TRAVELING THROUGH EASTERN SOUTH DAKOTA

Arriving in South Dakota was really the beginning of big changes in the landscape and living styles. There are farms consisting of thousands of acres with a house, barn, and other outbuildings in the middle of these huge tracts of land. Hardiness is essential to living here. Next-door neighbors mean people who live hundreds of acres away from you.

Some farms are like the one above--a rolling terraine--others are the flat plains, but all have the house in the middle of the tract.

Along the way, we saw many large herds of Black Angus cows. This group has been gathered together, but more common is seeing hundreds of head of cattle grazing in large pastures.

There is usually a small town nearby with a small grocery store, a few restaurants, gas stations, but entertainment seems to be gathering at someone’s farm for a picnic dinner or school or grange for family type events.

We stayed at a family owned campground near Mitchell, SD and were surrounded by these large tract farms. The owners, in the early evening, would sit outside the office and folks in the campground or from nearby farms would stop by to chat. There were permanent residents in the campground living in RVs. When they came home from work, they would spend time talking with their neighbors before and after dinner. It is a quiet, simpler life on the one hand with outdoor work that looks to be hard, demanding, and very influenced by weather.

Driving into town, one noticeable difference is that instead of seeing car dealerships, there are huge farm equipment dealerships. Also, trains are important in moving cattle and farm equipment, and it is usual to see trains that are more than two miles long. The plains often have high winds, and they are quite fierce. What I thought was windy in south Florida, I now realize are actually slight breezes.

WUBIE AND MOURNING DOVE

We have a number of sea bird and other species in Fort Myers Beach. The mourning dove in particular is very common and rather tame. Wubie would easily catch one if Teri did not restrain him while walking on his leash. Here he is intensely concentrated on one perched on the other side of the one-way glass of our rear living room window.

FORT MYERS BEACH BIKE GROUP OUTINGS - 2006

Every Friday mornings at 8:30 AM the RVers here organize a bike ride to breakfast. This is a popular ride because it is rarely more than 12 miles round trip.

On Tuesdays and Thurdays there is a more serious group of bikers that rides 20 or more miles.

We did not join this second group until recently because we have had so many projects and visitors to our place.

In this group picture we are second and third from the left . Teri's recumbent bike is the blue one on the left. Notice that the red recumbent on the right has a trailer. It has a doggie in it.

Here we are having breakfast after the first 12 mile leg. Teri is on the left and I am the one taking the picture.

This is Teri's Burley recumbent with the detachable fold-down sided cargo bed that I built for her. She does most of her grocery shopping with this bike. She can carry an amazing load for a bike without even feeling it. The recumbents tire pressure is 100 psi and can carry up to 275 lbs.

WUBIE WALKS AROUND ONE OF OUR WINTER BASE LAKES

Wubie is a walking, running, and tree-climbing cat (all on a leash of course). He is now a familiar sight around our RV park here in Fort Myers Beach, FL. He is so fluffy and walks with such a high and full tail that dogs spy his sight and RUN ;-)

One dog owner told Teri that his dogs had not been able to sleep at night since they saw Wubie.


Here is he - all pooped after a long walk around the lake in which he climbed 3 trees and chased at least 2 ibises grazing for snails in the lawns.

This is the lake that Wubi walks around. It is a nice walk because there are many sea birds on the lake.

Last year we saw a medium sized croc in this lake. When we arrived in November we were told that the croc had been removed because it had chased a maintnance person during the Summer. At least now the kitty will not be an um-yum for the croc!

IMPROVEMENTS TO OUR WINTER BASE - 2006

We finally splurged and installed a four seat glider that we saw in Quebec in our back yard.

We also added a paved patio with dwarf dates and bougainvilleas.