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.

April 10 thru 16, 2024, Stillwater, Oklahoma

Long ago, I visited Stillwater, OK, for business and remembered it being a nice college town. Joani's research found plenty to see there so she booked us a week in Wildwood Acres Campground. It was only 299 miles from Steve's place. I fought powerful headwinds most of the way. One heavy gust actually made the coach downshift just like we were going up a hill.

In particular, I wanted to revisit Eskimo Joes. I think it has grown in the last 30 years. Joe has multiple parking lots along the street and we barely found an open spot.

The "sweet pepper bacon cheese fries" were recommended and they did not disappoint! I had the Fire burger as well laced with habanero peppers and an excellent spicy wing sauce.

The restaurant goes through 6000 pounds of potatoes a week thanks to the popularity of their signature fries.

Another day, we dined with Eskimo Joe's cousin, Mexico Joe. Yet another excellent meal and now we have to start thinking about returning to some sensible eating.

We visited the Oklahoma State University campus a couple of times to stroll around. It was very pretty and almost deserted. The lack of students led me to believe the classes were over.

We visited the OSU Botanic Garden. I had the sense they were just getting started and it will be growing in the coming years. Of course, not a lot was in bloom this time of year. There was a garden resident who politely slithered across our path 

The G&M body shop in Stillwater must be owned by a Transformers fan. He had a replica of Optimus Prime at his east side shop and Bumblebee at his west side shop. They were each impressive, I guessed at least 20 feet tall, and obviously took a significant amount of time to build based on the detail we saw.

 

We spent one day in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and the Oklahoma Railway Museum we wanted to see were both closed on Monday. The Myriad Botanical Gardens were open and quite nice. It was overcast and cool so we spent most of our time inside. Curbside parking was limited to 2 hours, but we could have easily spent twice that amount of time admiring the gardens.

Inside the Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory were some of the most wild and wonderful flowering plants we have seen in a while.

We included a few of our favorites...

There are 28,000 varieties of orchids.

This is my favorite goofy orchid center.

I see an eagle in the center of this one! Can you see the reflections in the drop of water?

This one seems to have laser beam eyes.

Plumeria 'Orange KLS'

Dogbane Family Apocynaceae

Several days we noticed Woody the Woodpecker right outside our window attacking a colony of crickets under an old tree stump. I was able to sneak a few shots of him between bites.

The wind ruffled his normally swept-back crown feathers

On our last day, we visited the OSU Art Gallery. It was small and had only been open for 10 years and had rotating exhibits. Kerry and C. Betty Davis had collected 67 works of African American art on a postman's salary over 35 years. They owned a modest home in Atlanta, Georgia that housed the collection: "They happily sacrificed material goods and comforts in order to surround themselves with the drawings, paintings, prints, and sculptures they loved."

OSU students watched our every move as we viewed the artwork. I think they were noting our reaction to the individual pieces or maybe they were making sure we didn't touch anything. The torn paper collage below was my favorite. The oil on canvas below that was Joani's favorite.

Alvin D. Loving, Jr. (b. 1935-2005)

Crotch of Fire, 1980

Torn Paper Collage

Stefanie Jackson (b. 1957)

Exodus, 2007-08

Oil on canvas

Friday, June 14, 2019, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO

We planned on an early morning to catch the sunrise illuminating the Garden of the Gods outcroppings from the overlook above. We were a half hour early but the time passed quickly and the clouds cooperated to let the sun provide us some nice color. 

David waited for the sun in some pretty chilly air. I sat in the car, popping out here and there to catch some rays.


Finally, Pikes Peak was the first to blush...

...and next, the foothills took on a rosier hue.

When the sun hit the red rocks they seemingly burst into flames.

Even Gray Rock (on the left) took on an orange tone.

You can see a line toward the bottom of the red formation where the hill behind us is casting its shadow still.

A little to the north, beyond the park, the landscape looks dreamy...

...in the early light. I can imagine a fairy tale spun around the...

...dragon's backbone protruding from the earth.

After the sun was up it was time for some breakfast. We headed to the Black Bear Diner for a couple of hearty three-egg omelets, biscuits and hash-browns. Not exactly a low-carb meal but we were hungry!

Today we headed a few miles to the north of Colorado Springs to the United States Air Force Academy. In the Visitor's Center, we watched a short film entitled A Year in the Blue that gave a peek into the life of a first-year cadet.

A one third mile trail led around a hill to the Air Force Chapel. It was truly a unique structure that is apparently the most visited man-made creation in the state of Colorado.

The futuristic design made for some great abstract images. Unfortunately, the aluminum panels were not a great choice in the temperature extremes the structure experiences and the entire building will need some major refurbishment. We were lucky the work had been delayed or we might have seen nothing but scaffolding. 

The chapel is scheduled to close September 1, 2019, for a major overhaul and will probably remain closed for 4 years.

When we returned to the car we found our breakfast leftovers had been defiled. Sam figured out how to unzip the thermal bag, pull out and open the container and wolf down every scrap. He has been getting bolder by the day but what can we say - after all we left him there unsupervised with that temptation.

From the Interstate the Air Force Academy Football Stadium was easily seen. All cadets were encouraged to participate in team building sports and activities.

Later in the afternoon, a little shower passed overhead. While it hardly rained on us it did give us a colorful rainbow to close out our day.