Black Hills 2.0

If you received an email alert for this blog post, be aware that the Feed Burner mail service that I used previously is being discontinued. If you would like to make sure you are notified of any future posts, please sign up on the right side of this page for my new service with Follow.It. More information can be found in the previous blog post. Thanks a bunch!

Like many people, when the word "pandemic" started popping up, I thought life might change for oh...maybe a month or two tops. Never did I imagine that a year and a half later my travel plans would be formed based on the ability to be outside or stay social distant. But that is exactly what pushed us to plan a return trip to the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota.

A couple of weeks after our 2nd Covid vaccine in March I was ready to go SOMEWHERE. When I noticed on the AirBnB website that the Black Hills apartment we rented last year was available for the same time this year it seemed like a sign. The fact that the reservation could be cancelled up until the day before made it easy to commit without really being committed. Five nights in late September...booked.

March 11 - The Beginning AND the End?

 March 11, 2020

The World Health Organization declared the fast spreading coronavirus outbreak a pandemic and the world changed overnight. It has been a long year and an especially long winter but perhaps the end is in sight?

March 11, 2021

Interesting that exactly one year later Bob and I received the second of our Moderna vaccines which we are hoping is our ticket to a "somewhat" more normal life. 

Last month we got our first jab and were given appointments for four weeks later for the next shot. A mid-March blizzard is always a possibility so it was a relief to have a sunny day in the mid-40's to make the half hour drive to the small pharmacy where our vaccine was waiting. The drive was not without a little bit of excitement, however. Bob had to make a couple of quick stops. First, to avoid hitting a pheasant that flew up in front of our car and then to avoid hitting (or being hit) by four deer darting across the highway. Definitely gets your heart pumping!

Pulling up in front of the tiny drugstore on main street I couldn't help but think what a different experience we were having compared to those in a big city going to a mass vaccination site. Just as the first time, the pharmacy was pretty much empty and in less than 10 minutes we both had our shots.

Shortly after we took our seats for the 15-minute post vaccine waiting period, some acquaintances came in for their vaccines. Visiting with them made the time fly by and then we were back on the road headed home.

The 15-minute waiting period following the vaccine.

Bob suffered a bit yesterday with side effects of his vaccine...achy muscles, low grade fever and tiredness. My only symptom was a pretty sore arm with a red rash around the injection site. Today both of us are feeling pretty good so the effects were short-lived.

Now to look ahead...

In exactly TWO weeks, our son and grandkids are coming for a visit. Other than a couple of brief outdoor visits last summer, this will be the first time in over a year that we have been together. AND...shortly after they leave our other son and grandkids are coming during their spring break to stay for a few days. Yippee!

I have no idea when traveling may be a part of our lives again, but I am starting to dream "just a bit." For now spending time with family and "maybe" eating at a restaurant will seem pretty exciting to us!

V-Day

I have been on a treasure hunt recently and a few days ago I struck gold! Yes...my persistence paid off and I was able to score two much coveted appointments for our covid vaccines!

Initially I thought our health care provider would be our route to the vaccine, and had resigned myself to the fact that it was going to be a long time before our turn came. The clinic was starting with the oldest age group of patients and then slowly working their way down. When I called, they were only making appointments for those in their 80's. Since Bob and I are at the bottom of the 65+ age group it was going to be forever before we got our call.

Several weeks ago Minnesota opened nine community pilot sites scattered around the state where they were going to be giving shots to those over 65 and also educators. Bob and I were both ready on the first day when the phone lines opened up and repeatedly called...like over 100 times each! At the same time, I also tried to log in to the website using a computer and ipad simultaneously. Nothing. The few calls that did connect were answered with a recording saying the phone lines were all busy. The website pretty much crashed. After a couple of hours I gave up.

Later in the day I checked the website one more time and it looked like appointments were available at one of the sites about 60 miles away. I quickly started trying, but at the end of the process I received a message saying all appointments had been filled and we had been placed on a waiting list. Frustrating, but it gave us a tiny glimmer of hope.

