A Ghost Town, Native American Statue and Lots of Corn

We woke up this morning to a mix of snow and sleet.  That confirmed that we would not be going to the park for a second day.  Instead, we decided to confine ourselves to things we could do from the car, quickly, or indoors.  Of course, it also had to be things on our way southeast, and South Dakota has so many opportunities, we did all three!

Our first stop was just a few miles down the road.  Okaton is a true ghost town, not one of those attraction ghost towns.  We programmed the GPS for the city center of Okaton, and it took us past a crumbling building and a junk yard of old equipment and cars and down the frontage road of I-90.  When we saw nothing else besides farmland until Google Maps said we had gone out of "town", we went back and took the road between that building and junkyard.  It was seriously creepy.  Someone has obviously taken some care, as they apparently run a bush hog over the grass periodically.  There are some well-kept grain silos, and maybe three well-kept homes.  There were other crumbling homes that were lived in.  I counted around five or six obviously inhabited buildings, which I didn't photograph because that's just creepy.  The other buildings were fair game.

This is the old grain elevator.  If you look closely, you can see where "Bingo Grain Company" was painted on it for filming of a movie that was never released.

This is the side of the old General Store.  A couple moved here from Illinois many years ago and tried to turn the area into an attraction-type ghost town.  These are just facades and not real doors on most of them.  Obviously, this venture failed.

This is the front and the other side of the old General Store.  

This head was just spooky, even though it was close to one of the better maintained homes in town.

We rolled up the windows and headed on down the road.  Our next stop was at a rest stop in Chamberlain, South Dakota.  The statue Dignity: of Earth & Sky is an imposing installation celebrating the Lakota and Dakota and other Native American tribes in the area.  She stands 50 feet and is made of stainless steel with reflective panels, mostly on her blanket.  She is easily seen from the road.  Coming up the sidewalk, I really liked the way she appeared through the trees, as if she will not be silenced by other forces.  I felt very small against her.

Her blanket is covered in reflective panels to make her just as imposing at night as she is during the day.

The museum in the visitor's center was closed while we were there, but the views behind the center and behind the statue were breathtaking.  You can see how the river is high.

Our final stop was a second visit to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.  For those of you who missed our first drive from Florida to Washington, we stopped here a couple of years ago.  As promised, the designs were different for 2018 than they were a couple of years ago.  We were lucky to get here before they tore down the 2018/2019 designs to put in the new 2019/2020 designs.  The city of Mitchell (probably with some state subsidy, but I don't know) spends roughly $130,000 per year decorating the palace.  Apparently, this is just for the outside, as the inside was still decorated the same as it was the last time we were here.

2019

 2017

In 2017, the theme was Rock of Ages, paying tribute to musicians.  This year, the theme is A Salute to Military.

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You can tell the crows and other birds have been feeding on the designs over the winter.

Instead of spending time in the shops across the street from the Corn Palace, we paid more attention to the other businesses in the area.  The Back 40 was an interesting spot, but we weren't hungry, so we didn't go in.

Based on the flooding in the midwest, I wasn't sure which direction the GPS was going to take us.  Some of the interstates were closed when we left Washington, and it had been raining since we crossed the Cascades.  But, the GPS took us down I-29 to Sioux City, where we stopped for dinner at the Sgt. Floyd River Museum and Welcome Center.  The Sgt. Floyd is a boat that has been retired from service with the US Corps of Engineers.  She has been dry docked and retrofitted to house a museum of the Missouri River.  She was apparently named after Sgt. Charles Floyd, a Kentuckian who was initially with Lewis and Clark until he died of a ruptured appendix in Sioux City.

The river was pretty high, but it wasn't flooding outside the banks by much.

The visitors center had a park where children were playing, a path around the river, and at the dead end, the Betty Strong Encounter Center, a museum where art and maps can be encountered.  They were closed, but we enjoyed encountering the statues on the front lawn.

As we left Sioux City, dark was falling, and so was the rain again.  So we just went a little farther down the road before stopping for the night.

