Sioux Falls, South Dakota - Our "Home Town"

On October 8th, we left our campsite by the pond in southern MN and headed to Sioux Falls, via Elk River, MN for a quick look at our tires - don't ask, just know that we won't be doing business with Bebe in Globe, AZ again.

We made the mistake of going through Morton, MN and decided we might as well stop and check out the casino. We hadn't been there since the 1980's and it has changed a bit. But, it still took our money. We had dinner and lost a few pennies before camping out in the parking lot.

Early, and I do mean early (4 am) Mike decided he was not tired anymore and decided to put the slides in and head for Sioux Falls. I stayed in bed and even got a few more winks before I joined him for coffee and sunrise as we headed west.

I am proud to annouce that Obama will get at least 2 votes in the state of South Dakota; we registered and voted at the same time. South Dakota sure makes it easy to be fulltimers - we just had to have an address at which we resided (the campground) and complete a couple of forms. I have to admit I left many of the local and state questions blank - didn't feel right voting on issues when I wasn't informed.

The highlight of the 24 hour stop in "Our Home Town" was meeting up with Ashley, Jonah and Brian. Mike was tired from his early morning start so he stayed at the MH to nap while the rest of us went to the Great Plains Zoo. For just $21 we got to enjoy a full 2 hours of animals and fun!

Brian enjoyed the kid sized stuff with plenty of places to hang on and get a good look at the animals. We spent several minutes watching this fellow pace.

I would love to know what he is thinking as people stare at him...

This zoo makes it easy to get closeups of the animals and birds - this is the closest picture I have ever taken of an eagle.

We went for a train ride and this was one of Brian's favorite things to do, seems he loves trains.

But he also enjoyed feeding the animals, with moms help of course.
Most birds we saw, Brian called hawks - this one really is.

Brian loved the giraffe -he was kinda fun to watch when he stooped over to pick up something... not an easy task when you are so tall. None of us had ever seen black swans with bright red bills.
I like this bird's attitude but can't remember what it is called.
This ugly dude is a vulture - body was mostly gray...
She was definitely posing.

After the zoo, we rested for a couple of hours and then Mike and I joined Ashley, Jonah, and Brian for dinner. I bet you can guess where we went from the pictures below.
It was wonderful to reconnect with our great grandson and his parents; he is surely a charmer at 2 years old and they make a beautiful family!