ITS A BEAUTIFUL WORLD

Jim took this shot standing beside our fiver at our campground here in Illionois. It is such a beautiful picture. The little building is the "restroom" for our end of the campground.

FOLLOWING THE GPS

This is where you end up when you follow the GPS to the campground. Do you see anywhere to turn around a truck with a fiver on the back? But to give the GPS it's due - the directions in the Passport America book gave the same directions. We ended up about 2 1/2 miles down this road before we found a place that Jim was able to get us turned around. We were told to go north - should have gone south. Got to the campground a little later than we planned on.

TODD - HERE'S A PLACE FOR YOU

STAY ALERT ALWAYS

This was an accident we passed - involved a pickup towing a small trailer and a semi. Not sure what happened but it did not appear that anybody was seriously injured. Thankfully. You just never know what life is going to have in store for you so be careful out there.

SIOUX FALLS

What a beautiful park. They have a tower that you can go up in and look over the park and the city.

DAVID

While in Sioux Falls we got to spend some time with a friend, Anne Hullinger, who just happens to be the greatest tour guide I've ever had. We had dinner and the she took us on a tour of her city. And a beautiful city it is.

This is a replica of Michaelangelo's statute of David. It was donated to the city in 1971 by Thomas Fawick. It originally faced the street but during a clean up of the park which took several years, he was left lying on a flatbed in storage. After many meetings it was determined that he would be replaced in the park but would be facing the park, not the street.

USS SOUTH DAKOTA - SIOUX FALLS, SD

The USS South Dakota was launched at Camden, NJ June 7, 1941. The ship was in every major battle and was the most decorated ship of WWII from 1942 - 1945. It brought down 32 Jaanese planes and was the first ship to fire on the Japanese home islands.

By the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Japanese had reported on two different occasions that they had sunk the South Dakota. For security reasons she was thereafter referred to as Battleship X.

In 1962 the Navy announced they were going to scrap the battleship and citizens of South Dakota banded together to save part of the famous ship. They couldn't get the whole battleship into landlocked South akota, so they salvaged what parts they could, poured a foot high concrete outline onto the ground in Sherman Park along the banks of the Big Sioux River and placed the parts on the outline. These parts include the anchor, the ship's bell, a massive propeller, and an original 16-inch gun (weighing 94 tons). The outline is 680 feet in length.

This tower hatch is 12" thick and weights 8,000 pounds.