Today's first destination is Coffee! We head toward downtown Huron and locate "Don't Spill the Beans". The coffee is quite good and the attendant is very pleasant. This is a very nice, small town, but seems to suffer what every other nice, small town does: lots of boarded up buildings. A sprinkling of ambitious endeavors exist, like this coffee place, but there is a lot of evidence that it's really tough to make it last.
We head back to the car, which is across the street from "Beans" and see two interestingly decorated buildings:
Mural on a Building's Wall in Huron |
Appropriate Gargoyles |
We get back in the car and head toward De Smet.
What calls us to this town is its role as the home where Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up. Here is where she first taught school at age 16. This is the town that is the location for most of the "Little House on the Prairie" novels. The town is full of LIW sites. Sadly, it's too early in the season for most of these sites to be open. It seems we are the only tourists about; most people are still trying to recover from the winter.
Wilder Home |
We have satisfied our curiosity about De Smet and turn our attention (and the X3) toward a town mentioned to us by our friend Ellen: Pipestone.
We head south and east from De Smet crossing into Minnesota. What really strikes me, and has been something that I have noted for the last day or so, how soggy the ground is. There is water everywhere. On every parcel of farmland, you can tell where the lowest point is because that is where a pond has appeared. These ponds do not appear on the Map of the Nav System. I recall that the last several weeks have been pretty wet and much of the midwest has flooded. Here is evidence that it was not fake news.
Water, water, everywhere |
During lunch, we strike up a conversation with an older gentleman, the only other patron left in the restaurant. He is a retired farmer and is considering selling his spread. He is in excellent spirits but we learn that not only has he recently become a widower, he has cancer and is undergoing treatment. He was really inspiring.
We get back in the car and head to Pipestone National Monument. Pipestone was an ancient Native American site that was sacred ground. Anyone could come here to procure the soft stone that was used to make peace pipes. No violence of any kind was allowed. Unfortunately, the rain is pouring down. The north loop trail, the more interesting of the two, is closed and we don't really want to get sopped.
We have seen enough of De Smet. But we decide to keep Pipestone on our Active List. We will surely pass near here in the future and will try again to visit and explore. Thanks for the suggestion, Ellen. We wish the weather had cooperated.
We head back to the road and turn toward Minneapolis to visit Amy's cousins Fran and Barb. And now the rain starts to really come down. There's a bit of wind crossing from left to right across the road, as well. Every time we meet a large truck coming in the opposite direction, we are temporarily blinded by the wash from the truck that is being blown across the road.
During the two and a half hours to drive to the Big City, we finish listening to the "Bag Man" podcast. It is the story of Spiro T. Agnew and corruption in high office in Washington, D.C. We enthusiastically endorse it.
We meet up with Fran at their Douglas St. house and chat with her while Barb finishes up a meeting for one of her extracurricular interests. When she arrives, we visit a bit more, then they take us to Wakame, a Japanese Sushi/Sashimi restaurant nearby. We enjoy a hearty repast and engaging conversation.
We return to the Douglas House and go to bed happy. We have driven about 1,800 miles to get here, but won't have to do a lot of driving for the next couple of days.
Glad Pipestone was interesting. Sorry you could not walk the trails. Next time.
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