Bad Weather in the Badlands

Time for another Road Trip!!  Bruce and I headed out cross country.  We're going to visit cousins or friends or family or some other such nonsense and see some of the sights along the way.  We left in the middle of May.  Summer's almost here.  So, we take the heavy coats and cold weather stuff out of the GeezerMobile in favor of light jackets and warm weather stuff.  Sounds reasonable, right?  Wrooooong!!  There's still snow on the ground over Snoqualmie Pass!  Granted, it wasn't as much as in the winter, but still - unlike Rainier, there's no glacier in this part of the Cascades, and these aren't snow-capped mountains!  Chalking it up to it just being altitude, we drove on.  Once we got out of the mountains, the snow had melted and it had started raining, but it was still very cold.  Our light jackets just weren't cutting it, but the GeezerMobile has a good heater, so as long as we stayed in the car, we were fine.

We took enough food that we shouldn't need to eat out at the beginning of the trip, and we planned to do picnics along the way in parks and scenic rest areas with after-meal walks along paths, but no!  We ran out to use the bathroom and ate in the car.  We still picked scenic spots, but we just enjoyed them through the windows.  IT WAS FLIPPING COLD!

The scenery was beautiful, but I already have pictures of it and I've posted them before.  And did I mention that it was flipping cold?  Cold enough that I didn't want to roll the windows down or get out of the car to take pictures.  Until we hit Wyoming.  As we were pointing out the little white dots on the hillsides (once Bruce let me know those were probably antelope laying down), I was reminiscing on the only wild antelope I had ever seen (on our first trip, heading west through Wyoming) and how they had run the minute we stopped.  At that time, all I got was a picture of the dust they kicked up while running away and their slower buddy.

Here, there was a small herd, and they didn't seem concerned about the car pulling off the interstate.  They even waited and watched while I took out the camera, changed the battery to one that hadn't been sitting in an idle camera for the past two days, and got the lens cap off.  By then, half of the herd decided they had waited enough and started walking away.

Two of them chose to hang around for the rest of the photo shoot, each of them showing just how interested they were in us.

There were no more wild animals out on the way to Wall, South Dakota, so there was no compelling reason to roll down my window and let the cold come in.  When we got to Wall, however, we turned south to drive through Badlands National Park.  The plan was to spend the afternoon there and maybe the next day.  There was a cold rain falling, so we only got out of the car once or twice, caking our shoes with mud and finally deciding to just view the pretty scenery and animals from the comfort of the car.  We'll just have to come back to experience it without the rainy haze.  It was beautiful scenery even in the rain.

This was our first view after walking through the mud (and learning better than to get out of the car).

Soon after getting back in the car and driving down the dirt road, the car in front of us stopped in the middle of the road.  I couldn't tell what they were doing, but I started looking around to see if I could see something.  All I saw was a couple of big rocks, so we went around them and continued on our way.  About a mile down the road, we saw a group of bison hanging out in the distance.  Just laying down, looking like a bunch of big rocks - until the camera was zoomed in on them.

Made me think I may have misjudged those other two rocks.  We headed on down to Roberts' Prairie Dog Town, where most of the dogs must have been in a meeting.  The did leave one or two out to keep an eye out for intruders or maybe direct any late arrivals to the meeting hall.


Turning around and heading to the paved portion of the park, we stopped to check out those two big rocks from earlier.  Turns out this

looked like this with the zoom.  So, "big rocks" is a thing now, apparently.

Turning onto the paved road, we found several herds of bighorn sheep.

Some were laying down.  Some were grazing.  Some were laying down and grazing.

Some were climbing the canyon walls and some were crossing the road.




The Badlands are beautiful with loads of animals and awesome formations.  We enjoyed the afternoon driving through the park, and I rolled the window down frequently, even though - did I mention how frigging cold it was?  For this rest of this post, I'll just drop some pictures for you to enjoy in the warmth.

We spent the night close by in hopes of coming back the next day.

Missing the End of My Vacation

By the time we woke the next morning in Barcelona, I could barely move myself from point A to point B.  We had to vacate our cabin before we were able to leave the ship, so Chrissy and I went up to the lido deck for breakfast.  For me, that consisted of a cup of tea.  Thankfully, I was able to keep it down.  When we were able to leave the ship, Chrissy led me out to the area where we would pick up our luggage.  Since they hadn't off-loaded our bags that they picked up in the middle of the night, Chrissy deposited me on the floor by a post.

