Monday morning should have been our departure from Rapid City to start making our way East to Chicago, but there was a wind advisory in effect until late afternoon, with wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour. That’s incredibly unsafe for high-profile vehicles like ours, so we paid for another night and hunkered down at the campground, waiting for the winds to subside so we could safely get to our next stopover, about 230 miles away. We finally felt safe to leave around 4pm, and fortunately, the winds and gusts had died down quite a bit. We drove about an hour and stopped for dinner at Wall Drug (yes, they have a café there!), and then had to make most of the drive in the dark. We did get to see an amazing sunset in our side view mirrors, and the real benefit is that the roads are really empty (of course, it’s South Dakota, so maybe they’re always like that!). We were okay with the night driving since we were on I-90; if we had to take back roads, we may have felt differently. En route, at one of the rest areas, we stopped to see this amazing stainless-steel sculpture called “Dignity of Earth and Sky” – it’s 50 feet tall and wonderfully illuminated at night. It was designed to honor the cultures of the Lakota and Dakota people.  I actually think it was more beautiful to see at night, so it worked out well!

We arrived at our next campground around 10pm (thanks to losing an hour to the time zone change back to Central time), pulled in, and quickly saw that there was no sign of life anywhere…it was basically deserted…and quite dark. But, we just needed a place to park and sleep, and it served the purpose.

Tuesday morning, we headed out early and made a stop in Mitchell, South Dakota to check out the world’s only corn palace. I’m not sure why the world needs a corn palace, but we stopped anyway! The building is in its third iteration, and is re-decorated annually with themed murals. 2024’s theme was “Famous South Dakotans”…did you know that Bob Barker was from South Dakota? They are just starting to work on 2025’s theme, “Wonders of the World”, and it was interesting to see one of the ‘murals’ in process. Over 250,000 ears of corn are used to complete the murals. There are 12 different colors of corn used, plus rye and other native grasses. We went inside and were overcome with the smell of popcorn…imagine that? It was a fun roadside attraction to visit!

Our next stop was in Sioux Falls, SD. We went to Falls Park, where they have done a wonderful job of highlighting the beautiful waterfall in the heart of the city (something I’ve always wished Rochester would do a better job of!). There are ruins of an old mill, plus an observation tower that offers a really nice view of the falls and city. It’s a fabulous park full of winding walking paths and lots of signs providing information about the area’s history.

From there, we continued South to our next campground. This area, known as “Siouxland”, is comprised of:

• North Sioux City, in South Dakota (where our campground is located)
• Sioux City, in Iowa
• South Sioux City, in Nebraska

So confusing! But interesting to be so close to one of the few points where three states meet. The actual meeting point is in the middle of the Missouri River, so we weren’t able to stand there. South Dakota’s population is so small that the TV stations here are broadcasting from hundreds of miles away where it’s Mountain Time, so the TV schedule is really messed up. Weird!

We saw a couple variations on “welcome to Iowa” signs…

On Wednesday, our one-day rest break in a week full of driving, we went to check out the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. We were pleasantly surprised at how well-done the exhibits were. The center focuses on Lewis & Clark’s time in Siouxland, focusing on Sergeant Floyd who fell ill on the journey and died in the area – the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die during the quest to map the Northwest Passage. The center had some impressive animatronics of Thomas Jefferson, Sergeant Floyd, and York, a slave who was part of the expedition. The hand-painted murals were wonderful, and the interactive displays were informative.

From there, we decided to take a short drive into Nebraska, because, heck why not…we’ve never been before and who knows if/when we’ll be back. I mean, really, why would we intentionally go to Nebraska? Until recently, Nebraska tourism was running ads in Chicago using the tagline “Nebraska. Honestly, it’s not for everyone.” How’s that for honesty? And humor?

It was a hilly, corn-filled drive to Ponca State Park which sits on the Missouri River. The corn comes as no surprise…after all, their college football team is the “Cornhuskers”! At the state park, there’s a lookout point that is supposed to give you a view of all three states, but the view of Iowa was obstructed by trees, so they oversold it a little bit. But it was still a cool view, and we also enjoyed the “Towers of Time” sculptures at the park entrance.

Thursday morning we hit the road again, heading South and then East, to Des Moines, Iowa. I have to say, I was surprised by how hilly both Nebraska and Iowa are – I expected both to be completely flat, and they are not (at least not the areas we’ve seen). The drive East on I-80 to Des Moines was particularly windy and the wind was coming from the East, so the headwind was a bit annoying. Glad it was a short drive.

We stopped near Des Moines for the night, and were on the road again early on Friday morning. We headed to West Branch, IA, birthplace of Herbert Hoover, our 31st President, and site of his Presidential Museum & Library. There’s a beautiful campus dedicated to Hoover, the first President born West of the Mississippi. The cottage where he was born, his father’s blacksmith shop, the schoolhouse he attended, and the Quaker meeting house where his family was active are all there, along with a visitor center for the National Historic Site, his Library/Museum, and the graves of he and his wife, Lou.

We started in the visitor center, watched a film about his early life, and walked through each of the buildings that were significant in his life. His parents died a couple years apart; orphaned, he was separated from his brother and sister, and sent to Oregon to live with his Aunt & Uncle. He attended Stanford University and made a fortune as a mining engineer, working all around the world. He gave that up to start a life of public service and humanitarian work; he was responsible for relief efforts in 57 countries over the years, starting with Belgium after WWI where he saved countless lives by bringing food to the citizens.

He won the presidency in 1928 by a huge margin, but just a few months later, the depression hit and the rest of his four years were marred by that legacy, and he lost to FDR in 1932. He spent the rest of his life in service to others, and his reputation rebounded from the scars of the Great Depression. His story is fascinating, and, as is typical of Presidential Libraries, we thoroughly enjoyed visiting and learning more. It was a fantastic stop on our journey home.

From the library, it was about an hour to our final campground, just over the Mississippi River in Rock Island, IL. On our way, we drove past the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Iowa…absolutely massive, with multiple restaurants, a chiropractor, and a dentist, plus truck maintenance & service.

At our campground, I captured this photo on our evening walk…perfect way to end this amazing trip! And on Saturday, we finished the final 150 miles with another strong headwind…glad it was only 150 miles!

What a journey! Over the course of a month, we visited seven states (four of them were new to us!), three national parks, a bunch of historic sites, and so much more! We drove 2,300 miles total to nine campgrounds, plus at least another 1,000 miles on day trips. Just another testament to why we love RV’ing so much – we just had to pack up the trailer once for this entire journey.

It’s hard to pick the highlights because it was all wonderful, but for me, I’d have to put these at the top of the list…

• Spearfish Canyon
• Theodore Roosevelt National Park
• Needles Highway & Needles Eye Tunnel
• Mt. Rushmore at night
• Minuteman Missile Site
• Anderson Japanese Gardens

With these four new states visited, I just have six to go…(map doesn’t show Hawaii and Alaska and Delaware is pretty small so it’s hard to see)

So that’s it for 2024 travels…next trip starts in early February 2025, when we’ll once again spend six weeks down south, mostly in Florida this time. Until then, RoVer Too goes into winter storage, and we’ll spend a few weeks recovering from this trip…we’re both exhausted!