Road Trips Bring New Eyes to South Dakota

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Bruno Calfa and his wife loaded their two dogs into an RV for a cross-country journey that started from Vancouver, Canada, and included a stop at Falls Park.

“We were passing by, and we were just like Googling what the things we must see when we are around and then we heard about the falls, and we just came to check it out,” Calfa said.

Calfa was impressed by the Sioux Falls scenery. But navigating a visit to Mount Rushmore was more challenging.

“We missed the four heads of the presidents. I should have turned left, I turned right, and got stuck in between bison for about 20-minutes. So they’re just liking the RV, checking the tires. It was interesting with two pups in the car,” Calfa said.

Seeing the country during a milestone anniversary is a family tradition for many visitors to South Dakota.

“When it was the 200th anniversary, I remember that one when we were kids. We’ve always taken road trips with our family, so that’s what we like to do, we like to drive,” Sasha Wilmes of St. Louis said.

Walking is good, too. We found these couples checking out the sites in downtown Sioux Falls.

“Yesterday, we did the southern part of the Phillips Avenue SculptureWalk, and that was great. Really nice shops. We both grew up in central Illinois, and it reminds me a lot of some of the towns in central Illinois,” Dave Massanari of Shapleigh, ME, said.

These first-time visitors shared their first impressions of South Dakota.

“It’s pretty flat, so far, on this end of South Dakota. It’s the old sea bottom, right,” Bruce Bagley of Overland Park, KS said.

The people we spoke with say there’s something about seeing America, and South Dakota in particular, from behind the wheel of a car, that you just don’t get flying in a plane from airport to airport.

“It’s a better view than from 30,000 feet. It’s much more interesting, you see different types of buildings and architecture and geography, much better than you would from the air,” Bagley said.

“You can just experience the landscape. You can stop when you want to if you see something interesting, you can get out,” Corinna Warren of Omaha, NE said.

The Great American Road Trip promotion is expected to draw more visitors to South Dakota during the crucial summer tourism season.

“Fingers are crossed that we’re going to have a better year than we did last year. Last year was a little flat. So we’re really hoping that our numbers are going to go up,” Experience Sioux Falls CEO Teri Schmidt said.

Visitors to the state say they haven’t been sidetracked by high gas prices or inflation.

“We kind of had that planned ahead of time, and we are going, so we have a Vrbo, we have a home base, and then we’re going to go out to different places from there. So that’s kind of how we’re going to do it. So we travel pretty economically anyway, so it’s fine,” Wilmes said.

“Some people have said we’re going to travel anyway, regardless of gas prices. Others have said we’re going to go on a 5-day trip, not a 10-day trip. And if they go on those shorter trips, Sioux Falls is perfect for that,” Schmidt said.

That’s why visitors from as far away as Canada are willing to go the extra mile and then some to come here.

“Most of the time, you hear about the East and the West, California, New York, or Florida. But you don’t really get to know the middle of the country. But there are so many beautiful places,” Calfa said.

And travelers say there’s no better time to soak in all that scenery than during America’s 250th anniversary.

“We grew up in the East, where it all began, where the Revolution was taking place, and there are historical markers everywhere,” said Anne Bagley of Overland Park, KS.

The nation’s past provides a roadmap to the present and future whenever people pull off and explore the vistas along their journey.