Butterflies and Iowa

Last week Saturday was pretty much spent getting ready for the upcoming trip. Nancy had wanted to leave on Saturday but I thought we'd need that day to get ready since I'd be working all day Friday; and it turned out to be true.

Saturday for me was mostly spent working on the van. The brakes had a heavy pulsing on light application so I decided to do a brake job with new rotors and pads. Of course these things never go as easy as imagined. For instance, the rotors were so stuck on I thought I'd have to get a sledgehammer to get them off. Good thing I was disposing of the old rotors, so I could really wail on them. I'm sure the neighbors appreciated that - it was like ringing a large bell! I should have worn hearing protection. I also washed the van and installed the cargo carrier on the roof rack.

We left mid-morning on Sunday heading for Sioux Falls. At the rest area east of Valley City we stopped for a picnic lunch and in Fargo we stopped at Best Buy to purchase a GPS unit to assist us with navigation. That GPS unit was a lifesaver. I don't mind driving in heavy traffic such as encountered in the Minneapolis area, but it sure took away the stress of knowing which lane to be in and which streets to take.

We had supper that evening at my sister's place in Tea, SD, which is a few miles south of Sioux Falls. Bleau and Lisa served up a great meal. It was nice to see them and their family. We met their dog for the first time, too. After supper we headed to the Ramada Inn & Suites to spend time at their nice water park - we highly recommend it for a family with kids. They have a fairly large water slide, a kid pool with a pirate ship that also had some slides, a small pool with a hoop for shooting baskets, another larger pool, and a couple of hot tubs.

Monday morning we spent some more time in the hotel water park but then packed up, checked out, and headed to the Sertoma Butterfly House in Sioux Falls.

The family posed in the parking lot of the butterfly house.

Once inside this one spent a little bit of time on Aleah's head. It was warm and muggy in the flight room.

A feeding tray. There was a water solution in the bottom of the container. I wish I would have thought of this when we raised some butterflies in our house.

One of the volunteers explained this is an Atlas Moth. You probably can't tell the size but it is huge. They have no mouth and no stomach and die within three to nine days. Their evenings are spent looking for mates and their days are spent in hiding. The design on the outer edge of their wings looks like a snake to scare off predators.

My favorite photo of the day.

This moth alighted on Gerrit right away and stayed with him until just before he left the flight room. Awesome.

I think I enjoyed the butterfly house more than anyone else in our family. I stayed in the room for about 15 minutes longer than the others. The sweat was running down my back by the time I left!

After the butterfly house we ate at a Sonic before heading down to Iowa, which is only about 15 minutes from Sioux Falls. We continued on a route along the north edge of the state, eventually turning up into Minnesota east of Spirit Lake, IA. The family wanted to visit Iowa mainly because they never have. Naturally we had to stop to get a picture at the welcome sign.

The kids did not like the smell of Iowa, with their hog and dairy farms along with possibly turkey farms. Samantha had a classic comment, saying "Maybe a pig farted!"

We arrived at my brother's house in Eagan, MN at around 8:00 that Monday evening. Harvey was at work but thankfully left a key so we could enter. We set up our air beds and before long put the kids to bed to get ready for a big day on Tuesday.