{"id":795,"date":"2010-10-27T14:00:47","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T20:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/?p=795"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:11","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:11","slug":"road-tripping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/road-tripping\/","title":{"rendered":"More Road Trippin’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow would you guys like to go on a little road trip?\u201d our friend, Joanie, said when she called. \u201cSure, where to?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWell, we thought it might be fun to check out the old South Dakota School for the Blind campus in Gary.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe what..where?\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, the place has been restored and turned into a hotel resort with a lake and everything, I hear it\u2019s really neat.\u201d<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s how we came to be headed North a couple weeks ago; taking the back roads through Pipestone and Canby, Minnesota through canyons of wind turbines before turning west to the tiny town of Gary just across the South Dakota border. More about that in a minute. First, a refresher course on how the four of us travel. It takes us forever to get to a destination because we\u2019ll stop to check out just about anything from a quaint small town watering hole to an abandoned farm house along side the road. This time we stumbled upon a real doozy.<\/p>\n

\"We

We spotted this spooky looking house just off highway 75 somewhere between Lake Benton and Canby<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Had

Had it been dark I'd never have left the car but since it was a sunny warm day, the place wasn't quite so frightening<\/p><\/div>\n

\"All

All we could talk about is who might have lived here and how long ago. Its sad to think about the families that had once gathered inside for birthday, Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations. You could almost hear the voices.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Closer

Closer inspection revealed why there was a noticible stench coming from the place. Someone had decided that the structure would make a suitable spot to store grain. It wasn't.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"After

After a half hour or so we left with more questions than answers about the old place which is slowly being devoured by a tree that wasnt there when the last owners left long ago. <\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0The School for the blind\u00a0at Gary was established\u00a0in 1900 and grew to a sizeable self sustaining live-on campus over the next several decades before folding up and moving to Aberdeen in the early 60\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"buffalo<\/p>\n

\u00a0The old school buildings and dormitories have been sitting vacant and vulnerable to the elements and vandals ever since.\u00a0 Some folks would swear that the buildings and underground tunnels that connected them were haunted and most people wouldn\u2019t go near the place except on a dare.<\/p>\n

Well, that didn\u2019t scare local entrepreneur, Joe Kolbach..who made a tidy sum in the wind turbine business and decided to invest a sizeable chunk of it in renovating the whole area to its former glory. \u00a0Less than a year after purchasing the campus and to nearly everyone\u2019s amazement, Kolbach has completed phase one and transformed a decaying eyesore into the magnificent Buffalo Ridge Resort and Business Center.<\/p>\n

\"South

South Dakota Magazine photos<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0Two buildings that once served as dormitories have become an upscale hotel..with a lounge, ballrooms and meeting facilities. He has also brought back Lake Elsie, a scenic little pond that was filled with dirt and plowed over years ago. It\u2019s located next to a crossing bridge, a lovely little waterfall, and beautiful oak trees that shelter several camp sites. People we talked to absolutely love it and just can believe how quickly Kolbach was able to get it done. To check it out for yourself, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Who knows where we\u2019ll be heading next time. I hear there\u2019s a place called Danton, Minnesota that\u2019s home to the world\u2019s biggest ball of twine. It\u2019s either that or the outhouse museum in Gregory. We\u2019re easily entertained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow would you guys like to go on a little road trip?\u201d our friend, Joanie, said when she called. \u201cSure, where to?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWell, we thought it might be fun to check out the old South Dakota School for the Blind campus in Gary.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe what..where?\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, the place has been restored and turned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11841,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions\/11841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}