Making the Most of the Last Days of Our Trip - Part 3 of 3 - Sioux Falls, A Wedding, a Scare, the Jolly Green Giant, and Home

We are home; just a week ago we were in South Dakota!

We left the Badlands Tuesday July 27th in the afternoon and spent the night in a campground on the Missouri River

That drive along Route 90 in South Dakota was the most boring I have ever driven. Hundreds of miles of absolutely straight road with little traffic and monotonous fields with some occasional construction to relieve the tedium.

Ya think?

Wednesday morning, we stopped for what we thought was going to be a 15 minute photo op of Sioux Falls, ended up staying for an hour and a half, and could easily have spent the day in the area.

Remains of the old mill

Later that day, we randomly stopped for gas in Blue Earth, Minnesota and saw this down the road. It was hard to miss. 

So glad we got to see the Jolly Green Giant and the Giant Museum! Not quite as good as the Potato Museum, but close!

That night, we were in sound asleep in a campground near Madison, Wisconsin when at 12:45am our phones blasted an alarm and an "Extreme alert" text:

What could we do? There was nowhere to go. Bob went back to sleep(!) but I was totally wide awake. I went to sit in the front seat and watched the storm through the windshield. It was the most severe thunderstorm I have ever been in. 

The rain poured down and there were multiple lightning flashes per second, like strobe lights going off in the clouds. I wondered if I should put on my seatbelt in case we were hit by a tornado and tossed around. 

Fortunately, there was not that much wind, and eventually the storm moved on. (Moved on to NJ where a day later, tornados hit southern NJ ( www.nj.com/weather/5-tornadoes-hit-nj-during-thursdays-wild-storms ))

Thursday evening, we got to Cleveland and met distantly related cousins whom I had heard much about.

Friday and Shabbos, we shared in the simcha of Binyamin’s Aufruf, and on Sunday attended his and Sarah's beautiful and leibedick wedding. (I was too far back for a good chuppah picture) This was the first wedding we have attended in person for over 2 years. 

We needed to have a friend bring wedding suitable clothes to us from Edison (thanks Aviva and Barry, and Aryeh). When we left home in April, Binyamin wasn't even engaged! 

Monday we drove the rest of the way home. I am exhausted and in need of a vacation.