We drove from Wisconsin, crossed the Mississippi, drove through Minnesota, and finally landed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in the early evening. It was a long 8-hour drive through fields of corn and wheat, farm houses, barns, and lots of silos. Along the drive we watched flocks of beautiful sand cranes in the fields. We also spent the entire drive listening to The Fountainhead and avoiding any distractions to our progress through the novel - "No, don't stop the car just yet, let's wait until we're done with this chapter!"
We did make a quick stop in Blue Earth Minnesota for a view of the famed 55 ft tall Jolly Green Giant (JGG). He was originally designed to "commemorate the introduction of a new kind of pea by the Minnesota Valley Canning Company of Le Sueur in 1925. Originally, a grumpy, grey gnome in a scruffy bearskin, the company turned their mascot green in the 1930s to symbolize its green vegetable products. Dressed in a leafy-green toga, the Giant's vocabulary is limited to 'Ho, Ho, Ho, Green Giant!' . . . Advertising Age magazine has ranked the JGG as the third most recognizable advertising character of the century's top 10 ad icons behind only Ronald McDonald and the Marlboro Man." Blue Earth also considers itself the birthplace of the ice cream sandwich, and although there was no giant ice cream sandwich to commemorate that, there was a DQ next to the JGG.Once we arrived in Sioux Falls, we checked into the swanky Best Western. The only campgrounds in the area were basically open fields adjacent to the freeway, so we opted for the safety of a hotel once again:
South Dakota is one of the leaders in death by lightening. We stopped by the visitors' center at the falls on the Big Sioux River and obediently shot photos of the water, drove around downtown and the historic district to allow Brett his house photography fix, and then dined at a little Italian place. 
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