Sioux Falls and Pipestone

Our sojourn in the Dakotas came to an end in the lovely town of Sioux Falls. We dropped the rest of the family off at the Aberdeen Regional Airport early Monday morning. The three remaining members of our tour, Paul, Cathy, and Joan caravaned South to Sioux Falls. Actually we drove slightly farther south to Tea, where Joan dropped off the rented handicapped accessible van. Paul and I dropped her off at the Sioux Falls Airport and then headed back towards the city and found yet another Motel 6.

Sioux Falls is a beautiful town. The downtown buildings are tall and stately, and most are covered with the gorgeous red stone that is prevalent in the area. After dinner we wandered over to Falls Park. This is the landmark from which the town gets its name. There is a series of waterfalls as the Big Sioux River cascades over the many red stone formations. A beautiful park sits around this formation and the skyline of the city stands in the background.

Tuesday morning we headed East into Minnesota. Shortly after we crossed the state line we took a diversion of about 30 miles in order to see Pipestone National Monument, just outside of Pipestone, Minnesota. This area too is characterized by the beautiful reddish stone. For centuries, native Americans have quarried the stone in this area to use for making ceremonial pipes. It is quite amazing that this particular spot of many large stones and a beautiful Pipestone Creek and more water falls, just kind of appears right in the middle of the prairie and farmland. There is a short 3/4 mile hike through the place, fully of photo ops.

We didn't stay in Pipestone as long as we would have liked to have stayed, because we wanted to get on to Minneapolis and return our rental car. We pulled into the motel where we started out about a month ago well before 4:00 and shortly afterwards returned the car. This evening we are sorting and purging some of the extra stuff we've collected in our travels. It's a challenge to follow my own convictions and simplify!

Tomorrow morning we leave for two nights in Baltimore followed by a weekend retreat at Wellspring Retreat Center near Washington D. C. I'm sure this will be a huge change from living on the prairie for a month!