By Denise Ross

Sen. Tim Johnson will wind up his extensive tour of South Dakota - and in January! What could be more fun than that? - with tour of Ellsworth Airforce Base on Thursday.

Wednesday, he toured the Fort Meade VA hospital near Sturgis and drove around Spearfish with the mayor. The Hoghouse covered his meeting at his Rapid City office with agricultural leaders. Of course, they talked about the farm bill.

Sen. Johnson needed assistance to navigate his way into his chair, but his speech was noticably improved. (Video of that coming soon.) (Photos by Denise) 

Johnson led the meeting, reading some prepared remarks but also offering numerous spontaneous assessments of complex policy situations. (His speech is better, more fluid when he talks off the cuff.) 

Rapid City’s TV stations turned out.  

A Johnson staffer (Cindy Bartel) participated by teleconference from DC, and she spoke up only at the very end. And, frankly, I’m not well-versed enough in the farm bill to know exactly what she said - something about a development involving a water provision that had gone down on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Sen. Johnson memo to Rapid City staff: Buy a hat rack.

More to come.

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