Sioux Falls - Day 3

Today was a day of sight seeing and driving around this part of the country. It was a day for Stan to reminisce his childhood summers and to see relatives.   We first drove to Brandon, SD to see the farm where Stan's dad grew up.

Then we drove to Steen, MN to see where Stan's mom grew up.  We weren't sure which house was hers, so we didn't get a photo of that.

After that, we just drove all over NW Iowa. 

This is pretty much what Iowa looks like.

There are small towns all over the place with anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand residents.  The first stop we made in Iowa was to a little town called Hospers to see his former roommate EJ.  Stan had not told EJ we were coming and it was a total surprise to him.  He owns an auto body shop and has lots of "cool old cars" and he showed Stan and Ethan all around.  

Nikki really wasn't interested in car talk, so she made friends with EJ's dog

EJ's garage at his house

After Hospers, we went to a town called Orange City.  It is a really Dutch town.  Well, most of NW Iowa is a Dutch town, but this one really embraced their Dutch heritage.

In Orange City, we stopped at a Dutch bakery for a snack and then moved on to Sioux Center.  In Sioux Center, we found their mall (a building with about 8 stores and a cinema) because we knew they had a store that sells a lot of things from Holland and we were looking for something for Stan's mom.  We got ourselves another Dutch treat while we were there.

Then driving around Sioux Center, we drove past the local college, Dordt College.  The gym was called DeWitt Gymnasium, so Ethan wanted a photo

From Sioux Center, we drove to Rock Valley, where more DeWit's live.  We found Stan's cousin, Greg at work and talked to him for a little bit, then went to visit his parents, Don and Lou.  After a short visit, we went back to Greg's house and met up with Greg, his wife Gayle, and their son, Ryan and went out to eat at a local place called Bake's for dinner.  I had one of the best chicken dinners ever.  Who would have thought a little restaurant in Rock Valley, Iowa would be that good?  We visited for awhile and Stan and Greg reminisced about all the fun times they had (and trouble they got into) growing up.

After a long day, we headed back home to do some laundry and to clean up and get ready for our long drive to Denver in the morning.