After only two weeks, the state decided to close all but three of the pilot sites (in Minneapolis, Duluth and Rochester) all of which are over 3 hours away from us. New sign-ups were not being accepted and a lottery would be held to choose names from the waiting list. All of the sites were too far to drive in winter weather even if our names did get picked from the hundreds of thousands on the waiting list.

This past week I happened to read that a limited supply of vaccine was being sent out to some of the smaller pharmacies in the state. I called several places listed on the state "Find My Vaccine" website but the best I could do was get put on waiting lists with hundreds of other people. 

Later in the morning I happened to look at the state website one more time and realized that a new pharmacy chain had been added. I went on the pharmacy website and found a location 30 miles from us and began trying to book an appointment. Many times I almost made it through the process only to get a pop-up that said the time slot had been filled. 

I wasn't about to give up however and eventually I was able to set up an appointment for myself. What a relief to see an email confirmation come through saying that my vaccine was scheduled in just 2 days! I had to repeat the process repeatedly but was able to get Bob's appointment booked as well, just10 minutes after mine!

The interesting twist to the story is that around 5 pm that evening I got a call from one of the other pharmacies that had put us on a waiting list. They had available appointments! I declined, but immediately called my neighbor who then called some of her friends. So the time and frustration I spent resulted in vaccines for all five of us!

Much of our weather this winter has been warmer than normal. But...as we headed north for our appointment, the thermometer reading was headed south. The temperature never got above zero and snow was falling lightly and blowing across the highway, reducing visibility in some places.

A snowy drive to get our vaccines.

Getting the vaccine couldn't have been easier. No other customers were in the tiny, small-town pharmacy when we arrived and within a few minutes both of us had gotten our shots. We sat on folding chairs in the cold-remedy aisle for 15 minutes afterwards and then we were free to go. Our only other stop was at a gas station to add air to our tires. Due to the extreme cold, the "check tire" light had come on.

Bob dealt with a sore arm for a couple of days afterwards. I felt a bit tired, but that was it. Now we wait. The booster to our Moderna vaccine is already scheduled in four weeks...almost a year to the day when a state of emergency was first declared in Minnesota due to the pandemic.

Who knows what the future holds in terms of this virus. Besides the variants being reported from the U.K., South Africa and Brazil, today the news is reporting even more variants emerging that have started here in the U.S. At the same time, however, case numbers are dropping drastically.

Right now I am not overly optimistic that international travel will be normal anytime in the near future. But I am hopeful that now we can be comfortable seeing family again and maybe even take some road trips. A little light at the end of a very long tunnel.

January Jottings

In my last post I alluded to the fact that Minnesota has been experiencing a relative mild winter. That is only partly true. Temperatures have been trending above normal, but a few days ago we got hit with our second major blizzard in less than a month. 

On the prairie there is nothing to block the wind so when it starts to blow, it really blows. A few inches of snow with winds gusting 50 to 60 mph and everything shuts down. With zero visibility, travel becomes impossible and the plows don’t even attempt to clear the roads or highways until things settle down. Such is life in the upper Midwest. 

Before I retired, a snowstorm meant my school would close...sometimes for a full day or days, other times it would be a late start or early out. Kids (and teachers alike) would anxiously listen to weather announcements on TV and radio to see if their district would be on the “Close Line.”     Being forced to stay home, a snow day was like a gift of free time that could be spent as one desired...reading a book, watching a movie, baking cookies, etc. This most recent blizzard made me realize how much my life during this pandemic has felt like one perpetual snow day after another. But now instead of a quiet day to be savored and enjoyed, It feels like a prison sentence. I have to keep reminding myself of how fortunate I really am. I have the luxury of staying home and staying safe when so many others don’t. Just human nature to want what we can’t have I suppose. 

