a noise

i avoided the interstates as i traveled west in south dakota.   i noticed damage caused by wind and rain during the lightening storm the night before.

in the middle of the state the ranches got larger.

i passed through pierre, which is the state capital and continued on into the vast openness.

about 40 miles from pierre and still less than half the distance to the next 'town', i heard a strange loud clicking sound near my front right tire as i applied the breaks to take a turn.  i pulled over to investigate the problem.  i couldn't determine exactly what it was or what was causing it, but i knew it didn't sound good.   i asked a guy in a camper that was on the side of the road if he recognized the sound, but he had no idea.   i slowly drove to the nearest house to ask for help or use a phone, but they either ignored me or didn't hear me knocking.  they had a cute cat in the window.  there were hundreds of grass hopers in the yard.  then i noticed a police car about to pass and tried to get his attention but failed.  

by this point i was already considering the potential of my trip being significantly altered depending on what the problem was.  i slowly drove back 5 miles to the only named location marked on the map.  i could count the buildings there with my fingers.   some guy named steve emerged from a building and he tried to help me assess what was wrong.   reaching under the van he felt to his contentment that the strut and chassis seemed in tact, but didn't know what the sound was from.  i drove the rest of the 35 miles back to pierre to find a mechanic.   it took almost an hour because i was trying to go slow...  this grass hopper hung on the windshield for most of the ride.

it was saturday and almost 3:30pm.  would i find any shops open or have to wait there until monday?  this place was open!

they kindly test drove my van and took a look at it even though they were trying to finish up the day which had already been hectic for them.   they determined it was a wheel bearing issue and offered to replace the hub bearing assembly right then.   i was happy that they were willing and able to fix it for me.   they also rotated my tires for me.

their saturday closing hours were basically "asap."  

too bad i had to put money into parts that were supposedly legit a few months before.  : (   at least i was on my way!   on toward the badlands!

 

lightening

it was hot and humid during my visit in madison, south dakota until the tornado watch storm came through.  the storm was not so much wet or loud as it was bright! there was rain and crazy wind for about 10 minutes..  but for about an hour there was so much illumination from constant lightening, you didn't need any other light to walk around.  it also gave me a good chance to snap a bunch of cool photos.  these were some of the nicer shots...

again, what was amazing about this storm was the light.  all of the lighting of the water and sky in these photos was from the lightening alone!

just amazing.

madison south dakota

angie is one the friends i met in philadelphia.  i got to know her and her sister kelly while we lived in philly.  they had grown up in madison, south dakota and angie had just moved back to her 'so dak' home only weeks before my arrival - sweet!    i always enjoy seeing where friends live or where they grew up, especially when they are there themselves to tell me about it.   angie and her parents, dave and sony, welcomed me at their house.

i stayed three nights and two days at her parents house.  a lot of that time was used for relaxing on their outside shaded deck which was a great place for chatting, eating our meals, planning, bloging, writing, etc (pretty much everything) while gazing at the lake!

and i got a lot done which felt great.

their dog jose (sp?) liked to hang out too.

angie gave me a little tour around madison.  we went to the local bakery for some yummy pastries.

we went to a wild flower garden.  yellow flowers dominated he scene, with some shades of pink and purple too.  and grass hopers like a plague.

sandwiches at the country cafe.  great burger and conversation - thanks angie, for both!

one evening i went with angie, dave, sony and a group from their church to volunteer at a soup kitchen in sioux falls, south dakota called the banquet.

i got to help with a variety of tasks during my time there.  when i sat to eat i had pleasant talks with a couple people including mary who saw my name tag and initiated a conversation by saying she had a grandson with my name.

after serving at the banquet, we drove to milkyway and enjoyed some ice cream with the church group.

the other evening of my visit we stayed at the house and watched a lightening storm pass over.  i'll have more photos of this in another post.

when i left the house to head for the mountains, angie and her parents left for a ride of their own.  cool.

south dakota

in the same day that i drove through north dakota (state #43!), i continued into south dakota (state #44!).   the farming landscape looked the same except that in south dakota there were slightly rolling hills which also created lots of ponds.

i was hoping to have some sunshine all day long in the dakotas...  but by the last hour of my driving in eastern south dakota, the clouds which had thickened all day could no longer hold their weight in water.  because of the rain i opted to finish the day's trip on the interstate.  that turned out to be a good choice since the area had been having excessive rains and flooded roadways was not uncommon.  plus, it was dark by the time i got to my friend's house in madison.  i'd prefer not to drive on unfamiliar back roads at night when it's raining.  i was relieved to have arrived.  

north dakota

i came across the border from manitoba canada into north dakota.  they searched my van a little bit again but at least it was quick.  while the one guy was asking me questions, the other one poked around and i didn't have to get out of the van.   so, it wasn't too long of a delay that time.   however, they confiscated my aloe plants : (.   interestingly, i thought that would be taken the first time, not the 6th.   the big benefit to border patrol taking stuff is that they're helping me lessen how much i have.   so thanks!

i drove back roads down through the flat farmlands along the eastern edge of north dakota.  the first hour or two was my favorite part of it because it was still sunny out and plenty warm too - now That's what i call a road trip!

this crop duster was quite acrobatic.

...

a german family

before returning to the usa, i stopped for a visit with some people whom i had never met before.   two weeks earlier when i was in michigan visiting markus, he put me in contact with his german friend michael who lives in alberta canada with his lovely wife sigrid and their eleven wonderful children.  as a family, they share a powerful testimony of how God has graciously led them through various difficult and challenging situations.  i glad i got to meet them!

i felt very comfortable and at home in their tiny two story one bathroom house.  the idea of families with almost a dozen children was not novel to me.  i love large families!  i felt their welcome and their love even as a fairly random temporal addition to their house.  the next photo shows a couple of their kids troubleshooting the basic physics of a backyard slingshot - i loved that the girls were anchoring the chairs!

i was determined to know all of their names and after staying two nights on their living room couch, eating family meals, shopping at local thrift stores and going to the pool with them, i think i got them all straight: rebecca, damaris, samara, tim, lucas, racheal, seilas, jessica, josepha, ben, and mirko.   they were each so special.   here's me with Some of the them.  : )

oh, and here's rebecca's "hund" oliver who barked at me only if i got too close to him.

the family members spoke to each other in german.  i really enjoyed sitting around the table or picnic bench for meals while listening to them talk in german and only having nonverbal clues as to what they were talking to each other about.  conveniently, they also spoke excellent english so we were able to have a lot of meaningful conversation.

around the town

discount shopping

swimming

i also got to meet their friend arie who stopped bye.  

he convinced me to get coffee from a tim hortons and handed me canadian dollars to do it!  : )   so i did.

and yes it was good!  : )   thanks arie!