The next Installment

The title in the last (first) installment wasn’t quite accurate.  The last stop there, Devil’s Tower, was still in Wyoming.  But on August 26th I did make it to South Dakota, where my first stop was Rapid City, and more specifically, the Dakota Angler and Outfitter, a shop dedicated to fly fishing.  There I bought myself a rod, reel, some flies and other accoutrements necessary for this pastime.

I tried to get a SD resident fishing license, but couldn’t.  SD resident you ask?!  Yup, in June I signed up with a mail forwarding company in Emery, SD and changed my domicile from VT to SD and registered my vehicles there (all this was done by mail).  But I couldn’t get SD drivers license, which has to be done in person.  So, no drivers license = no resident fishing license.  It would have been nice to have it, since I was heading to a lake in the Black Hill

I spent two nights at Deerfield Reservoir, a lovely peaceful place.  Even though I didn’t have that license, I did get out my rod and practiced casting without a fly attached, fun!  And I paddled up the lake to the end and then drifted back.

Sun rise on Deerfield Reservoir

Then back to civilization with a vengeance:  a stop at Wall Drug in Wall, SD, a major tourist trap.  You can read about its history here:  http://www.walldrug.com/about-us.  I walked through some of the shops, had a hamburger, then had to get out of there, way too much stuff I don’t need or want, way too many people, especially when two bus loads of tourists showed up at the burger place.

I spent the night at a free site south of Wall with nice views of the beginnings of the Badlands.  Then came a long and tedious drive to Mitchell, where I spent the night at a RV park.  I needed a receipt from a place I stayed at for one night to establish “residency” in SD to get my drivers license, which I did.  Plus I registered to vote there.  Maybe my vote will tip the balance here?!  No visit to Mitchell would be complete without a trip to the famous Corn Palace.

The building is an event center.

The image is created by nailing different color corn cobs, split in half lengthwise, to a plywood backing.

I had a couple more days before I had to be in Brookings, so I headed for some dispersed camping at a SD State Park on Brandt Lake, as advertised on “Ultimate Campgrounds”, an app I’ve been using to find cheap campsites.  I got all set up at this lake, hoping to do some fishing, when a state park ranger pulls up and informs me that I can’t camp here.  I had missed the sign at the beginning of the road saying no camping.  Oh well…..Another 40 miles or so brought me to a little municipal campground in Preston Lake.  Not much of a town, but a good enough place for one night.

The next morning I headed west for another ten miles (Brookings is to the east, mind you), to DeSmet, SD, one of the places that Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family, of “Little House on the Prairie” fame, lived at in the upper midwest in the late 1800s.

Many of the little towns here have campsites available to people passing through, either free or for a minimal charge, usually in town parks, often with electric, water and even sewer hookups.  I’m staying at one as I write this in the little town of Britton, kind of west of where I’m heading, but good nonetheless.

In DeSmet I visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, comprising the house they lived in in town, as opposed to the homestead south on the prairie, plus the school house where Laura taught when she was 15 or 16, and some other buildings.  It was fun to see the places I read about when reading her books to my kids many years ago.

The Ingalls house in DeSmet

China cabinet, built by Pa Ingalls

One of the 150 year old cottonwood trees planted by Pa at the prairie homestead south of DeSmet.

And then, on September third I got to the campsites for the Habitat build in Brookings, which was in a parking lot of the Larson Company (makes windows).

There was one other camper there, an enormous 40’+ motor home,  belonging to a couple from Minnesota.  We had electric hook ups, but water had to be gotten from a hydrant, and sewer was taken care of by the “honey wagon”, a sewer pumping truck that came by on Friday mornings.  But we were able to use the gym facilities in their building for showers, and could have used the exercise equipment had we felt like doing that after spending the day hanging sheet rock.  Yup, my favorite job…..  at least there was no mudding involved this time.  And we had a lift to get those heavy 12 foot panels up on the ceiling.

Habitat has been active here for many years and has built quite a few houses.  I was working on #67.  This house was actually not in Brookings, but about 7 miles to the north east in Aurora.  Building lots are scarce in Brookings and too expensive for Habitat.

I left Brookings on 9/17 and headed north.  I have to be in Hawley, MN, which is about 30 miles east of Fargo, on 9/24 to get set up for the sugar beet harvest.  I will be working, and getting payed for a change, at a sugar beet piling facility.  Since I haven’t done this before, I can’t say for sure what it entails, but I think I’ll be directing the huge trucks that bring the beets in from the fields to a conveyor belt that heaps those beets into big piles, plus I’ll be bagging samples from time to time so that the sugar content can be assessed, an important step, since the farmers get payed accordingly.

Driving through prairie country in north eastern SD. I wonder what it looked like before big farming came to the area. I love the wide open spaces!

For right now I’m hunkered down at a municipal park in Britton SD, sitting out the rain in comfort with full hook ups.  The first two days were free, then it was $30 for two additional days, more than reasonable.  Britton seems like a fairly prosperous little town of about 1200 folks; agriculture and shipping are booming here.  The street next to the park leads to a shipping company, so during the day it’s rather noisy with big trucks of various kinds driving by.  But the nights are quiet.  The little RV park, four sites only, is part of a bigger city park that has tennis courts and a swimming pool with a big spiral slide, plus other facilities.  I’m surprised that such a small town has such a well appointed park.  There’s also a small field where the boys of the town get to be men at football practice.  And across from me is one of the Lutheran churches that plays chimes in the evenings.  It’s kind of sweet to see this little slice of small town America.

It’s September 21 now, three days till beet harvest time, and I’m moving to a campground in the Sheyenne National Grasslands in ND.  It might be a while till I can post again.  If the harvest goes well, meaning no rain or hot weather, I’ll be working 12 hrs a day for 15 days straight, so no time for anything else but sleep, eat and work.  Should be a blast!