2012 August Minnesota State Fair

We left Sioux Falls, south Dakota on Sunday, August 26 and headed to Minnesota.  It was a very foggy morning however, about 20 miles in to Minnesota the fog lifted and the sun began to shine.  As we drove through the countryside, it was again sad to see so many of the crops dried up in the fields as they had been in South Dakota.  We we drove through St. Peter, Minnesota and along the Minnesota River, we noticed how very low the water level was in the river.  This summer is so much different from last summer as the water levels in the Rivers, Lakes and Reservoirs are all so low.

Our first night in Minnesota and we stayed south of the Twin Cities at Lebanon Hills State Park.  As we pulled into our spot for the night, parked across from
us were our friends, Gary and Cortney!!!  They had not come out west this summer and had stayed in Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota so it was fun to see them!!!!

Monday morning and we left Lebanon Hills and headed north to the KOA in Maple Grove.  The Maple Grove park is not the best, however it is close to Angela, Jeff and the kids as well as Keeth and Kristy. 

Tuesday morning, August 28 and John and I headed to the Minnesota State Fair.  The slogan for the fair is
"The Great Minnesota Get-Together".  It is the largest state fair in the United States in terms of average daily attendance.  It is also the 2nd largest state fair in the United States in terms of total attendance, trailing only the State Fair of Texas, which generally runs for twice as many days as the Minnesota State Fair.  The fair is held at the state fair grounds, adjoining the Saint Paul campus of the University of Minnesota.  The site is in Falcon Heights, MN., midway between the state's capital city of St. Paul and the largest city, Minneapolis, and midway between the North Pole and the Equator.

The first Minnesota State Fair was held in 1859, the year after statehood.   Since then, the fair has run annually except for five different years.  In 1861 and 1862, the fair was not held because of the Civil War and the Dakota War of 1862.  Scheduling issues between the fair and the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago,Illinois caused the 1893 show to be canceled.  The fair again closed because of was in 1945, as fuel was in short supply.  It was again closed in 1946 because of an outbreak of polio.

Machinery Hill is a large area of the fairground, and we were there!!!  For several decades, it held the largest annual display of farm equipment in the world.  However, modern displays generally focus on cars, trucks, lawn mowers, and recreational machines and motorbikes.

Food is one of the primary attractions at the State Fair, and a wide variety of foods are to be had.  Classic fair foods such as cotton candy and hot dogs are readily available.  Many foods reflect Minnesota's agriculture; cheese curds, mild shakes, and corn dogs are popular favorites.  Many foods at the fair are deep fried or come on a stick; from the classic corn dog to alligator-on-a-stick, deep fried candy bar on a stick and even "beer-on-a-stick". ( Have to admit that I did not see that one!!)  However they did have fried dill pickles and that line was always long.

The mascot for the fair is an anthropomorphized gopher, named Fairchild.  He was named by Gladys Anderson Brown for Henry S. Fairchild who advocated using the former Ramsey County Poor Farm as the permanent site for the fair.  Dressed like an early barker on the midway with a straw hat and stripped jacket.  Fairchild has represented the fair for decades.

We had a great time people watching and sampling some of the "fair food".

We will be in Minnesota until the end of September.  More on our visit later, until then,

Love to all,    Candy and Johnny

2012 August Rapid City

 We went into Rapid City one day to do some shopping.  Looking for a shop we were directed down this alley.... I call it Graffiti Alley!!!  I think if you stood still, you too would be painted!!  Have to say it was in interesting place.


We left Custer, South Dakota and headed east to Sioux Falls with an overnight stay along the Missouri River.   We stayed in Sioux Falls for two nights with our friends, Mary and Fred.  What a great time!!!  We thank them so much for their hospitality!!!!  It is always such fun to laugh and tell stories about the good old days of flying.  Both Fred and Mary flew for Northwest Airlines in the Glory Days!!  We had a
great time then and a great time with them for the weekend!!!

On to Minnesota to be with family and friends.

