Leaving South Dakota

Windmills in Iowa

Missouri Floodplain

Missouri River

Missouri River

St. John's Roman Catholic Church

Well we left SD at around 8:30 AM and traveled 600 miles to Avoco, Iowa where we are presently staying the night. It has been a great ride. I think that we are all punch drunk from driving so much. All we did was laugh today at everything. I took some pictures, not a lot because we are on our way home. It was sad to leave SD, I really liked it but life must have been so hard for the pioneers. The plains are so flat and vast and lonely. Storms blow up quick and just like that they are gone. I couldn't help but think about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her books when she describes what life was like at that time for her. I don't think that I could live on that prairie. I also discovered as I was driving that the eastern side of South Dakota has been receiving so much rain that they have not been able to plant their crops for two years. You could see a great deal of their land was underwater. I felt bad for all of the farmers.

We also crossed the Missouri River. WOW is that a wide river!!. I took some pictures of it. Very pretty river. We will be crossing the Mississippi River tomorrow and I can't wait to take pictures of that river.

Tomorrow, I will post the pictures of all of these windmills that dot the land out here. Apparently, they received a grant to use windmills to generate electricity and conserve some energy. I can't believe the number of windmills here, I feel like I am in Holland. You can look forward to them tomorrow.

Well that is all for now. I am about ready to fall asleep. We crossed the mountain time zone and lost an hour so I feel really exhausted. I think we lose another hour tomorrow when we cross into the eastern standard time zone. Oh well, it is the price of traveling!! Till tomorrow!!