With all of this “at-home-time”, squirrel watching has become a daily activity. Bob built a feeder this winter and we have it mounted on the deck outside of our family room. I have a perfect view from my desk and have been keeping my camera at the ready. Here are some photos of our regular lunch patrons: 

The squirrels in our neighborhood are becoming obese.

This poor guy has a sore tail. Eewww.

Even during the blizzard the regular customers showed up at the buffet.

Shortly after seeing some activity by our bushes the other day, I looked out and saw this guy land in our plum tree. From a little googling, I believe he is a Cooper’s Hawk. It wasn’t the first time we have spotted hawks hunting in our neighborhood, but I had never seen one with red eyes. Apparently this is a characteristic of a mature hawk, the juveniles have yellow colored eyes. 

Cooper's Hawk

And the wildlife photo that most excited me from this past week...an owl! This little guy was sitting in a neighbor’s tree and was so well camouflaged that I would have never spotted him if a friend hadn’t pointed him out. 

The worst of our winter is still to come, but it is nice to realize that our days are getting longer. This time of year, the sun has moved so far south that I can watch the sun setting over the lake from my kitchen window. On most nights I enjoy the view from indoors, but every now and then the show is so spectacular that I just have to bundle up and walk down to the shoreline to take it all in. How amazing!

I love how the clouds are reflected in the open water along the shoreline.

Winter Walks

Welcome 2021. 

Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years have come and gone and with very little fanfare in our house. After making the decision to be cautious and not spend time with family during the holidays, it was hard to get excited about any type of celebrating. Very little decorating took place and I couldn't even bring myself to listen to Christmas music this year. 

I have been worried that surviving a long, cold Minnesota winter was going to be especially difficult this year. But God has been gracious. Outside of an intense, pre-Christmas blizzard, our autumn and early winter have been relatively mild. Not t-shirt and green grass kind of mild, but temps have stayed in the positive range and we have very little snow. It took some bundling up, but we actually were able to ride the 7-mile bike trail around our lake a few times in December!

On a sunny day this past week we took a drive across the state line to the state of Iowa. On my All Trails app, I had found a promising looking hike in the Okoboji Lakes area. Part of the Iowa Great Lakes bike trail, this portion followed a path between Minnewashta and Lower Gar Lakes. 

I had hoped that the snow would have been cleared from the trail (as it is here on our bike trail) but that wasn't the case. It appeared that the trail is used for snowmobiling in winter so it made sense to keep it snow covered. The snow was packed hard and wasn't too bad for walking, even without boots. With the sunshine and temps in the upper 30's, we were quite comfortable.

The trail began in a small picnic area where we parked our car. The trail followed the shoreline and across a bridge between the two lakes. We saw a few fishermen had set up their ice houses on the lake.

The trail was only 1.6 miles long out and back, but for most of it we felt as if we were walking through a remote forest. A marker along the trail explained that the area was the homestead of the Henderson family in the mid-1800's. Prior to that it had been a Native America campsite.

Long winter shadows.

Perhaps we will return in the summer with our bikes.

We were unsure...was this a BLUE birdhouse or a birdhouse for BLUE BIRDS? 😉

By mid-afternoon the sun is sinking low in the sky.

The trail ended at a city street where we turned around and retraced our steps back the way we came.

It felt good to be outdoors and visit someplace new. In "normal times" I would spend an hour everyday at water aerobics in the warm YMCA pool, but usually avoid walking outdoors when the weather is too cold or windy. This winter I am learning that I really need to get outside, both for my mental and physical health. Bob is more disciplined and walks everyday regardless of the conditions, even in blizzards! Lately he has been spending time snowshoeing on the golf course.

There is still a lot of winter left here in our part of the country so we shall see how I cope with the coming months!

 

Beaver Creek Nature Area

After a spell of hot weather (by Minnesota standards) a day with a forecasted high of 72º was the perfect chance for another close-to-home getaway.

