Sioux Falls, South Dakota W.H. Lyons County Fairgrounds 7/21 - 7/24/2021 Travel Tour

                   From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com  
                     Tim and Linda Bunyan

We are staying at the W. H. Lyons Country Fairgrounds (electric/water $30.00/night) while in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  We will renew Tim's driver's license and check-in at Dakota Post.  This Dakota Post service has completed our paperwork in registering our new Ram Truck and picking up our mail.

 Dakota Post - Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Meeting up for dinner with Mike and Sherry at the 

MacKenzie River Pizza Grill & Pub offering a laid-back atmosphere and adventure in a vast array of menu items. 

This restaurant is special to us because our friends Jeff and Gina (locals) previously met up with us here.  Jeff and Tim had worked together in Sacramento 20 years ago.  Jeff chose this place to re-kindle our friendship several years ago.  

This evening with Mike and Sherry, we skipped the cowboy nachos by  

starting out with an appetizer of hummus which I followed with a refreshing Guinness!

  We are happy to see and visit with Mike and Sherry in our hometown at MacKenzie's and then we decided to take an after-dinner stroll around the 128-acres downtown Falls Park.

This park is fascinating in landscape, history, and location just a block from our downtown eatery!

Throughout history, Native American peoples were the first to visit the Falls and have been the center of recreation and industry since the founding of the city in 1856.

Remains of The Queen Bee Mill.  Began by South Dakota's first senator, Richard Pettigrew decided the town needed its own mill so farmers could avoid the cost of shipping wheat to Minnesota or Wisconsin.

When constructed the mill was one of the most advanced in America. 

The quartzite building still stands on the east bank of the river and is the Sioux Falls Light and Power Company building.  Now it is remodeled building that creates the Falls Overlook Cafe.

From many different viewing platforms, the course of the Falls is enjoyed.

The River Greenway offers a paved bike trail through scenic urban and wildlife areas. Locals and visitors enjoy that spectacular, enchanting attraction.

We bid farewell to Mike and Sherry as they are eager to reach their intended destination Middlebury, Indiana at the Grand Design Manufacturing Center.  Tim and I have business to do and make ourselves at home here in Sioux Falls, a very delightful city where the Big Sioux River tumbles over a series of rock faces in Falls Park with an active population of 200,000.

Side Trip: to Iowa:

  We stopped at our favorite ice cream shop in Sioux Falls: Stensland Family Farms Ice Cream WEST.  While enjoying our fresh homemade ice cream we notice the sign indicating the Stensland Family Farm was just a short 35 miles from Sioux Falls 

located in Lyon County, Iowa.  

Inside the retail ice cream store, Stenland Farm sells products all relating to their mission: healthy honey, beef, milk,  natural soaps, cheese, and t-shirts promoting their eco-friendly farm and creamery.

Following our Google Maps, we hopped in the truck and drove to Iowa!  We are set to visit the Stensland Family farm filled with dairy products including cheese, ice cream, butter, and milk.

Into the Ag land on a slightly paved road, we drove and were delighted to see in the distance this sign indicating we had reached the farm.  We found a friendly, honor-pay system at their small retail shop just near the herd barn and the cultivated hay fields!

The dairy cows are sheltered inside here very busy making milk.

We actually met one of the brothers of the over 20-member, generational family that has continued the family farm offering products as well as a glimpse of the farm where all the magic happens. 

Kyle, managing the day-to-day farm operations told us that every member of the family is involved and dedicated to the mission to run operations within the creamery and farm operations.  At the end of the day, since 1915, with a dairy herd 200 strong and their own organic cropland.  

The visit to the Stensland Family Farm was a satisfying experience for Tim and me and a day well spent patronizing and supporting the health of a well-loved and well-run family farm.

Auntie Angela Rose with Rose Elizabeth (photo from our family).

Time to continue on our 2021 Travel Tour.  We are headed North for a stopover in North Dakota!

Valentine, Nebraska, Smith Falls State Park 7/20 - 7/21/2021 Travel Tour

                                               From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com                                                                                                                 Tim and Linda Bunyan

We have arrived in Valentine, Nebraska at Smith Falls State Park.  To arrive at this state park we drove 2 miles on a gravel road passing the wildlife refuge and the farmland of Nebraska to come to this hideaway oasis. 

Dinner along the river at our Campsite.

We choose our site along the river and drive onto the freshly mowed, abundant grass for our overnight stay.

The trail to the waterfall is less than a mile from our campsite.  We cross the Niobrara National Scenic River via the Verdigre Bridge, originally built in 1910, a Western Bridge and Construction Company bridge, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The remaining intact example of state and pony trusses.  The bridge works also include truss bridge: Fair Oaks Bridge, Fair Oaks, California.

Kayakers passing by.

Smith Falls at 63' is the highest waterfall in the state of Nebraska and the centerpiece of Smith Falls State Park.

The next morning we depart driving to the town of Valentine.

  Valentine, population 3,000 was founded in 1882.  The Valentine post office was established on December 4, 1882. 

Sites of Downtown Valentine, Nebraska

Soldier Memorial

 The Sioux City and Pacific Railroad was extended to that point and train service began on April 1, 1883.  It was named for Edward K. Valentine, a Nebraska representative.

Welcome to Valentine sign all across the front of the Chamber of Commerce building.

I mail a letter to our new granddaughter: Rose Elizabeth 6/23/2021 and to my friend Sherry.  Valentine participates in a mailing program where pieces of mail flow into the local United States Post Office so that it can be stamped with a special Valentine postmark and verse.

This overnight in Nebraska has been a very special experience.  The charm and population size of 3,000 has been intriguing and a satisfying overnight into the present and a visual of past.

  The Lakota language, Valentine is known as OinaZin or Mninahaha Othunwahe, meaning: "station stopping place" or "water and waterfall city".  Indeed!

We now head north for a final meet-up with Mike and Sherry.  They are on their way to the Indiana RV Show and Grand Design Factory for some warranty work on the RV floor.  

Forward to our home town Sioux Falls, South Dakota!

These roadside photos must be shared here for between our stops there are many compelling sites to this America that we thoroughly enjoy being a witness.

At a TA Truckstop, we pulled into fuel stall next to a trucker hauling: HOGS!

Got up close for this photo; the pig grunted so loud and fears...I took a step back!

This piece of farm equipment..........has road traffic priority.  Everyone move over for this one!

The plentiful agricultural scene on this 2021 Travel Tour is reassuring and prevalent.

The miles and miles of hay ........going miles and miles.

And here is to the Road Workers keeping the road conditions hearty for a 

vibrant trucking and travel economy.

Did I say there is a lot of hay growing in this country!

Sioux Falls, South Dakota almost there!