Life is a leap of faith. In downtown Sioux Falls, SD, there is an Arc, 285 feet long, hovering 70 feet above the Big Sioux River. On the Arc is an 18 foot gap at the apex, representing the leap of faith dreamers must take in pursuing their ambitions. This Arc is the anchor of Sculpture Walk, the world’s largest annual exhibition of 80 public sculptures installations on and around 10 blocks of Sioux Falls’ main drag – Phillips Street. Artists from around the world answer their Call for Entry and the chosen 80 turn city streets into free open air galleries, stimulating economic and social growth.
If you are dragging a T@G through Sioux Falls, RV parking is about a mile from town in the overflow lot of the Saturday Farmer’s Market. Put on your walking shoes and follow the paved greenway through Falls Park to see water cascading over pink quartzite rock formations while teens and dads with toddlers billy goat about. Cross the bridge by the Arc, inhale the flowering Japanese Lilacs, grab a map and walk Phillips Street. Stop into Fenson Brewing for a Daylight Delight Mimosa Seltzer before heading to the Art Collective for a show of amateur artists offering up the creations of their dreams. Drop your ballot and head to Sanaa’s Gourmet for a middle eastern lunch spread from a James Beard Best Chef nominee and contestant on Beat Bobby Flay. Buy her cookbook – it’s that good.
There are many routes across America to get to the Canadian Rockies, our gateway to the Arctic Ocean. In the past we’d ride with no reservations, favoring an itinerary that could flex with weather and whim. This trip has a spreadsheet. Dates, reservations, miles, lists of things to see and do along the way. We thought we’d need A/C south of the Dakotas in June. We hear Banff has crowds to rival Zion and Yosemite. There is a week long Arts Festival in Inuvik with only one nearby campground. And this is how we wound up at Sculpture Walk in Sioux Falls.
Once in a while we stumble across a locale that is so beautiful that we immediately start scrolling on Redfin. We buy a home, start a business, make new friends, and get elected to the city council. And, that’s just over the first beer. Sioux Falls has that vibe. It would take a total leap of faith to pull the trigger on a Sioux Falls relo, but we bet it would work. How is everything so clean? Even the sidewalks are perfectly level with no cracks. Maybe it is all fake. We have yet to see a chain fast-food joint. That is suspicious. Everything I think I thought is doubt.
We bet folks in Sioux Falls just believe in the right thing to do, to be, to pursue, to withstand. It is the anthem of the dreamer. We are part-time dreamers. As long as we are camped out in a grove of oak trees relaxing in the shade, the life-in-Sioux Falls dream is alive. Our Sioux Falls home is Palisades State Park, about 10 miles north of the city on a river carved by quartzite. There’s tubing and swimming, picnicking and hiking. If you have mad technical skills like Eric, you can free climb the shear face of King Rock.
The seventy seven year campground host stopped by to officially check us in. He was looking for a chat and we obliged. We traded impressions of the park and weather and town of Sioux Falls. He shared that he’d lived in DTSF all his life save his time in the war; outlived his wife and son. He’s got a girlfriend now and when she retires he wants to buy a big RV and go around the country. She prefers a fancy motel in the big city, which coincidentally is in Omaha, NB. We recommended the Best Western Plus where there is an indoor pool and jacuzzi. He shrugged as if his dream will not likely materialize so we suggested he take her for a walk past the sculpture of the Arc. “Leap!”
