Water, Water

"It was under water!"

That's what Andy answered when I asked him what to write about Pipestone National Monument.

Five successive days of heavy downpours had filled the sacred stone quarries with water. Only one Native American craftsman demonstrated carving techniques inside the visitor center for a small group of curious tourists.

"It makes me appreciate our three collector's pipes hanging in the living room even more than when we bought them at least 20 years ago," I told Andy.

If rain dampened hiking plans at Pipestone, the flooding upriver enhanced our visit to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The pictures of the water cascading over red quartzite downtown speak for themselves. The Queen B, a turbine driven flour company in the background, failed after two years. It must have been a dry spell.