6/16 - Sioux Falls, SD - Day 1

To continue our saga of the truck’s tuner problems, we were not able to get anything done about it today.  No one was available to work with us at the shop in Blair, Nebraska, so we had to continue on our way to Sioux Falls.  I emailed the manufacturer of the tuner and a technician called around 5:00.  He was on the phone with Jim for an hour and we have instructions now on what to do.  The check-engine light keeps coming on because of a bad sensor in the truck (not because of the tuner) so we’ve got to get a Chevy dealer to replace it.  After that we can get what we need via computer from PPEI (the tuner manufacturer) which we’re told will fix our problems. 

Today’s drive was uneventful (besides the truck problems) without much to report.  Iowa is surprisingly hilly all the way across the state until the drop to the Missouri River plain which starts just east of Omaha.  Last year we drove up the river plain from Kansas along the western border of Missouri and Iowa and had no idea how much the terrain changed just to the east of us. 

While still in the hilly interior we passed another huge wind farm which covered many square miles.  That led me to look up information on wind farms and I found they are surprisingly varied and quite complex.  One 1.5 megawatt GE model described on Wikipedia that looks just like the ones we’ve been seeing has 116’ blades on 212’ towers.  The blades’ arc on that model covers just under an acre in vertical space.  Agriculture continues without interruption below the turbines.  I’m guessing farmers make a nice bit of extra income by leasing plots of land for the turbines.

An Iowa rest area we stopped at today had a wind turbine blade set up next to the building.  It was every bit of 116’ in height.

This is typical of the views from I-29 between Sioux City, Iowa, and Sioux Falls, SD.  Farms stretch as far as the eye can see.  Montana is called “Big Sky Country” but the name fits here just as well.  It’s a wonderful feeling of openness.  Naturally, these wide open spaces have a completely different feel from the mountains at home.  I can see why people who are born here feel closed in by the mountains while mountain-born people often find this uncomfortably open (and perhaps a bit boring).  We love both the mountains and the big skies.

One thing we’d forgotten about being in the west and mid-west is the wind.  We don’t know if what we’re experiencing right now is the norm, but the wind is here is constant and very strong.  If Lovie weren’t so low-slung she’d be in danger of blowing away.

We’ll be in Sioux Falls for the next two nights so the cats will be off the hook tomorrow.  They probably won’t know what to do with themselves.  Sleep of course.  :-D 

Our site at Sioux Falls KOA.  I-90 is on the rise just to the back of us.  Very close but less noisy than one would expect. 

Tomorrow we hope to see the falls for which the city was named as well as visit the local Chevrolet dealer.