South Dakota to South Carolina
Updated: 6 days ago
Since my last post, we left North Dakota and headed into South Dakota. We spent the night in the Mitchell Assembly of God church parking lot, making a donation to the church. The next day we headed to Springfield, South Dakota where we looked at a .73 acre piece of property for sale. The town had a view of the Missouri River, which we really liked. The population and size of the town were to our liking; however, it has a state prison within walking distance of the property, so we decided against it.
We are starting to head back to Indiana for transporting opportunities.
We crossed the Chief Standing Bear Memorial Bridge, which is named after Standing Bear, a Ponca Chief and Native American civil rights leader. In 1879 the Ponca Chief won a U.S. federal court case establishing Native Americans as legal "persons." According to my readings, Standing Bear declared to the federal judge, "I am man. God made us both."
The bridge led us into Nebraska, where we took 12 East over the beautiful rolling hills. We took route 30 through Iowa. We stopped at a gas station in Schleswig, Iowa and talked to the manager. His daughter is a senior at Coastal Carolina University and, at the time, so was our daughter, Rory. Wow......what a small world!
We stopped for the night at a Harvest Host called Great Revitalization Brewery. The Brewery was transformed from a historic 1898 Gothic Revival church into a taproom and restaurant. We have never been to a brewery such as this! The food was delicious and there was plenty to look at as they preserved many of the church's artifacts. The tables contained pieces of pews and pipe organs!
The next morning we crossed over the Mississippi River and into Illinois.
We hit a lot of traffic going through the Great Chicago area. This is, of course, not unusual. We arrived in Indiana and headed to the Driver's Lounge to do laundry and hunker down for the night. I say hunker down due to the Indiana winds!
The next day we went to Coppes Commons in Nappanee, Indiana. It was a rustic building with lots of history! Right up my alley! There were many shops. Our favorite two shops were The Dutch Kernel Gourmet Popcorn 🍿 and Perfect Twist Pretzels. 🥨 The popcorn store had dozens of flavors. A popcorn bar. I love this idea!. You stand at the counter (my POV: like a bar), and they give you a plastic cup (my POV: like a shotglass) of whatever flavor you want to try. It's great! We sampled four flavors and purchased two: Garlic Parmesan and Amish Crack. 😋😋 At Perfect Twist Pretzels, we watched them make our pretzel to order. Mmmmm......fresh! We shared a jalapeño cheddar pretzel for lunch.
John got a load to transport from Indiana to Colfax, North Carolina. Our stopover was at Tamarack in Beckley, West Virginia. This is a frequent stopover for us, as you may have read in previous posts. We love this free stopover. There is plenty of walking, inside and outside.
The next morning we headed out, transporting the travel trailer in tow to Colfax, North Carolina. Since we were close to South Carolina, we headed that way for a quick two-night stay. We stopped at Springdale Rest Area, where we walked up to the green roof garden and went into the Visitor Center.
Once we arrived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, we stopped at Dunkin', Walmart, and our storage unit. Then we settled in on site #1231 at PirateLand Family Campground. We made dinner, went for a walk, and watched an episode of Gold Rush.
The next day Rory and Alan came. We had lunch at the picnic table, talking for hours, and taking a long walk together before saying our goodbyes.
We are once again starting to head back to Indiana for transporting opportunities.
We decided to take a different route and winded up in West Union, South Carolina, where we spent a couple days including my 59th birthday. It was also the first birthday I have celebrated without my mom. I looked back at the birthday text she sent to me the year before. And, of course, this was also my dad's birthday. It sure would have been nice to have pizza, wings, and beer with him for our birthday. I got texts, pics, and calls from family and friends. John got me my favorite cake - - a chocolate ganache cake from Publix. 😋
We left South Carolina taking Route 11 between Lake Keowee and Travelers Rest. There are a lot of State Parks and road side stands - - boiled peanuts, kettle corn, farmers markets. It was a very pretty drive. The lakes in that area are a beautiful green. We stopped twice to walk to scenic overlooks. The first was in Mars Hill, North Carolina, and the second was in Erwin, Tennessee. Just gorgeous, and I love to walk!
We did our frequent stopover in Tamarack on our way back to Indiana.
Where will John's next transporting load take us to?
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