When we got our bags, I decided I was too sick to mess with the shuttle and walking back to the hotel.  Thankfully, it was the same Hotel Gaudi that we stayed at initially, so there wasn't any real thought into where we needed to go or what to expect.  We caught a cab at the taxi stand just outside the doors where we picked up our bags.  The cabbie knew just where to go, including which sidewalks to drive on when the narrow street was blocked.  Chrissy brought the bags in and headed off for sightseeing.  We had planned to go back and see a few things in detail this time, but I just couldn't do it, and I saw no reason to hold Chrissy back.  She wasn't sick.

The hotel couldn't let me check in that early, but they stored our bags and let me upstairs on the rooftop terrace, where I took some pictures of the beautiful scenery and went back to sleep.

Chrissy sent me some awesome shots of La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell and a few other places.  They served to let me know everything was fine, and I could go back to sleep.  Sometime in the mid afternoon, a lady came up to the roof and let me know our room was ready and our bags had been delivered to them.  So, I went downstairs and checked in, texted Chrissy the room number, letting her know to pick her key up at the desk, and promptly went to bed.

Chrissy came in at some point, and we went to the restaurant downstairs.  I was able to keep a ham sandwich down, but I had to eat it slowly.  Just so you know, as of that morning, I was able to keep water down, too, and had been drinking water all day.  After dinner, we went back upstairs.  I took a shower, and guess what I did!!  I went to bed.

The next morning, I was feeling a little better, but still wasn't good.  We took a cab to the airport and found that our flight had been significantly delayed, and we had been booked onto a later flight on a different airline.  Except they didn't book it.  After a couple of trips back and forth between the desks trying to check in, I finally got a manager who did manage to get the tickets taken care of.  After we were taken to our gate, Chrissy walked back and got some breakfast and brought me a croissant.  When we landed in Heathrow, Chrissy headed out to get lunch.  I met her at the gate.  I survived the flight back to Seattle, though it was not fun at all.  With my fever and the sleeping on and off, I was, unfortunately, a little smelly by the time we got off the plane.  I also felt bad about the possibility of others catching whatever I had, but The airline wasn't going to put me on a new flight because I had a stomach bug.  After Chrissy gathered Grandkitty up where Bruce had been kitty sitting and headed back to her place, I took a shower and - what?  You got it.  I went to bed.  I felt better by the next day.  Not quite 100%, but enough to eat a real meal.

As for the after action on the cruise, I think this was my last canned trip.  The last couple of trips have been good, and I've enjoyed them, but I prefer to go back to setting my own time tables and schedules.  I want to do my own research for places to go and places to see instead of relying on someone else, and I want to have the option of spending more time in a place, I want the option to do that.  I don't want to be so focused on keeping up with the group that I can't fully enjoy the scenery.  The guided tours haven't been any better than what I've been able to get at a particular site individually.  These were fine when I was younger, but at this point, we'll be going on our own from now on.  No more keeping somebody else's schedule.

Misled in Marseille

Our last port of call was Marseille, France, a beautiful port city.  Our tour bus picked us up from the modern cruise port and drove us around the old port (currently used for smaller boats).

We also passed several painted cows, though I can find no indication that the Cow Parade was in Marseille at the time, and our guide did not mention it.

We also drove past Chateau d'If the island prison that was made famous in the Count of Monte Cristo (and takes credit as the blueprint for our Alcatraz).

We finally made it to the top of the hill to the Basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde.  This is a beautiful church.  Our guide told us it was the church in which Catherine de Medici and King Henry II wed.  I struggled up the 140 stairs, and Chrissy hustled me into the sanctuary.  It felt odd visiting the church and taking photographs while mass was being said, but apparently, the congregation and pastor are accustomed to this.  Those of us who were visiting were very quiet, some genuflecting upon entry.

