DAY 7 - WINNER, South Dakota

We spent Saturday afternoon through Monday morning at the Farm of our long time friends, Doug and Wanda.  It gave us a real appreciation for the life of small town South Dakota folks.  We learned about their Tripp County history on Sunday afternoon at their Museum where there was a special exhibit honoring  June brides of long ago (1940's and 1950's) which included the actual wedding dresses, as well as their 50th anniversary photos.  Russ was especially impressed with a Line-O-Type Machine that created the lead characters out of molten lead for the printing press.  I enjoyed the antique gowns and quilts, and hand crafts they had on display.

Doug told us about the two tornados that had hit the property that he and Wanda have owned since 1977.  I just happened to have a black and white photo they had sent my Mom, back then, to show the dream house they planned to fix up and live in.  The beautiful wrap around porch was lifted up by a tornado and pancaked down to the ground, in the tornado this Spring.  It also hit their grain barn on two different occasions.  So that building is worthless.  No wonder that Doug decided to retire from active farming.  He now plans to restore many of the farm implements that have become part of the fascinating landscape which we camped next to for the weekend.  See the original B&W, and the house after the passage of 35 years, and many hot summers and cold winters in this wind swept
Praire town.

I am so proud of the gorgeous Sunrise picture I was blessed to see and take on Sunday
morning.  The sunrise includes one of Doug's tractors in the nearby field.

I have so much to share with you, but Russ is telling me it is 11:11 PM Mountain Time, and that translates to 1:11 AM EDT.  You are in for a real treat when I share the pictures we took on Monday, June 25, 2012, while traveling the Loop in Badlands National Park, and our visit to Wall Drug in Wall, SD, where we are camping overnight.