2nd August, Sioux Falls

After a short (and very warm) night, we woke up just after 8am. We had breakfast at the hotel, and that was a really interesting experience. They had a sign saying 'Wait here to be seated'. Well we waited and waited and in the end we just sat down. There were a couple that probable waited 15-20 minutes befreo the waitress acknowledge them (and at one stage she was there right in fron of them). She did thank us for our patience and that she was really busy.....

after that we drove to the Sioux Falls Corps for the Sunday morning service. There was about a dozen people present. We were warmly welcomed, we even had to stand up and say our names and were we came from. One lady told us that she had been to New Zealand with her mum. Another lady was a childhood friend of my cousin Valerie. And to top it of, the DC was there and when we asked him if he knew about the Hellstrom family and that I am related to them, well, he almost fell backwards. Randy is his Divisional Secretary, Aland went through Training College a year before him and Valerie the year after. It's a small world.

The service was interesting. The Mrs Major palyed the piano (one handed) and for the worship songs they used a backing tape. It just make you appreciate what we have back at City.

After the service we went to the actual Sioux Falls. An old man told us a bit about the place. The rock is a special type of granite that is so hard it is really hard to cut. There is an old mill at the falls that a politician built in the late 1800. He needed investors to have it built so he made a dam further up river, told them that the river was really strong and just before they turned up they broke the dam. The investors were so impressed with the strenght of the river so they all invested. Then at summer time the river dried up......

Then we went to have a look at the USS South Dakota ( a ship from WWII). It is just the outline of the ship with a few guns, a propeller and a anchor, but you get the feel of how huge it was. It was only in service for about 4 years before being taken out of service. It saw battle in Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa just to mention a few places.

Then before we repacked in preparation for travelling to Keystone we went back to the falls to see them ¨by night¨. It has been a great day. I have attached a couple of photos from the falls as well one of Huka falls. Note the difference in colour.