Yankton, South Dakota

We arrived at our Nancy and Bob's new home in Yankton, South Dakota. They have a beautiful and large apartment in a fifty-five plus complex. After the welcome hugs they showed us where to park in the underground garage and they helped us with our bags. Their apartment has an elevator, which is just what we needed. The evening was spent in reminiscing about old times, and it was an early night as we were tired from the two days of driving. The next morning, we rested a bit before going on a walk in the park along the Missouri River. We also crossed an old railroad bridge that had an elevated/suspension roadway that had been turned into a pedestrian and bike path. It felt good to be able to walk again and to stretch out our legs after the prolonged trip. That night Nancy and Bob taught us how to play dominoes, a simple game called chicken foot. The game took quite a while and Nancy could do no wrong. She won five different hands and she easily beat all of us!

The next day they drove us to the Gavin Point Dam. The dam headquarters had exhibits about Lewis and Clark and from the overlook we could see boats lined up, fishing for paddlefish. The paddlefish do not bite and so the people were tossing rigs with treble hooks and sinkers. As soon as the rig hit the water each person would rip their rod upward hoping to snag one of the giant fish, (we never saw anyone hook up with one of the monsters).

The exhibits had a mounted golded eagle, an American indian pipe with pipestone from Minnesota, and a bull boat. The bull boat was made from a buffalo hide, (we highly reccomend the new Ken Burns documentary on American Buffalo). The road crossed the dam to a nice park and campground where we walked along the shoreline enjoying the nice day. One of the boats caught a fish, it kind of loo

ked like a perch, which is great to eat! Finding a nice picnic table, we enjoyed the lunch Nancy and Bob had packed. That evening we tried another game of Chicken Foot but again Nancy won. We decided that we should rename the game and call it Nancy’s Foot. She said that she had just been lucky, but it seemed to us that we would need another rematch the next evening before we renamed the game. The next day we had planned on leaving but high winds and rain made us rethink our decision to leave and so we stayed another day and night. As we hadn’t eaten out yet, we went out to eat at one of our favorite fast food places. Culvers. The food was good, but the hot fudge sundae was great, (I have gained back some weight and so ice cream is now pretty much out of my diet).

After lunch we went to the Mead Sanitarium. The first exhibits were dedicated to the nurses who trained and worked with the patients. One exbibit contained a straitjacket, (it made me remember when one of my fellow teachers had a break down and was subdued and hauled away), and another had an exhibit of techniques for lobotomies(barbaric).

There were other exhibits including several rooms describing the Lewis and Clark Expedition. That evening, Bob grilled steaks on his new Ninja Grill! After the delicious supper out came the dominoes. Perhaps Nancy eased off, but I won and Renita came in second. Talk about kind hosts! It had been a great stop, it always is with friends. They may visit us in Rockport or even come out to Wyoming for some fly fishing and bear watching. Clear skies