Appleton to Sioux Falls

We left Appleton just a few minutes after 9 this morning and headed south, then west. We crossed the Mississippi at La Crosse and took I-90 straight across southern MN. It's very flat for most of the way, with lots of green fields. When we got across the border into SD, there were some small hills, just a hint of what's to come. Sioux Falls is a city of about 100,000 people which like so many cities, has spread out from the old inner core. We're staying at a motel by a big mall area but after dropping off our stuff, we avoided the mall area and drove into the middle of the city. The Falls park has only been around for a couple of decades; we imagine that it was formerly quite industrial as we saw one steel mill and several hulks of empty factories. Unfortunately, though the park was lovely, we didn't learn much about its history, except to know that a spunky woman pestered the city fathers to create it. After walking around the park, and climbing the observation tower, we drove down the main street (Phillips) and found a very nice restaurant (in business 33 years) where we sat outside and had a good dinner, served by a waiter who just moved here 2 months ago from Phoenix to help his partner fix up a house. They'll be returning to Phoenix in the fall but for now, he's definitely enjoying being in the green Sioux Falls country. He told us about a city park, so we visited that after dinner, walking around looking at the flowers and children on playground equipment and in the wading pool. It's a lovely evening here and we're ready for a good night's sleep and more driving tomorrow.

Odd observation about Sioux Falls: there are lots of very small casinos sprinkled all over town, many of which also conveniently include ATM machines, tattoo parlors, and pawn shops. We don't understand this, and our waiter agreed that it's odd.

McKenna Park includes a tribute to the Irish immigrants of Sioux Falls - here is John with "the potato man"...