I’m writing this from my bother’s house surrounded by gun parts, military uniforms and other manly paraphernalia with Top Gun on the t.v. It is a seriously far cry from Badlands National Park in South Dakota.
If the Western part of the US has a desperate sort of beauty the Badlands are screaming bloody murder. Their beauty is stark and cruel.
However, the prairie dogs are cute as hell!!!
We also got to see the other type of bison that once roamed free across our continent. The bison that we saw earlier during the trip were wood bison, in other words, they live in the forest and these guys lived on the plains.
Say Cheese!!!
We also saw some pronghorn antelope chilling in a bean field.
But the real attraction of the Badlands is, well, the Badlands themselves.
We then moved on to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. I had visited it many years ago as a very small child and it was, oddly enough, bigger than I remembered it.
All of the designs on the building are made with different types and colors of corn.
We then drove until about midnight to get the rest of the way back to Ackley. It was really good to get back here. Being on the road for that long is tough no matter what the circumstances.
So, today I decided to go visit a yarn shop in Cedar Falls that I had heard about and was pleasantly surprised to find now one but two shops located quite close to one another! The first that I visited was Three Oaks Knits. The owner, Beckie Scheel, was lovely to talk to and had a large range of different yarns. I then wandered down the street to Crazy Girl Yarn Shop. They had a beautiful wall of Cascade yarns as well as large selection of various alpaca yarns. I don’t know if the knitters and crocheters in the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area have any idea of just how lucky they are to have two such great yarn shops!!! If you are in the area, I would highly recommend that you check out both stores! If I go back, I’ll try to take pictures!
(Don’t worry honey, I didn’t get much at either place!!!)
Sarah Jane Humke 