Hello Hivers I'm a few days behind on my vacation diaries. In part II, I will tell you about my time spent camping with my sister and her partner in Chamberlain, South Dakota. Not primitive camping as I will be staying in a nice size camper. I was there from Friday evening to Sunday Morning. If you missed part I you can Click here to catch up if you want.
Prior to the two hour drive down to my sister's camp ground my mother sent me off with a nice dinner. She made some delicious all so tender meatloaf with potatoes served with some cottage cheese. Super delicious and it kept me full for the remainder of the day.
I just did some catch up on Friday evening with my sister and her partner. The plan was to do a camp fire but that didn't happen because it was too windy. I went to bed late, I think it was around 1:00. The next morning came early as I was up at 5:00 to do some fishing 🎣
Some shots I took before arriving and during our arrival to the boat dock. Taking in the scenery really made me excited to get on the water. Wild sunflowers are just about everywhere here and I'll show some actual sunflower fields a bit later in this blog.
I caught the sun about to rise from the horizon before getting on the boat. We fished on Lake Sharpe near Fort Thompson, South Dakota. This lake is reservoir of the Missouri River. We are out super early because it was going to be scorcher of a day. With all the plans I have and the upcoming heat wave of weather in the forecast this was the only day I was on the water. It was just my sister's partner Ted and I that went fishing. My teenager son didn't want to get up that early and go out with us.
Off we go, boat engine wide open skipping across the water going about 45 mph. The water was calm and the sky was changing as we headed to our fishing spot. The sunrise on the water is amazing. The 20 minute ride to the spot woke me up as the wind in my face felt so refreshing.
Alright I do have a fishing story on this outing. It's not a tall tail and is one that is kind of discouraging. So I caught a nice size fish and it was a walleye. I'd say it was about 1 1/2 lb fish around 17 inches long. Once in the boat, Ted unhooked it for me and I grabbed the fish behind the head. My first thought was take a selfie with it. With my free hand index finger I aimed for the fishes front gill. While I was doing that I didn't realize I loosened my grib in my other hand. The fish jumped out of my hand. It made two more jumps as I chased it before making a final jump back into the water. Oh what a disappointment.
I didn't catch another fish but Ted did and it ended up in the live well. The fishing was slow and we stayed on the water to about 10:00. After that the heat was too much. Those of you who fish from a boats know the temperatures on the water feel much warmer. We headed back to the boat dock and Ted gave the one fish he caught to another fisherman. It's not worth cleaning one fish.
Once we got the boat loaded we headed back to the camp ground. My sister had a simple lunch prepared for us. Also my son was just waking up. We had walking tacos which is so simple and easy to make. All you have to do is fry up some ground beef with some taco seasonings.The other things you will need is an individual sized bag of doritos, cheese, onions, lettuce, black olives, diced tomatoes, and sour cream. Next step is to crunch up the chips before opening bag. Than the final step is to open bag and throw everything inside it. A quick satisfying lunch that is so easy to make.
After lunch we checked out the Akta Lakota Sioux Museum and Culture Center. I was amazed by this museum it really had a lot to offer. Almost everything is authentic, lots of art work done by the Lakota tribe, and a lot of historic accounts. I give you a few photos of this place. The canoe is authentic and was used by the Sioux Tribe between 1870-1880. This museum really tells how they lived off the land. There was so many pictures hanging on the walls. I will do a future article soon on the indigenous people that lived and thrived in this region.
After the museum trip I took a cat nap and woke up in time for some dinner. What you see above is a chicken fajitas bowl served with steamed rice. The chicken and the veggies were cooked on a blackstone. A few hours later my sister, son, and I went for some ice cream at a local Dairy Queen. The rest of the night I conversed with Ted. My son and sister played board games. We went to bed kind of early because my son and I are leaving for Rapid City in the morning.
After breakfast we headed towards our next destination (Rapid City, South Dakota). Here's some sunflower fields we seen along the way on the interstate. I'm sorry to report I didn't have time the rest of the trip to visit other areas where they were present and get up close to any. Maybe next time, after all this stretch of interstate didn't have all that many sunflower fields. This is due to the farmers rotating different crops each year. A lot of hay, corn, and other fields this year which means next year will be dominated by sunflowers along the this particular stretch of interstate.
We made two pit stops before arriving at our hotel in Rapid City. We first stopped at the 1880's Town. What you see in the first two pictures is a one room school house and an old saloon. This place was a pasture up to the early 1970s. Now it holds time period iconic buildings from around the region. The second stop we visited was Badlands National Park. This was quite the scenic visit. If you want to know more about it Click here.
That's all I have for you this article. Thank you for reading this far. I hope you enjoyed and I really appreciate your support. I will probably have a few more vacation articles before I wrap up everything in a final Part III.
Take care, be safe and enjoy what's left of your week.