State #48

We had a long day today traveling through a lot of the Dakotas. Since we got married, we have visited all but 3 states and today we visited #48 with North Dakota, we only have Oregon (in 2 weeks) & Hawaii.

We got to Medora in time to hear Theodore Roosevelt reprisor Joe Wiegand. He was very interesting. He asked for questions at the end. I ended up asking him about his experience with the Rough Riders since my grandfather had been one. He said he could talk for hours about that experience but added another 5-10 minutes. If you ever get the chance to see him, you should. It was a humorous but very educational hour.  Tomorrow we visit the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and hopefully will see buffalo.

 Sunrise in South Dakota....we were on the road by 6:30!

 Taking pictures as you drive 75 mph makes for blurred sunflowers but we saw lots of fields filled with blossoms.

 This is Blue Dog Lake in SD.

 Saw a lot of these huge silos. This was interesting as grain was pouring out of the silo on the right.

We saw a number of these deserted houses.

Most of these pictures were taken as we were moving through the car window.

The following pictures are from the Painted Canyon Overlook area of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

We figured a thief was in town because there was no rope. It was our hottest day so far...was 90 in Medora.

"Teddy Roosevelt" after the presentation.

Lewis & Clark Trail

We left Hannibal this morning driving through the rolling hills & farmland of Missouri. It was interesting in that they plant hay in the median. It had already been harvested into bales. The corn & soy bean crops looked great. We went through the towns where Walt Disney, General Persing and J.C. Penney were born.

Our first stop was in Hamilton....home of the Missouri Star Quilt Company. It is amazing to see how they are transforming & renovating the uptown. They opened their first storefront in 2012. They now have 4 stores (3 have specialties....solids, reproductions & holiday), a retreat center, a new warehouse,  a long arm quilting center with 6 machines & are renovating another building for their 5th store! The newest store is called Penney and was the site of JC Penney's 500th store.

After a drive through Iowa, we are now in Sioux Falls, SD. Most of the day we were on the Lewis & Clark Trail. It is hard to imagine what it would have been like to walk or take a boat versus riding in a car all that distance!  After dinner at Culvers (& yes, we had some of their delicious custard), buying gas for $3.05 a gallon, we went to Sioux Falls to walk off dinner.

We saw a lot of kids climbing on the rocks....scary!

Hannibal & Mark Twain

We woke up early this morning so decided to go ahead and get on the road. The positive that gave us enough time for a quick stop at Hancocks of Paducah to use my 20% coupon. A very quick walk through and I found 6 yards.On the way home, I may have to spend a little more time. 

We drove through St. Louis and saw the Arch and the Mississippi. We have both been to the Arch before so decided to skip on this trip. 

Our next stop was Hannibal and the Mark Twain boyhood home. We had finished  listening to Tom Sawyer so it was fun to see places from the story. Hannibal is a neat little town. 

Becky Thatcher's home

Tom"Fred"Sawyer

 Samuel Clements' home. He chose Mark Twain as his pseudoname after his experience as pilot on riverboats. It stands for the "Mark" on the rope that is marked every 6' & twain was for the second mark or 12 feet. "Mark Twain" meant is was deep enough for boat's draft.

Even found a nice quilt store.

Tom convinced Fred that he should try his hand at wash washing the fence.

Mark Twain riverboat