I just spent a few weeks in Burke, South Dakota visiting family and friends. I’m sorting through my grandfather’s files, letters, newspaper clippings, photos, and library. I’m finding treasures like these photos.

Burke Main Street in the early 1920s. My grandparents, Doris and Louis at a celebration. It looks like Grandpa was either ready to go or listening very carefully.

Leaving for the airport in Sioux Falls on Monday, I was traveling a road that was so familiar. I decided I wanted to see something less so.

I decided to take HWY 81 toward I90 instead of going through Parker as I have on almost every trip since I was a child. The landscape was familiar, however, the farms, barns, and views were all new to me.

It was frigid and MLK day, and I was almost the only car on the road. This heightened the sense of spaciousness I love (and often miss) about being on the upper plains.

I saw the snow geese in the distance and then came upon them swooping in formation. I stopped to watch them…truly breathtaking. I always like the unusual terms of groups of animals…a murder of crows for instance. Geese when waddling on the ground are a gaggle. However, if geese are flying overhead they are a flock or a skein…cool huh?

This land is your land, and this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me. —Woody Guthrie

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in. —Leonard Cohen

No, I cannot forget from where it is that I come from
I cannot forget the people who love me
Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town
And people let me be just what I want to be

—John Mellencamp—lyrics from Smalltown

Thank you South Dakota for a great visit.

I’ll see you in March.