As I struggled back down the stairs to the tour bus, I asked Chrissy to go to the gift shop and find something that signifies the royal wedding that took place there in 1533, but they had nothing of any historical significance.   Upon writing this blog, I learned why.  The royal wedding did not take place in this church.  This church's claim to fame is not the wedding of Catherine and Henry.  Instead, this is the only known church to be used both as a military fort and a sanctuary open to the public at the same time.  In fact, the fortress of Notre-Dame, which incorporated the small chapel on La Garde wasn't even completed until 1536, three years after Catherine married the Duke d'Orleans.  I knew they married in Marseille, so I kept searching until I could find out where.  Maybe the church and its historians just wanted to downplay that event for some reason.  Nope.  Catherine and Henry married in the Eglise Saint-Ferreol les Augustins.  In fact, if Google Maps, Wikipedia, trip advisor, the church's website, and various other sites are to be believed, we walked right past the church where Catherine and Henry were married by her uncle Pope Clement II.  It's the third prominent building from the left.  The white one that looks like a church with a bell tower.  You may have to blow it up to see it because I wasn't focused on it. We had time.  Had I known this was the actual church, I would have visited it on my own during our free time!  I tend to like Catherine de Medici.  She managed to do a lot for a girl who was basically used to purchase stature and ignored by her own husband.  She had her flaws, but thrived even after being thrust into a no-win situation at the age of 14.  I guess I have to go back to Marseille now.  Poor me (hehe).

Our next stop was back down the hill to the port and the Cathedrale de Marseille Notre-Dame de la Major.  Our guide explained (and I have confirmed) that there are multiple Notre-Dame churches worldwide with over 18 of them in France alone.  This one is the main cathedral in Marseille and is commonly referred to as "La Major" or just "The Cathedral."  The new part of the cathedral was built in the 1800s, after demolishing portions of the original cathedral.  It's a lovely church, as are most all Byzantine cathedrals and basilicas.

The choir and one bay of the nave of the original church is still standing next door.

After The Cathedral, we started our walking tour of Marseille.  Our first stop was La Vielle Charite, originally the poor house of Marseille.  Later, it was used as a hospital, and it currently functions as a museum.  We did not visit the interior.

We strolled along parts of La Panier, the historic district with narrow, cobbled streets.  It's the area in which new immigrants have historically settled, currently inhabited by a mix of mostly Corsican, North African, and French families.  While strolling this district, we stopped and had sorbets or ice cream topped with navettes, little cookies shaped like historical fishing boats.  As we walked along La Panier, I was too busy trying to successfully navigate the cobbled, worn, dipping, and cracked steps in my CAM boot to really get many pictures, but here are a couple that I did get.

When we got back down to the port, I took some more pictures of the general area, including the accidental picture of the church Catherine de Medici actually got married in, and this shot with the ferry and the Notre-Dame de la Garde.

The port is not very wide in this section.  In fact, to get from the cafe that is almost in front of this dock of the ferry to a cafe almost in front of the dock on the other side is a distance of 800 meters that takes approximately 10 minutes to walk, according to Google Maps.  On the other hand, taking the ferry from point to point is a distance of 350 meters, and it takes approximately 10 minutes from embarkation to disembarkation.  It seemed like a very busy ferry.

Chrissy and I were looking forward to some of the savory crepes I remember from visiting France when I lived in West Germany in the 1980s.  Unfortunately, they only had sweet crepes on the waterfront, so we settled for a grilled duck with salad and fries.  After getting back to the ship, Chrissy went to the cabin for a nap, and I spent another afternoon enjoying the lido deck on the bow of the ship.  I got a few nice shots of the port and took some pix of the seagulls.

I went back to get Chrissy for dinner, and as we were heading to our restaurant, I started feeling a little warm and nauseous.  By the time the waiter got there, I was ready to order crackers and other bland foods, and I ended up leaving the table and going back to the room before the first course arrived.  It couldn't be food poisoning because I didn't eat anything Chrissy didn't also eat, and she wasn't sick.  I was miserable all night, though.  I did toss my things in my suitcase before falling into bed, but I couldn't finish getting luggage ready to put out overnight, as required to disembark.  Thankfully, Chrissy was able to get our luggage and everything taken care of for us to disembark in Barcelona the next day.