By doing a little online searching, I discovered the Beaver Creek Nature Area in SE South Dakota. Years ago we stopped here when they were holding their autumn Homesteader Day Celebration and enjoyed seeing the re-creation of many pioneer activities. On that visit we did not explore any further than just the demonstration area so wasn't sure what to expect in way of hiking paths. The area's Homesteader trail was only around a mile and a half long, but one report I read classified the trail as "difficult". I was apprehensive but willing to give it a try.

After packing a picnic lunch, we headed out mid-morning. Most of the drive was on I-90 with never ending views of corn and soybean fields...and quite a few wind turbines.

Last year the growing season started so wet that some farmers never did get anything planted, but this year the crops look phenomenal! The photo below was actually taken on July 12th and you can see the corn was already taller than 6 foot Bob! The old standard of corn being "knee high by the 4th of July" was certainly surpassed this year!

The last few miles to the nature area were on gravel roads.

Only one other car was in the parking lot when we arrived. With the map I had printed off, we started past the cornfield to find the beginning of the Homestead Trail.

The trail begins at the edge of the forest and for much of the hike we were completely covered by a canopy of trees.

After a short distance, the trail crossed Beaver Creek.

A great reminder written on the bridge.

At times the path was wide and easy to follow. In other places the trail was narrow and nearly covered by foliage. I used the app "Map My Walk" to record the hike and you can see at one point we had to back-track because the trail simply disappeared.

According to "Map My Walk" we hiked 1.6 miles total.

At times the dark woods were even a bit creepy!

A tangled mess of fallen trees.

Even with temps in the low 70's, I was glad that most of the trail was shaded. I was on the warm side when the trail was out in the sun.

A little over a mile into the hike we encountered some gain in elevation. From reading reviews, I had anticipated much worse so was pleasantly surprised to see the rustic steps going up the hillside.

After climbing for awhile, the path eventually lead back down towards the river to a long and very bouncy suspension bridge. 

This was right before Bob decided it would be funny to jump up and down and make the bridge go crazy!

Tarzan?

We completed the circle trail and then retraced our steps across the creek and back to the parking lot where we grabbed our lunch from the back of the car. A shady picnic table in front of a homesteader log cabin was the perfect spot to eat. We tried to imagine what life might have been like 150 years earlier to the Samuelson family who called this place home!

Information on the sign by the cabin.

The Samuelson family of 10.

We were the only ones in the park as we ate our lunch. The cool breeze and peaceful surroundings enticed us to relax and take our time. Bob even took a little siesta.

It was only mid-afternoon when we finished eating and checking out the cabin so we decided to drive the 10 miles to the city of Sioux Falls. Sioux Falls is South Dakota's largest city and was named after...you guessed it...the falls on the Big Sioux River.

Often Sioux Falls is a shopping destination for us, but during the pandemic we have only been going inside stores if it is absolutely necessary. In fact, the last time I went to a grocery store was mid-March. Nowadays all of my purchases are done online for delivery or curbside pickup.

But on a cool day, a visit to Falls Park sounded pleasant. Unfortunately many other people had the same idea and it was quite crowded. We donned our masks and for the most part were able to socially distance, but we didn't stay long. The falls are beautiful though...in any season.

Same view from January 2016. Brrrrr!

Queen Bee Mill built in the late 1800's

Observation Tower. 

Falls Overlook Cafe inside a building that used to house a hydroelectric plant. 

Pandemic-era selfie.

Right down the road from Falls Park is the Smithfield pork processing plant.
This factory was one of the early hotspots in the U.S. for Covid-19 after about 1,000 workers were infected with the virus.

Back at home in the evening I noticed on my weather app that the sunset and moonrise in our area were just minutes apart. And it was to be a full moon to boot! With my quick-driving, chauffeur husband, I was able to get to good viewing areas for both events and get these photos!

Until next time...stay safe & stay healthy.