“Spend as much time as possible on mountains, in small boats, or otherwise out in the weather; if you never get wet, cold, exhausted or scared, you won’t properly appreciate being dry, warm, rested and safe.” ~ Peter Jay
"I’m an adventuring river rat at heart. Put me on a floating piece of driftwood and I’m happy." ~ Christina Glauner
"There’s folly and foolhardiness on one side and daring and calculation on the other." ~ C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Off topic... sort of
This weekend was amazing. I originally decided to go to Sioux Falls when I heard that the Dakota Irish Fair had been revived after a three year absence and was bringing in one of my favorite twin cities' bands, The Wild Colonial Bhoys. I also wanted to take my boat along and find some time to hit the BSR over the weekend. I later learned that the Sioux Falls Air Show was the same weekend. I had never been to the air show before; though, like most boys, when I was a kid I was enthralled by airplanes. Yesterday morning, I left Pierre around 8 and headed down to SF. I first went to the Big Sioux State Recreation Area and set my tent up. Once camp was set, I headed to the SF air show. It was amazing... and I didn't even see all the acts! I caught Pierre local, Jim Peitz, the F22 demo, the Vanguard Squadron, a P51 Mustang (my favorite plane as a kid), a couple of C130's, and the Blue Angels. All were great!
Below: Playlist of video clips I took at the air show.
Near the end of the Blue Angels performance, I started walking back to my pickup so I could go over the the edge of Falls Park on Phillips Ave. for the 2009 Dakota Irish Fair. The first time I went to it was in 2006; it was also the last one to occur until this year. Not a whole lot going on. But it seemed to be a better setup than in 2006. Also, my experience with Irish Fairs are based upon the twin cities and KC. If people continue to turn out for it as they did yesterday, the Dakota Irish Fair could grow into more.The acts consisted of the Dakota Pipe Band, the Sioux Falls Ceali Band, the Shamrockers (another SF group), and The Wild Colonial Bhoys. At some point or another, I had heard every group perform in the past. WCB is more rock and rebel song oriented than the others. When WCB opened with Hair of a Dog, I wasn't the least bit surprised to see some older folks leaving. But I was glad to see most of the crowd applauding through out the show. Especially since the median age was probably closer to my parents' age than mine. Btw, I believe I was the only adult standing through the whole show (besides the band that is). WCB put on a great show for SF and I hope to see them back next year. Another, low cost, idea would be the Wild Clover Band out of NE. I could name many other bands, but they are probably out of the budget of the Fair. Maybe Scythian isn't... Scythian.
And now I will get to the paddling since that is the point of the blog. This morning I awoke to a fair amount of fog. I got up and took the kayak down to the BSR access near the Big Sioux Rec. Area. I paddled upstream for about 1.25 miles and managed to save some distance downstream because I totaled only 2.4 miles. The fog made for some nice photo opps too. I was on the water for a little under an hour.
Pat, your short cruise upstream on the BSR from the recreational area passed through one of my favorite hiking areas in the Sioux Falls area. I like to cross that foot bridge in your slide show and continue up on to the long ridge line that overlooks the BSR and Brandon. You can see the wind generators located over the border in Minnesota from that ridge. There is a great three mile hiking trail that moves along the river and up onto the ridge.
It was good to see you at the Jazz Fest in Sioux Falls last weekend.
Pat, your short cruise upstream on the BSR from the recreational area passed through one of my favorite hiking areas in the Sioux Falls area. I like to cross that foot bridge in your slide show and continue up on to the long ridge line that overlooks the BSR and Brandon. You can see the wind generators located over the border in Minnesota from that ridge. There is a great three mile hiking trail that moves along the river and up onto the ridge.
ReplyDeleteIt was good to see you at the Jazz Fest in Sioux Falls last weekend.
Jay