I finally made it to Sioux Falls! From the middle of the town, I cannot see any farms!
Which is especially welcome after riding through them for 80 miles.
On the way into town I treated myself to lunch at the Homestead in Salem, South Dakota. A quaint coffee & grilled cheese shop, I ordered a fantastic sandwich and milkshake to go with it.
Once in Sioux Falls, I explored around town for a bit. They have a beautiful downtown area, laden with brick buildings and very reminiscent of the west coast town vibe I'm used to. In fact, one person described Sioux Falls to me as the San Francisco of the midwest, also describing Minneapolis as their best kept secret.
I stopped at one of the local breweries for dinner: Hydra Brewing Company. They serve pizzas from a local shop and lots of very hoppy beers - my favorite. Sitting next to me, and providing conversation for the evening was Shawn, a local IT specialist.
We split an interesting beer from Surly in Minneapolis - an IPA brewed exclusively with Brett.
Brett is an interesting yeast that can impart some interesting flavors in beers, but also completely destroy a batch of wine.
Talking shop with Shawn was fun, especially complaining about the quirks of Windows 10 in an enterprise environment.
After leaving the brewery, I saw this:
What on earth...
I asked my friend, a fire protection specialist, about this strange device. He said it may be a test header to verify flow and pressure, but it looks super funky.
Tomorrow I am going to explore the city a bit more!
Joe