Off to So Dak

I'm headed out to visit the parents in South Dakota this weekend. The Codington County Historical Society is hosting their annual house tour. I had a great time last year so I'm going back. Both of my dad's sisters will be there too so it should be fun.

Monday at our weekly sales meeting one of the other sales people asked me if there was any way I'd consider driving out to Willmar for a meeting today. As it is halfway to my parents house, I was immediately onboard. Sure, I'd love to, sign me up!

The boys will be staying at home and finishing the school shopping. I'm hoping that they will buy at least one shirt for school that doesn't say anything, but I'm not optimistic. The teenager's current favorite shirt says, "friends don't let friends wear mullets". This is the general tone of his entire wardrobe. It's just as well they are doing this shopping themselves. It would be an exercise in frustration for me to be in on this particular excursion to the Sprawl of America.

South Dakota is just not the most wired state in the U.S. There are 770,000 people living in the entire state. That's about a third of the population of the Twin Cities. In the whole state! 320,000 live in either Rapid City or Sioux Falls. That leave another 450,000 scattered in little towns and on farms all over the rest of the state. The wireless companies haven't found it necessary or financially viable to wire the whole place up. In Watertown my cell phone only works outside. I'm thinking finding WiFi anyplace for my laptop is going to be tough. In short, I may be out of touch for the next couple of days. I'm sure I will bring back pictures of small town weirdness though, so stay tuned.