South Dakota has been an amazing experience and I love every second of it. While I've traveled through these parts before, the older I get - and this trip gives me the opportunity to look a bit closer and see more.
 From our last blog in Rapid City, we got up Wednesday morning and took a wonderful morning walk through Canyon Lake . I remembered the horror of the Rapid City flood in 1972 when over 280 died and more missing when heavy rainfall in the Black Hills sent a wall of water down Rapid Creek taking out the dam at Canyon Lake along with bridges and everything in its path down the floodplain. I was working in Brookings, SD at the Remote Sensing Institute when this occurred, and the photo crew flew an aerial mission over the flooded area and we worked overnight in the photo lab to get photos on the Governor's desk Monday morning.
 At about 11:30 Wednesday morning we met Gene and DiAnn Deyo at the Millstone in Rapid City for lunch. Gene and I had known each other for years, we met the first time when I was in the Army on active duty at Ft. Carson, Colorado back in the mid 1970's. Gene's unit came to Ft. Carson for training and our unit worked with his. Gene and I had the same job so we worked closely for those few weeks, then years later, after I moved back to South Dakota, we again worked in communication positions within the South Dakota National Guard . It was great to see Gene again and we had a great time reconnecting after many years. Gene and DiAnn have a section of land about 40 miles east and a bit south of Rapid City where they raise buffalo.
 From Rapid City, we headed east on I-90 and made the obligatory stop at Wall, South Dakota and Wall Drug. Dolly fell in love with an old rancher at Wall Drug (see photo) and a saloon wench had eyes for me. From Wall, we headed across South Dakota on Highway 14. Highway 14 provided beautiful views of the western part of the state with its miles and miles of green carpeted grasslands and grazing cattle. We didn't see very much wildlife, an antelope and three mule deer. We arrived in Ft. Pierre and went up highway 1406 to the Oahe Dam campground. The campgrounds are absolutely beautiful with many mature cottonwood trees, manicured grass camping spots, and a nearby marina to pick up basic supplies. The only problem at this campsite was the wifi - they had it and there was sufficient signal strength but the connection process just didn't work .
 Thursday morning, we got up bright and early and I took a couple of photos along the Missouri River shoreline then we packed up and drove across the (from memory here) third largest rolled earth dam in the world. The Oahe dam is a sight to see rising a couple of hundred feet above the landscape and holds back water to nearly North Dakota. We also stopped at a monument where a french explorer, Verendrye, placed a lead plate on a hill overlooking the Missouri River in 1743. It was discovered by some local kids in 1919. 
 We arrived in Mitchell during the mid afternoon and set up camp in a very nice KOA about three miles east of Mitchell. A quick shower came through after we were set up and we heard some warnings of tornadoes in the Sioux Falls area, but thankfully they didn't develop. 
 Next is Sioux Falls to spend some time with son John, his wife Dani and two grandchildren Tanner and Hailee. A softball tournament is on the schedule for tonight and tomorrow!
 All for now.

Love ya,

Cheers!

Jan, Dolly and Chi Chi