More from Minnesota later,

Candy and Johnny

2012 August Photos of the Badlands

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2012 August 20, The Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Monday morning we were off to the Badlands National Park, located in southwest South Dakota. The Lakota gave this lands its name, "mako sica," meaning "land bad." Badlands National Park preserves 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. It is desolation at its truest, where you can look for miles and see no sign of civilization. Wind and rain erosion have created an eerie moonscape of deep gorges, sedimentary layers of different colors: purple and yellow (shale), tan and gray (sand and gravel), red and orange (iron oxides) and white (volcanic ash). There are no obstructions in Badlands National Park to mar the horizon. The land unfolds unceasingly until it meets the sky. It is a land close to the sun, replete with some of nature's finest forms! Erosion continues to this day, frequently revealing long-buried fossils. The Badlands is one of the world's richest Eocene/Oligocene Epoch fossil beds, yielding a wealth of information on the "Golden Age of Mammals" of approximately 25 million to 37 million years ago. Along several trails there are fossilized remains of saber-toothed cats, miniature camels and horses, along with huge rhinoceros-like beasts known as titanotheres, that scientists have discovered in the multicolored layers of the park. Prehistoric bones are still being uncovered today by park officials. The Badlands was established on January 29, 1930 as a National Monument and on November 10, 1978 as a National Park. Buffalo Gap National Grassland surrounds The Badlands National Park. Wildlife roams the park's boundaries as well. Bison, pronghorn, mule and whitetail deer, prairie dogs, coyotes, butterflies, turtles, snakes, bluebirds, vultures, eagles and hawks are just some of the wildlife that can often be seen by visitors. In 1994 the near-extinct Black-footed ferrets were reintroduced into the Badlands prairie. These nocturnal animals are rarely seen by the visiting public. It is such a beautiful place to visit. A must stop for everyone!!! That is all for today. As you may have noticed, I added a slide show of my photos. I do not think they show the true beauty of the park, but I had so many that I wanted to show more than just a few. Love to all, Candy and Johnny

2012 August 18, Wind Cave, South Dakota

Saturday, August 18 and we were off exploring once again.  This time we were off to Wind Cave National Park, located 10 miles north of the town of Hot Springs in western South Dakota.  Established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the seventh U.S. National Park and the first cave to be designated a national park anywhere in the world.  The cave is notable for its displays of the calcite formation known as boxwork, intricate, honeycombed structures are formed through a mysterious process still debated by geologists.  The unique combination of events and chemistries used to form the structures has rarely been repeated.  About 95 percent of the world's discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave.  Wind Cave is also known for its frostwork.  The cave is currently the fifth-longest in the world with 137.02 miles of explored cave passageways, with as average of four new miles of cave being discovered each year. Barometric wind studies estimate that just about 5 to 10 percent of the total cave has been discovered Above ground, the park includes the largest remaining natural mixed-grass prairie in the United States.

Wind Cave was named for the wind that blows out of or into the natural opening, a small hole in side of the hill.  Changing atmospheric pressure outside the cave causes the air outside to adjust.

The Lakota (Sioux), Indigenous People who lived in the Black Hills of South Dakota, spoke of a hole that blew air, a place they consider sacred as the site where The Lakota first emerged from the underworld where they lived before the demiurge creation of the world.

The first documented discovery of the cave by early explorers was in 1881 by brothers Tom and Jesse Bingham.  They heard a sound of wind rushing out from a 10-inch by 14-inch hole in the ground.  According to the story, when Tom looked down into the hole, the wind was blowing out so hard that it blew his hat off of his head.

The Park offers several cave tours from one to four hours in length.  We took the one and a half hour tour with a Park Ranger.  The Ranger, showed us the original opening to the cave (see top photo).  Luckily we did not have to crawl into that opening!!!!

We enjoyed our tour of the cave, the Park Rangers always provide such interesting information!

More later from the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Until then,

Candy and Johnny from the road.

2012 August 17 Jewel Cave, Custer, South Dakota

 Friday morning, August 17 and we headed out to see Jewel Cave National Monument, located 13 miles west of Custer, in South Dakota's Black Hills.  Jewel Cave is currently the second longest cave in the world, with over 157 miles of mapped passageways (Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, at 390 miles is the longest).  Jewel Cave became a national monument in 1908.

Frank and Albert Michaud, two local prospectors, discovered the cave in 1900, when they felt cold air blowing out of a small home in a canyon.  It is unknown whether any previous inhabitants of the area were aware of the natural cave opening, which was not large enough for a person to enter.

After enlarging the cave entrance with dynamite, the Michauds

found a cavern lined with calcite crystals, which led them to name it "Jewel Cave".  The brothers tried to capitalize on the discovery, widening the opening, building walkways inside, and opening it to tourists.  Their venture was unsuccessful, however, news of the cave reached Washington.  President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Jewel Cave a National Monument on February 7, 1908.  The area around the natural entrance to the cave was further developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's.  The National Park Service assumed management of the monument in 1933 and began offering tours in 1939.

The Park Service had put a 300 foot elevator shaft to a remote cave area built concrete walks and metal stairs and platforms along a one half-mile loop. The "Scenic Tour" (which we took) was opened in 1972.

Jewel Cave contains the most common types of
calcite formations such as stalactites, stalagmites, flow stone, and frost work, although not in the same abundance as other caves.  One of the formations was named "fried egg" and another "bacon".  I think you can see why from the photos!

The other day I was one the Jewel Cave web site and noticed that the tours have been suspended for a while as the elevators have been closed due to "technical" problems.  Glad that we toured the cave when we did!!!!

That is all for today.

