August 26, 2026 - Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Bloomington, Minnesota

We were up early and pulling out of Sioux Falls by 7:30 this morning on our way to Bloomington and stopped about an hour later to have breakfast. We passed several silos along the way, but this one had an interesting mural painted on it. And yes, there was LOADS of road construction!

I'm not sure what the red plants were, but there were a few miles of them along the highway.
We got into Bloomington around noon and wanted to go by our old house. Needless to say, 45 years later, there have been several updates done and it was very nice. Several trees are missing and the white fence was a nice addition. At 850 square feet, the oversized 2-car garage was almost bigger than the house! We actually stopped and walked up and met the lady who lives there now. She was delightful and we visited for about 30 minutes before we headed on our way.

We stopped at the park just down the street to have lunch before heading to Minnehaha Falls where we planned to take a bike ride. The park is lovely, but most of the lots and street parking are paid parking. We finally found a street parking that was big enough to accommodate the RV, so we paid our 3-hour ($7.50) fee and got on our way. The first stop was to see the falls. I think the last time I was here was in the fall (in 1979 or 1980) and the colors were beautiful. It's still pretty.


From the Falls, we followed a 23 mile loop around the city. The Minneapolis area has amazing trails and it was a real pleasure seeing the sights along the Mississippi River, through residential areas, and around several of the lakes.

We rode over the stone bridge in the picture below - it's only for pedestrians and bicycles now.

The park next to it is called Mill Ruins Park. On one side of the river is the old Pillsbury Foods mill and on the other side is old Gold Medal Flour mill.


The dam is just up the trail from there.

We continued on and enjoyed seeing some of the lakes - and beautiful parks and homes along the way. We went by Cedar Lake, Lake of the Isles, Lake Bde Maka Ska, and Lake Harriet.

At Lake Bde Maka Ska we saw lots of sailboats and a funny dog!
Check out this video of the white dog in this picture below. I could hardly stop laughing!
https://youtu.be/rXqXto_PLcA

We decided to "put the pedal to the medal" and head back to the park before our time on the meter was up - and made it 5 minutes to spare! We did pass this crazy huge statue on the way. I'm glad the rabbits in my backyard aren't this big.

On our way back to Bloomington we stopped to get a pizza for dinner. It was good, but our Dominos in Fort Collins is much better! We get to sleep in tomorrow before we head to Mystic Lake Casino where we are seeing Deep Purple and Kansas in concert tomorrow night. Woohoo! 

 

We hope you enjoyed our day - we did!