ANNIVERSARY TRIP, DAY 22, VERMILLION, SD – WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 2007

Happy Fourth of July! We are celebrating in small town, Vermillion, SD. After eating a gargantuan breakfast provided by our innkeeper, we spent much of this morning trying to find a wireless signal. Who knew it would be so hard? This is a college town except it is like a college ghost town. I know it’s summer but, seriously, you’d think there’d be some students around. And you would think that these students would have wireless connections. But no. Anyway, we did find some nice people at the Holiday Inn Express who let us sit in the lobby and check our mail and blog.

We had a quiet night last night at the winery B and B. Very quiet. In fact the only noise at the winery were the noises that we made. Just us alone in a winery. Pretty dangerous for the wine I’d say. But the innkeeper locked the elevator and we couldn’t go downstairs to where the wine is.

Buffalo Run Winery
Buffalo Run Winery

We also took a trip into Nebraska on the 4th. We’ve never been to Nebraska and it’s just across the river. We stopped at the Missouri River Mulberry Bend overlook. There were lots of pretty flowers along the trail. We also learned that these adjacent points in Nebraska and South Dakota are the westernmost reaches of the Eastern forest. I’ve been thinking that Vermillion looks a lot like my childhood home in NJ and I think the trees, along with the 20’s and 40’s, architecture are the reason.

Purple flowers in Nebraska
Purple flowers in Nebraska

Around 9 we went to the town park to see the fireworks. Since Vermillion is so far west in the time zone, the fireworks didn’t start until 10 PM. We spent part of the time chatting to locals. I think they were a bit taken aback at first by these chatty Californians but they warmed up and we had a good time. Then the fireworks! They were quite spectacular for a small town. The finale was better than any I’ve seen. It was a fine Fourth of July.
Vermillion fireworks
Vermillion fireworks

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