SOUTH DAKOTA and RELATIVES from PAST and PRESENT

Our trip from Minneapolis MN to Aberdeen SD was a good trip beginning Friday, July 28th.

We spent the week at the Brown County Fairgrounds on the edge of Aberdeen. It was the week before their county fair, the largest in the state of SD.  Sounded like Canfield's claim to fame, but I thought it would be only about a fourth of the size of Canfield. We did get to listen to car races late in the evening though. Like 10 to midnight!

Gary's mother's school house, just down the road from her home.

While there, I attended a TOPS and met a lady from Groton where Gary's mother went to school. We also attended a First Baptist Church in town and heard more about the area.
Just plain old farm country. Seemed to be mostly corn and wheat with a little sunflowers in the mix. The even bailed the hay along the roadsides and in the median of the freeway.They have had a dry season so are concerned about having enough to last the winter for the animals.
It was a very dusty trip down the road to go past the old home place.

This is only a portion of the original house
on the homestead.
Maybe later I can add a picture from bygone days.

View from the rear view mirror!

We made a day trip to Andover SD to meet up with Gary's cousin, Carol, and her daughter and son-in-law, Roxie and Dan. Had a great get acquainted visit for a few hours. We look forward to doing it again sometime. Actually they had just come in from their homes in Wisconsin and that is where we first met with Carol this trip.

Carol, Gary and Audrey

Carol, Gary, Roxie and Dan

Our AT&T reception at the fairgrounds for the Hotspot was terrible. So thinking that it was a problem with our computer we looked for a Best Buy Geek Squad. Unfortunately, the state of SD only had two Best Buys!! So we left early and made a 150 mile trip to Sioux Falls. The computer was okay so we stopped in a restaurant there and did our banking before taking the long trip back to the motorhome. We just had to suffer it out without the computer the rest of the week. We did have cell reception though. Figure that!!
We drove west from Sioux Falls to Mitchell and visited the Corn Palace before heading back to Aberdeen.

The murals were made with whole corn cobs. They use seven different colors of corn. The latest color is green. They have one farmer who raises all of the corn that they use to make and restore the murals. He also develops the new colors. Much of the restoration is done on the murals on the outside of the building because the birds nest in the grass trims and eat from the cobs.
So now we can say that we've done that!
On our return trip the sky was awesome!  The streaks of clouds did not look like jet streams as they were too low. But they were beautiful to look at.

During our stay in SD we visited the family graves of Gary's grandparents, great grandparents and other aunts, uncles and cousins. The great,grand parents were the first migrants  to this country from Norway.

Gary flew to SD with his mother for the funeral
for her brother Herbie. He says it was the coldest
winter that he has ever experienced.

Frank took over the family homestead after the
other siblings had left the area.

Our stay here has come to a close, so we leave for Montana going through North Dakota also. Stay tuned.