Food, Sourdough, Dignity, & Windstorm A Few Weeks Ago (SD)

Today we slept in and then went down to I-90 and then over to Chamberlain, South Dakota for the day. It was 11:30 a.m. when we got to town and we were hungry. I looked up some places to eat in this small town (pop around 2,000) and looked up the menu to see if they had the Signature Sandwich or Dish.

Chislic – South Dakota’s Signature Dish List, The Smoking Mule, Chamberlain, SD 07/26

The Smoking Mule is a burgers, brew, and ‘que restaurant. They have signs saying that everything is cooked fresh and expect a long time in getting food. Fine with us! We ordered appetizer of Chislic, which is on my Signature Dishes list for this state. What is it? Literally steak bites. The center was soft and outside was crunchy. Very good. It was served with their barbecue sauce which was sweet and tasty. They didn’t serve it with the saltine crackers, like the article says. HAHA. Rated: We Were Glad To Get A Signature Dish Marked Off For This State. 🙂 

Dignity Of Earth & Sky, Chamberlain, SD 07/26

Next we went to Akta Lakota Museum right here on St Joseph Indian School campus. This is a good museum and we learned the history of the school as well. After that museum we went to Dignity and Lewis & Clark Welcome Center Rest Area. It was fun to see Dignity, again. This morning, after we had left, I thought I should have brought a quilt and had my picture taken with her in the same pose as she holds her quilt. Next time! We had seen Dignity back in 2023 but didn’t go to the welcome center. We did today and saw some nice displays of tents the size the Corps of Discovery used. Walking upstairs you are in a keelboat which is the same length as the one Lewis & Clark had. Cool when you can see and be in. 

Outside of the Welcome Center, Kevin grabbed Seaman (footnote 1) from the truck and we went to the overlook of the Missouri River. First was the sign that I remembered – a warning to beware of poisonous snakes. Eck! Kevin put Seaman on the sign but it was so windy that it launched him, Seaman that is, head first but his back legs held on to the sign. It Was Hilarious! Got the picture of Kevin and Seaman showing “Lewis & Clark” the river and then went to the marker in the concrete. Well, poor Seaman kept getting blown over – literally. We were laughing so hard.  Then Kevin put him next to Dignity’s foot; it looks like she is stomping him! And then, he was blown over. We had many laughs!

While Kevin started the work week, I found a pattern I want to use to sew for my August yard flag and hope to start it tomorrow. This evening Kevin defrosted the freezer. Why? Because at 5 ft tall, barely, I can’t reach very far into the freezer. Plus, with my vertigo, Kevin doesn’t want me standing on a chair. I helped hand him towels. 😉 It was getting quite covered in ice and with us going to Costco later this weekend up in Bismarck and me planning to add a bunch of food, we thought it would be good to have this defrosted. He did a great job and it went very quickly.

I did some sewing on the August yard flag. It is coming together nicely, until I sewed the wrong pieces to two squares. HA Put it away and will pick and resew tomorrow. Yes, my blogging friend JEN, this was too wrong to look “homemade and not from a factory!” HAHA

Kevin’s “Last Fed”, Fridge Whiteboard, Fort Thompson, SD 07/26

Sourdough Starter: Today I made Charlene Yoder’s Overnight Crescent Rolls Master Recipe. I put it in the fridge overnight as per alternative directions. Later I wrote on the whiteboard on the fridge today’s date next to WPR Fed and MJ Fed. (Those are the names of my starters.) Soon I looked over and Kevin had the silliest, guilty grin on his face. He wrote on the board, “Kevin Fed: Last Spring”. 🤪 What season is this?

Dinner was sort of funny tonight: I am trying to clean out the freezer before we fill it with Costco on Sunday. So we had turkey slices and hashbrowns. HA And then, I was hungry for Bean Dip and so I made that, too! It was all delicious but really didn’t “go” together. Kevin didn’t mind. HA

I did some more sewing on the August yard flag. It got hot today, again! The heat index was 113° with actual as 107°. Thankfully we keep pretty cool inside.

Picture Through Truck Windshield, Wind Turbines Bent In 1/2! Highmore, SD 07/26

Travel Day today: about 240 miles to Bismarck, South Dakota.  All the time, except for a mile or two at the end, we were on side roads. They were really nice and smooth with usually a small shoulder. As we drove through Highmore, we saw the strangest things – big wind turbines bent in half and looking like an upside down V. There were about 6 of them that we could see. But around them were ones standing up normal. We couldn’t figure it out. Bad design? The ones bent over looked pretty uniform.

Damage From 131 MPH Winds! Highmore, SD 07/26

As we got closer to the small town we saw grain bins smashed like broken toys. Then houses with parts of it gone. I quickly looked it up and yes, this past June 29 they had a line of thunderstorms with 131 mph winds! The damage was horrible and I can’t believe no one was killed. It was the 15th strong thunderstorm wind in US history and the strongest the US in the 21st century. It lasted over the town for 15-20 minutes. For wind to be strong enough to bend wind farm turbines in half, wow, that had to have been terrifying!

At Bismarck’s KOA campground welcome email it listed some area attractions. Oh, THAT is why I couldn’t find the dome of the capitol building when we drove through here last year. The building looks like a tall apartment building. Apple’s Siri told us all but 12 state capitol buildings have a dome. Later we did see it in the distance. Got HOWE (footnote 2) all set up and took off to the Costco just a few miles away. I was excited to fill up the freezer. Back home (footnote 3) and I started doing the 2 weeks of laundry. Costco and full hook ups for our washer and dryer are why we decided the other day to skip out a day early from Fort Thompson and come here for the night. Kevin “cooked” and brought home Pizza Hut.

*The blog posts are taken from my daily travel journal. Would you believe – it takes me a 1/2 day every week to whittle down a week’s worth of journal so it won’t be too long for the post each week. HAHA Thank you for reading!

1. Seaman – this is a toy dog we bought at the start of Lewis & Clark Trail. He is like the real dog that Meriwether Lewis had and took on the Trail with him. We thought it would be fun to take pictures of our Seaman as we travel along the Lewis & Clark Trail.

2. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country. HOWE has stayed at least one night in all 48 continuous U.S. states.

3. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.