Hail, South Dakota!

John and I spent the holiday weekend with my parents and most of my siblings in Wagner, South Dakota.

I left work relatively early on Friday and we traveled north but because we stopped too many times (darn historical markers, etc!) we spent the night in Omaha and then finished our seven-hour journey Saturday morning.

Just north of Sioux City, Iowa is this sign, welcoming me home.  I always feel such a sense of calm when we cross over. 

There's something very special about the sky in South Dakota...it's so huge and blue on the flat prairie.  Calming and wonderful!

Especially incredible is the night sky.  The nearest "city" is Sioux Falls, two hours away, so there is not much light pollution.  The sky is just amazing.  You can easily see satellites, moving quickly through the dark canvas.

We wondered if they photographed us, sitting around our campfire Sunday night as Dad recalled his days in the Air Force, working on the B-36 Peacemaker during the Korean War.

Dad's stories were interrupted every so often by coyotes howling in the cornfields.  It was thrilling (and chilling) to hear them so nearby.  Coyotes are not dangerous to humans but once we realized how close they were, Lucy and Sidney, Pam and Perry's dogs, got kenneled, just in case...

Dad's brother, my Uncle Noel Wiechmann, was quite a photographer and Dad was able to secure his cameras and a tripod recently so, using Uncle Noel's tripod, I tried to capture the brilliant stars with my digital camera.  The shutter was set at 16 seconds and the aperture at 2.8.  Not the greatest because reality was so much better.  I was disappointed but when I go back in three weeks, I'm going to try again (after consulting with Brett Akagi).

I may need to use my uncle's 1970s-era Olympus.  I wonder what batteries it needs?

I saw many friends and relatives during the time we were in Wagner.  Here is the incomplete short list with their former names--Paula Faughender, Ina Miller, Don Doty, John Chrisman, Bruce Chrisman, Jeff Uecker, Julie and JoAnn Winckler, Sherrie and John Wiechmann, Jane Wipf, Pearl Weber, Patty Sip, Rod Cozad, Mark Gau, Chris Andersh and Karen Kocer.  Forgive if I didn't mention you!

Monday, we went to the Wagner Labor Day parade.  In this photo you can see my sister Pam talking to her grandson Hudson, John, Paula's husband Randy, my mom and dad and Cheray Gibson and her soon-to-be-husband Tyler Christiansen.  This was just before it started raining...

Thankfully, the rain was short-lived.  The procession, however, was not.  We were thankful when, after an hour and a half of grass-roots politicking, old tractors, some floats, one marching band and a lot of antique cars, we finally saw the horses.  Horses mean the end of the parade!  We hustled across the street to have lunch with the United Methodists.


In doing so, I apparently missed the big story of the day.  This wagon went into the crowd later down the route when something spooked the horses.  We were near the beginning of the procession but I got a shot of the horse-drawn buggy (seen here in much calmer times) when I was trying to capture the hilarious image of a motorized cooler.

Thankfully, the injuries were minor. 

Another great Labor Day in Wagner, South Dakota!