We went back to the Hutch for
breakfast and stopped next door to gas up.
Do you remember Sinclair Gasoline?
In the east we haven’t had Sinclair for decades. Well it’s common out here. There is a Sinclair station in almost every
town. I remember as a kid I always liked
when Dad stopped at a Sinclair because I could get one of their comic books
featuring Dino the Dinosaur (usually follow the dots and pictures to color) and
the adventure of Eager Beaver who always
was helping motorist with his “Eager Beaver Service”
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| Farmers Co-op and City Hall Kennebec, MN |
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| Sunflower Fields Forever |
Minnesota has friendly people,
lots of agriculture, a myriad of wind generators, and the worst section of I-90
in the country. One crop that is not
that common around home in Central PA, is what out here, they call Milo
(Sorghum) a grain used mostly for animal feeds and ethanol: however it is used
in many parts of the world as a food source for humans. There were fields of milo that reached to the
horizon.
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| Milo fields |
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| Grasslands rolling hills |
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| Picnic tables at rest areas have shields from the wind. |
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| This sign was at a rest stop. |
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| Badlands National Park in the distance |
Our grandson, Brett, served in the
US Airforce’s 90th Squadron for four years in nuclear missile
security. There is an unclassified Minuteman
II missile site along I-90 that features a Visitor Center, a Launch Control
Center, and a Missile Launching Silo. We
passed the Visitor Center and stopped at Launch Control. They were doing some kind of filming and the
facility was closed. The ranger
suggested we go to exit 119 and look at the Launch Silo. So that is what we did. There was no one there but Linda insisted the
surveillance camera followed our every move!
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| Minuteman II Missile in the silo. Ready to go. |
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| Site Delta-9 |
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| All you can see of D-9 from the highway |
We signed in at the Mt Rushmore
KOA Resort. Pretty fancy. The owner of this KOA owns about a dozen KOAs
and every year has his managers come to a seminar. This year they were at this KOA.
Mt. Rushmore:
Wow. To see it in person is
incredible. The enormity of it all and
the work that was done by the 400 workers from 1927 until 1941 boggles the
mind. I’ll let the pictures tell the
story.
We spent most of the day at the
monument. We returned again in the evening to see the
light-up ceremony. Supper was at the on-site
restaurant. The Buffalo Stew was terrific!
I don’t believe that many people
realize just how much they miss if they visit Mt. Rushmore and fail to see the
evening light-up ceremony. This is a
real treat for anyone who loves the United States of America. First there is about a 15 minute movie on the
history of the monument. (Due to high
winds they had to cancel the movie to protect the $50,000 screen) Next is the
singing of the National Anthem by all of the audience. Then all of the veterans are invited on stage
for the lowering of the flag. The flag
is lowered by selected veterans then folded and presented to the ranger. After the lowering the ranger has each
veteran announce their name, service affiliate and home state. Then the cheers go up from all of us left in
the amphitheater in honor of their service.
It was quite moving.
Linda says that it was an experience of a life
time and she did not want to leave. I
think it’s because Lincoln winked at her!
We went back to the Hutch for
breakfast and stopped next door to gas up.
Do you remember Sinclair Gasoline?
In the east we haven’t had Sinclair for decades. Well it’s common out here. There is a Sinclair station in almost every
town. I remember as a kid I always liked
when Dad stopped at a Sinclair because I could get one of their comic books
featuring Dino the Dinosaur (usually follow the dots and pictures to color) and
the adventure of Eager Beaver who always
was helping motorist with his “Eager Beaver Service”
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