Minnesota, Preston - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - Old Barn Resort

We are spending the night at the Old Barn Resort in Preston, Minnesota.  The old barn that is the location of the office, restaurant and hostel is a 130 year old structure that was once owned by Edward Allis, the original owner of the Allis Chalmers Company.

On our way we stopped for lunch at the Blue Earth rest stop on I-90.  Where the rest stops sits is the site of the 1978 celebration of the completion of the last four miles of I-90 (the asphalt was tinted gold at the time).  I-90 stretches from Boston to Seattle and is the nation’s longest interstate.  We have been lucky since we left Arizona to come across nice rest areas right at lunch time.

In Minnesota we have lost the black ground of eastern South Dakota.  Although we haven’t had wind quite as strong as it was through Nebraska, we notice that nearly every farm has a huge windbreak, sometimes on all four sides of the house.  The ancestors of these folks planted a whole lot of trees!

One other thing we have noticed is that Minnesota takes it “Adopt a Highway” very seriously.  There are signs every mile or so recognizing who is responsible for that section of highway.  We have been on the interstate, state roads and county roads and litter is non-existent.

The campground where we are staying has a high Good Sam rating, but it is definitely off the beaten path.  This is part of the descent into the campground.

This guy is on a small tractor in a very large field.  We noticed the next morning that he was done.

More of the road into the campground.

This little area that goes from the office parking lot to the campground is a bit of a problem, we scraped bottom a little.  Definitely going to have to go out with the Jeep unhooked.  We’ll stop and hook up in the parking lot.

Here we are in lot M9.  Greg’s worry was that we might sink since the sites are all grassy.  We’ve been here a few hours as I write this and all is well so far.

This is the view of the “Old Barn” from our site.

I walked up to take a few pictures of the old barn.

And, the barn swallows who call it home.

This shot is looking from the check in area into the restaurant.

There is a nice restaurant and bar located inside the barn that is open Thursday through Sunday 11-8.  We had the cod dinner tonight – it was great!!

Just outside the barn are some colorful chairs where you can sit and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

There were people in and around the pool I was trying to avoid getting in the pictures.  This is a shot of the outside, all of the garage-style doors can be raised if the weather permits.

The indoor heated pool is larger than most resort pools.

Another feature of the resort that doesn’t really interest us is the 18-hole golf course that looks really nice.  The weather is nice today and several golfers were out enjoying the course.

South Dakota, Sioux Falls - Saturday, May 05, 2018 - Tower Campground

On Wednesday we went in to renew our driver’s licenses.  We had appointments so the whole process was over in about 20 minutes and we are good for another five years.  The good news of the day was I could truthfully say I weigh 15 pounds less than I did five years ago.  The bad news was that during that five years I had at one time lost an additional 22 pounds that I have since regained.  I’m going to have to have another go at this, maybe I can be down another 15 by the time renewals come around again.  Too bad I enjoy cooking and eating so much.

Thursday was spent cleaning out some of the dust we accumulated in our trek through Kansas and Nebraska.  I got a real burst of energy and decided to dust the insides of the cabinets in the bedroom and bath and while I was at it I rearranged a few things.  Afghans and throw pillows either got tossed in the washer or run through the dryer to shake out the dust we accumulated during the dust storms we went through in Nebraska.

By Friday we were set to get out and play.  We started off our day at Five Guys.  Neither of us had ever been there so we decided to check it out.  Great burgers and fries (note to self: this will not help me lose weight).  For those of you who haven’t been to a Five Guys, I would advise ordering the “little” burger and the “little” order of fries.  Greg and I decided to split a “regular” order of fries, a “little” one would have been enough to split.

Falls Park in Sioux Falls is a must see.  I was mesmerized by it the last time we were here and couldn’t wait to see it again.  The Big Sioux River runs through a bed of Sioux Quartzite.  Quartzite “pink rock” is the hardest rock second to diamond.

The Queen Bee Mill ground its first flour on October 25, 1881.  At the time it was one of the most advanced in America. The remains of the seven-story mill, lay on the east bank of the river.  The mill closed in 1883, a victim of inadequate water power and a short supply of wheat.  In 1956 fire destroyed the wooden roof and interior floors.  The upper floors were knocked down to prevent them from falling.

A millrace and dam were originally constructed to provide power for the Queen Bee Mill.  The dam was razed in 1908 to supply power to the hydroelectric plant.

What is now the Falls Overlook Café was once the Sioux Falls Light & Power Company.  The quartzite building that opened in 1908 housed three 500-kilowatt hydroelectric generators.  The plant was abandoned in 1974 and later donated to the city.  The Café retains a lot of the original industrial look of the electric plant.

The Visitor Center is attached to a five story observation tower.

View of the park from the observation tower.  Notice the quartzite that is exposed throughout the park.

Spring flowers are starting to pop up.

This is home, or at least home to our mail.  Dakota Post has been a great help to us in the fulltiming adventure.

Our last stop of the day before going to square dance this evening was a stop at the Strawbale Winery.  We visited this winery five years ago for a wine tasting.  We liked most of the wines we tasted except for the black current wine.  So, we made a special trip back this year to get black current wine.  You see, what we found out from them on our first trip was that even though we wouldn’t drink the wine straight, it was fabulous in their wine slushy recipe!

Their tasting room is small but very nice.

This outside area is crowded during the summer when they have local bands in, that starts in a couple of weeks and we will be gone by then.

On Friday evening one of our favorite square dance callers, Jerry Junck, was calling for the local square dance club so we decided to spend a couple of hours dancing.  Some of the local dancers remembered us from five years ago.  I think we made an impression riding in on a big Harley to square dance.  We danced with them again on Saturday morning.

We will be leaving tomorrow morning making a couple of stops before we get back to northern Indiana to have our refrigerator repaired.

South Dakota, Sioux Falls - Tuesday, May 1, 2018 - Tower Campground

We left Nebraska at 8:30 this morning.  At some point during the night the winds let up and they are at a manageable level this morning.  Nebraska has more hilly ground than I remember from our last time through.

We are chasing a storm this morning, not trying too hard to catch up.

Getting ready to cross the Missouri River into Iowa.

Okay, I’m getting better, I managed to get the whole sign this time, but you can barely read it.  Reaction time is good, focus is bad.

Seeing Old Glory flying always makes me smile.

We saw quite a few farmers in the fields in Iowa, we wondered if the soil temperature was up to planting standards.  The rivers and streams actually have water in them here – we’ve seen a lot of dry river beds on this trip.

South Dakota state line – got it right this time, but I have to admit I took it from a ways off and edited it for a close up.

South Dakota, land of pink roads.  This road just has pink borders.  I took this one because I wanted to show the contrast.

When I take a picture of an all pink road you don’t notice how pink it is in a picture unless you have the contrast.

Farm ground in South Dakota is black dirt, looks a lot different from the sandy soil in Kansas and the clay soil in Indiana.  The medians and road sides are nice and trimmed green because they bale the grass off of them later in the year.  You can be driving along and see big round bales sitting all over the place in the medians and alongside the road.

We will be here until Sunday morning.  We have appointments to get our driver’s licenses renewed tomorrow.  We plan to square dance on Friday and Saturday.