April 23 thru 29, 2024, Brookings, South Dakota

It was probably a bit early, weather-wise, to travel north to Brookings, South Dakota, (246 miles) but it fit our timeline. It was another tough driving day with constant winds of 20 mph and gusts over 30 from the front driver's quadrant. There were many times the coach stayed in fifth gear to maintain 55 mph. On the way, we passed through Sioux Falls so we made a quick stop to pick up our mail. Knowing we would be stopping, Joani took the opportunity to load up on Amazon orders so there were quite a few packages. When we started in the morning, our trip computer had estimated plenty of range to reach our destination but the wind reduced our mileage to the point we had to stop for gas to make it.

Joani found us a nice city park and booked us for 7 nights. The weather was beautiful for the first couple of days with temperatures in the high 60s and springtime was clearly in the air. Unfortunately, the nice weather did not hold and most of the week was overcast, rainy, and windy. There was not a lot of excitement in Brookings and we saw most of their sights when we were here a couple of years ago.

We were able to accomplish some important tasks, however, so now I can legally drive outside of daylight hours. They reissued my license without the daylight restriction. It took less than 30 minutes - why can't every DMV be as efficient as the one in Brookings?

Adding Joani to the motorhome title required a trip to our home county finance department in Sioux Falls. We drove directly into 30 mph headwinds all the way. It was ironic that these same winds would have been tailwinds when we were driving the coach a few days before. At least in the car, it was much more manageable. The line at the courthouse was not bad and we made a day of it by visiting Falls Park and having lunch at The Attic. 

By Friday the rain kept us inside for an entire day - I'm not sure how I managed to record 750 steps on my Fit Bit, maybe there was some pacing. When the rain paused on Saturday we walked to the South Dakota Art Museum on the SDSU campus. It was less than a mile through a well-established (old) residential neighborhood. We made it back to the coach just before it started raining again.

Two years ago we visited Dick Termes' art studio in Spearfish, SD. It was a nice surprise to see the spherical art, which he named Termespheres, in the museum. Many spheres were painted inside and outside on clear globes creating visuals bringing to mind the artwork of M.C.Escher. 

Sunday we braved the rain for a meal out. We discovered and highly recommend Cubby's Sports Bar, a popular Brookings hangout where we enjoyed the Philly Cheesesteak Nachos. The picture below was indicative of the weather outside, but somehow, missed showing the crowd inside.

By the end of the week they had recorded more than one and a half inches of rain (that's a quarter of Mesa's annual rainfall). Hopefully, we will dry out at our next stop.