Cornfields give way to grassland

We have had a request to show our progress on a map, so here it is.  This morning, we started our day in Yankton, South Dakota.  It may be the birthplace of Tom Brokaw since they named a street after him.  

Yankton is just over the border in SD and is located on the Missouri River.  There is a huge dam in Yankton that creates a large recreational lake behind it.  There are a series of dams on the Missouri that control the flood waters.  Do you recall the floods this spring?  Well, like some of the places we saw on the Mississippi, the Missouri is flooded.  Here is a shot from the highway going though Sioux City, Iowa which is down river from Yankton.  This is the flooding that closed visitors off from the Lewis and Clark visitors center.

Forget the visitor center!

When we stopped at the Chief War Eagle monument (yesterday) in Sioux City, which gave us an excellent view of the flood below, we met some people who said we must go to Yankton to see where the water was coming from.  So we did.  All the flooding from this past spring is still coming down river and is being controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers who open the floodgates.

This is the way to cool off

Two different water levels -- lake and river

How would you like to live in flooded Sioux City knowing that this release of water will continue through August?  Knowing that more is coming, and who knows what it will be like if there is a lot more rain.  We saw so many affected businesses and homes all along the Missouri.  In fact, we kept changing our route today due to closed roads.  It must be such an ordeal--the damage to homes, the closed roads, the closed waterfront parks, the tidal odor and the biting flies.  Still the Missouri is incredibly beautiful as is the surrounding landscape.  It all gets us back to the idea of architecture and planning working in harmony with the forces of nature rather than trying to control them.  I realize that there has to be some control of the flooding, but having traveled both the Mississippi and the Missouri and seeing the impact of the floods it seems a better approach is needed.

After visiting the dam we went in search of prairie wildflowers.  There was a lovely little home with a prairie garden near our motel.  Isn't this adorable?

But this is a private home.  So Daniel, who has an instinct for these things, found the best collecting site in Yankton.  Isn't it gorgeous?

We collected about 20 specimens there.  Both of these are Ratibida.  And there were lots of Rudbeckia and Verbena as well.  We also found some licorice.  

After collecting I harvested flowers for arranging.  Here is an armload that this site yielded -- and trust me, I did not make a dent!  It was an awesome place.

We gave one of our bouquets to the owner of the Star Brite Motel.  Dennis Berkeley was a real nice man  and the motel was very clean, cute and had nice plantings of flowers.

We left Yankton with the goal of getting to North Dakota.  As usual, we spontaneously made twists and turns in pursuit of flora.  And there were closed roads to navigate around.  We went through the capitol, Pierre, and guess what?  It was flooded.  Look at how the newspaper fortified their building.  Everything was sandbagged.  The waterfront park, which is likely the main rec area of town, was flooded and closed.

We watched as the corn fields gave way to wheat fields and grassland.  The ubiquity of green became interspersed with a whole palette of greens, browns, and lavender.  The trees nearly completely disappeared.  At times we could look horizon to horizon and see no trees.  The ground undulates gracefully.  The landscape is punctuated with ponds and creeks.  Daniel said 'I think we'll see some buffalo' and we did.  I said 'I think we'll see some pheasant' and we did.

Horizon to horizon...

Those dots are buffalo...

It was really hot today.  The heat made headlines.  And the AC in the truck is unreliable.  Both of us are happy with the windows open.  Except when we hit a town and need to stop and then, oh boy.

We decided to stop our journey in Mobridge, SD.  We saw one last site before calling it a night.  We wanted to see the other side of the river which happens to be a large Sioux reservation.  There were memorials there for Sakakwea and Sitting Bull.  We left flowers.

There were thunderheads as we head to the motel, but cooling rain never materialized.

We are at the Mo Rest Motel in Mobridge SD, 1/2 mile from Mountain Time and 1/2 hour drive from North Dakota.  Hope to make it to Montana tomorrow.  Good night!