrived in the area. There was plenty of old artifacts that showed how useful the Native Americans were with their resources.

Thursday evening my two sisters, my son and myself headed to a county fair that was about 30 miles away. The first thing we did was get some fair food. We got corn dogs, funnel cake, and homemade lemonade. This stuff just doesn't taste the same anywhere else, simply delicious but expensive.

There was about a dozen fair rides and hundreds of booths available to visit. Many live animals to visit that farmers from all around brought in for livestock competitions. This included horses, pigs, goats, lambs, cows, and even a long horn. That long horn was a gentle foe as you could actually pet it. There wasn't any live rabbits with antlers though 😂 🤣

Friday we didn't do a lot except look at old photography books and relax. Later in the afternoon we left to take off for our next adventure which was to go to my sister's camper which is near the great Missouri River. The river divides the the state in half.

It was an early Saturday morning for us. We had to get up early to beat the heat to get some fishing in. The sun, the sky, and the water are a beautiful thing just before sunrise and during it. We fished for about two hours and caught 1 1/2 fish. What about the half fish? Well I caught a fish, got it in the boat and it managed to get back into the river. I was gearing to take a selfie with it and it slipped out of my hand as I was trying to stick my finger under its gill. So there you have it the one that got away, haha.

After lunch and a little bit of a cat nap we headed to Native American museum. I've been to quite of few of them but hands down this was the best one I've ever seen. There were so many authentic pieces. One of my favorites was this canoe which was dated around 1870. So much history was told here too and a majority of the walls contained artwork that was done by Native Americans. Soon I will compile three museums into one article on Native American life style in Midwestern America.

Sunday we headed out after getting breakfast to our third location Rapid City, SD located on the western part of the state. There we had a hotel waiting for us. We made two pit stops on the way. One was a visit to a unique town and the other was a national park with some unique formations.

Our first stop was at a place called 1880 town. Not a real town but all the building are real. The place takes in old buildings from around the region that would have been used in that timeframe. It was set up like a real town and it feels like one too. Not everything but it had a church, bank, barbershop, train depot, hotels, saloons, fire department, general stores, houses and a few others. Looks old and let me tell you it had the distant smell to it. Heehaw!! Cowboy up!! I truly felt like I was back in those times. I snapped out of it when I had to go to the bathroom because I wasn't using the outhouse. Plus where is that red cob, haha.

What you see above is Badlands National Park. Very cool park that has a highway through it so can see you can see the amazing landscape sitting in your car. For safety, there are many view point stops where you can get out and be part of the landscape. Be careful though their are rattle snakes. Hear a rattle go back to your car because the closest hospital is a good few hours away. We did see some wild life which included a mountain goat way too far away to take a picture of and a buffalo. We were lucky that a fellow tourist had binoculars so we were able to see the mountain goat clearly.

We spent a good 6 hours between these two places and it was worth it. The last stop for the day was our hotel room which is still two hours away. Once at the hotel we ordered pizza than shortly after that went to bed.

Monday morning came and my teenager son was a bear to get out of bed. Once up we headed to the cafeteria area of the hotel to get our free continental breakfast. Our plans were to visit Jewell Cave which is the third largest cave in the world. After that we were going to do a drive by of Mount Rushmore and visit Custer State Park. Well our plans didn't quite go as planned because we were stopped in our tracks at Hill City, SD.

Wouldn't you know it on our drive path to Jewell Cave sat this place called 1880 Train. I had to check it because I love old aged equipment especially trains. Intially I thought this place was just a static display of railroad equipment. I was wrong they actually sell train tickets to a city that is about 10 miles away, Keystone, SD. We went inside the train depot which is basically a gift shop that also sells train tickets.

We bought tickets and had a few hours before our departure. We ended up going to Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park. Unfortunately no time for Jewell Cave. On the way back we ran into the unfinished Crazy Horse monument.

The journey at Custer State Park was a mixed one. Sure the scenery is amazing but we paid admission to see wildlife. We only seen a handful of the available wildlife. We seen a herd of bison but they were in the distance. We seen some burros close up but we had already seen them somewhere else. Another thing we saw were some prairie dogs which are like a mix between a mole and a squirrel. The one thing I seen from about 150 yards away was a mountain lion but I missed getting a picture.

So the Crazy Horse monument was a quick drive by as I took a shot of it at a red light. A lot of South Dakota residents argue that it is a waste of admissions to see it since it's not done. Some say the museum inside the confines is spectacular. That alone would make it worthy of visit from me. I know there is a smaller statue there that shows what the finished project looks like. It's basically Crazy Horse pointing while sitting on his horse. I think if it ever gets finished it will be a site to see. The problem is it's not state or federal funded. That's an argument I won't get into. I will say it should be for numerous reasons.

Well it's time for departure 😊 I'm super stoked because this is my very first train ride. The train is a 1926 Steam Engine Locomotive, Choo Choo! I'm three cars back in a car named the Redfern. Only a 10 mile a journey and it's about an hour each way. It went slow for several reasons. The main reason is it's one the highest grade tracks in my country. There are also a few sharp turns and it's for tourism. It allows for better pictures and you get to suck up the experience for longer.

This was the last major thing I did on this road trip. Since I was a train virgin this really was my highlight of my vacation. We took our time getting back home. We stopped at my sister's camper and spent the night. The next morning we left and stopped at my mother's and she had lunch waiting for us. We departed early afternoon and made at back at home after some school shopping around 6:00.

Before I let you go let me show you some scenery from the train ride. You will see some older houses, the amazing views of the Black Hills National Forest, some carved mountains that the tracks went though and some old left behind mining operations.

Well in a nut shell that was my vacation. If you want to see more pictures and stories of my vacation check me out in Hive. I actually wrote 7 articles in total. I leave you the links to the two I had the most fun writing:

Special Train Day Visit

A Visit to 1880 Town

It's been a long while since I have published here. I miss a lot of you here. I'm in no way finished here and I will be back with some fun and games 😁 This vacation was really something I needed and I had to grind hard to get it. I appreciate if you have got this far, I know it's a bit longer than my normal articles here.

Take care, be safe, and don't forget I love you all ❤️