Until later,

Candy and Johnny in the Black Hills

2012 August 16, Buffalo, WY to Custer, SD

 Thursday morning and we were packing up to head East to Custer, South Dakota.  The sky was overcast and as we were getting the car hooked up to the RV, the turkeys came out to say goodbye!!  At one point there were 16 of them in the area.

As we pulled out onto I-90 East, we were barely out of the Campground in Buffalo and there along the road was a sign for "Wall Drug" in South Dakota.

Wall Drug Store, often simply called "Wall Drug", is a tourist attraction in the town of Wall, South Dakota.   It is a shopping mall consisting of a drug store, gift shop, restaurants and various other stores. 
The small town drugstore make its first steps towards
fame when it was purchased by Ted Hustead in 1931.  Hustead was a Nebraska native who was looking for a small town with a Catholic church in which to establish his business.  He bought Wall Drug, located in a 231-person town in what he referred to as "the middle of nowhere", and strove to make a living.  Business was very slow until his wife, Dorothy, got the idea to advertise free ice water to parched travelers heading to the newly-opened Mount Rushmore monument 60 miles to the west.  From that time on, business was brisk.

Wall Drug earns much of its fame from its self
promotion. Wall Drugs has over 500 miles of billboards on Interstate 90, stretching from Minnesota to Billings, Montana.  Wall Drug spends an estimated of $400,000 on billboards every year.  Signs have been seen as far away as the metro in Paris, by rail commuters in Kenya and bus passengers in London. 
Over a million people stop at Wall Drug every year - 20,000 on a good summer day.


As we continued over to Custer, I was amazed with the number of sheep along the roadside!!

As we were closer to South Dakota and the Black
 Hills, the Black Hills looked more like the "Brown" Hills,  the number of trees that were dead on the hill side was amazing.  It seems that the mountain pine beetle has once again invaded the Black Hills.  The mountain pine beetle is a small insect that lives most of its life in the inner bark of pine trees.  They fly from infested tree to new host trees in late June or July.  Once they have located a favorable living host pine, the adults tunnel beneath the bark to lay eggs.  After the eggs hatch the young, known as larvae, feed within the tree until the following spring when they pupate, a resting stage, for several weeks before becoming adults.  The adults emerge from the dead, yet often still green, host and seek a new tree to begin the cycle again.

Mountain pine beetles are native to the Black Hills and have probably inhabited the Hills as long as there has been a pine forest.  This insect goes through cycles where they become very abundant and then relatively rare.  When the beetle population is very low, only stressed or weakened trees, such as those struck by lightning are colonized.  However, about every ten years or so the beetle population increases and the beetles begin colonizing healthy as well as stressed trees.  These outbreaks last for about five to 13 years after which the beetle population once again declines.

The first outbreak in the Black Hills occurred in the late 1890's.  About five outbreaks have occurred since that time.  The outbreak in the early 1970s resulted in the loss of more than 440,000 trees.  The last outbreak occurred from 1988 to 1992 and resulted in the death of approximately 50,000 trees.  The present infestation is expected to increase during the next five years.

We plan on staying here for about a week to see some of the sights that we have missed in the past.  The weather is supposed to be good.

That is all for now.

Love,

Candy and Johnny

2012 August 14 Buffalo, Wyoming

Downtown Buffalo you will find the Occidental Hotel.  As far back as 1880, in the rip roaring days of early Wyoming The Occidental Hotel was known as the place to stay in northern Wyoming.

The Occidental Hotel was first established in a tent in 1879, just three years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
In 1880 the first actual building for the hotel was constructed of logs and the building was formally called the Occidental Hotel (meaning "Western" Hotel.)
For travelers along the Bozeman Trail, the Occidental was an oasis where a weary pilgrim was sure to fine a soft bed and a friendly welcome.

The brick building you see today was constructed between 1901 and 1910.  The Hotel had many famous guests including Calamity Jane, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, a young Teddy Roosevelt, Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.

One of its early guests was Owen Wister, he was just a young man traveling out west for his health.  He kept his eyes and ears open.  Years later, some of the cowboys and gunslingers Wister observed in the Occidental Saloon found their way into the most famous Western novel ever written, "The Virginian."
The year after Wister published the novel, the Occidental started printing a slogan on its letter paper; "Where the Virginian Got His Man."  There are some people who are sure the famous shoot-out in " The Virginian" - the first "walk-down" in Western literature - occurred in front of the Occidental Hotel.

The hotel has recently under gone $1.6 million historic restoration that began in 1997 and was completed in 2008.  The rooms are beautifully decorated with many antiques in evidence.

The saloon looks pretty much as it did in the early days.  A great place to sit and have a beer!!

We made a stop at the Big Horn Meat Cutting Co.  They have some of the most wonderful smoked pork chops you have ever tasted!

Last night we went to the Winchester Restaurant for dinner.  The food there is out of this world, the prime rib and Oysters Rockefeller were outstanding.

From here we head to South Dakota and Custer National Park.

More on that later...
Love to all,

Candy and Johnny