Brookings, SD. & Camden State Park, MN.

Thur & Sat - May 27th & 29th

Our RV is in the background across the street from Mc Crory Gardens at Walmart in Brookings. At one time McCrory Gardens was one of the top ten gardens in the country, according to a show I saw on TV. Maybe it still is. It is a beautiful place to go for a walk, spend time with a friend, take a lunch break or just sit and read a book and enjoy the surroundings.

The little cottage garden is quaint and serene. There is also a hedge maze for the kids. They do weddings and garden concerts. Every year there is a garden party in August for the public, with music and free SDSU ice cream cones.

There are many different types of gardens with walking paths and benches to sit and relax. Some include pharmaceutical and medicinal gardens, gardens of all one color, or all one type of flower in many different colors.

Columbines & Irises. If you walk through all the gardens to the north end, you will come to the arboretum where there is a walking/jogging path through the trees.

This is near the corner of 6th Street and 22nd Avenue as you enter town from I-29.

This is a house made of straw bales with a sod roof in the gardens.

Just a few blocks further down 6th Street in Hillcrest Park is the new swimming pool complex.

A cowboy and his dog in front of the old depot on South Main. In the center of the newly redone downtown is another nice statue entitled "The Little Professor". It is right across the street from Ray's Corner Bar, which used to be the Title Office where Pa Ingalls walked from De Smet to file his homestead deed.

This is the SDSU Campanile on Medary Avenue near the southwest corner of campus. Just north of here is the Memorial Art Museum and the Agriculture Museum. There are new buildings going up all over campus.

This was the view out our door while we camped at our friend, Rich's, just outside Brookings. Very peaceful. Thanks Rich!

There are hundreds of these wind towers for miles along Buffalo Ridge just over the Minnesota border. It is one of the first places where they put up lots of them, because it is one of the windiest places in the country. We were on our way to Camden State Park (six miles south of Marshall on Hwy. 23) for the weekend.

This is Redwood River in Camden State Park.

Old friends, good times and a margarita or two or
three? It just doesn't get any better than this.

Some of my readers may recognize a few of these old farts from the Coast to Coast days.

After a few refreshments, the kids convinced me to get my first tattoo, a ladybug. What do you think?

We had our own live band around the campfire, harmonica and guitar. Keep on jivin' Andy and Ron. We loved it.

We're off to North Dakota to visit Mom and my brothers. Then on to Montana for a few weeks to watch our grandson's baseball games. We plan to be back in Brookings in September before we head south again.

Have a great summer!

Tarra