On the move and friends

We are still on the move to try and find warmer living. We finished our family research in Minnesota, such as it was, and tried to get to South Dakota to visit friends except the train had another idea. After getting off on the the wrong highway (never did figure out how) we found ourselves in a small town further east of where we wanted to go. We got our trusty GPS out and figured out how to go west and get to where we wanted to be.

Still in this little town we found the right road and started to head west but just as we got to this RR crossing, down came the arm. We waited here for about a half hour and then looked at the GPS to find if we went 3 or 4 blocks back north there was another crossing there. We backed up and headed north through town and when we got to the street with the crossing we looked left and sure enough the tracks were clear. As we turned left to go over the tracks the train backed across the street to hook up to the section that was on the other side of us. Now we had to wait until the whole train was moved by us!

We finally got out of town and into South Dakota.

We headed for Oakwoods State Park where good friends are camp-hosting. We set up across the street from them and that evening they had dinner ready for us. Great time to relax and catch up on the last few months.

They had to work the next day so we went into Brookings to visit the South Dakota Art Museum where they had several displays that we enjoyed. One room was a collection of "Modern Art" type quilts, with various and unique designs done by local artists. Very good collection. We won't go into details here about all that we saw there but it was all well done.

This is just one of the quilts the Dick really liked.

We then walked down the street to the Agricultural Heritage Museum for a tour. It was very well set up with farming equipment and early farming life covering half and the other half was set up with South Dakota inventions.

Like this Case unit that was restored to perfection and was the main (largest) display in the building. This is the rear view of the unit.

A fun shot that made us think about Christmas. Can you figure out why?

One of the displays that caught Dick's eye was this early leather bra complete with a button down nipple cover for nursing mothers. This is another one of those South Dakota inventions.

This is the view out our back window overlooking the lake behind us. I think this is one of the few times it was not raining. Our friend Sharon took this shot and shared it with us. Dick had taken some great shots with the moon setting in this location the next morning but he deleted them by accident; that's a first for him.

Our thanks go out to Kent and Sharon for sharing your time with us and it was great seeing you again. We both wish you safe travels.

Monday morning we decided to pack up and see if we could get closer to some warmer weather. We had to travel over 175 miles to finally get out of the rain in Nebraska for the night and then will continue our journey south. We spoke too soon as it has now started to rain here. Oh well there must be some dry spot in this Country.

The weather WILL get better and we'll be able to get some better pictures to share of our beautiful country.

To be continued.