Americinn Mitchell

... Josh got a BIG bag of candy (on sale from Halloween) for $1.25! <br><br>Then out of Custer and on to a 500km stretch of Prairie Interstate &#8211; we're doing 140 kph along her and people are still overtaking us. Passed heaps and heaps of signs on the side of the road for 'Wall Drug', took us ages to realise it was a place, yet on the map it just says 'Wall', so not sure where the 'Drug' part comes from! Passed an 80 ft tall fake dinosaur ...

I have attached three pictures of our scenery that we have seen through upper MO, IA and SD (so far). You can't tell much difference since it is Corn, soy beans, corn, soy beans, etc. We have been told that they are having a good corn crop this year.<br><br>We have seen lots of bikers going and coming from Sturgis. It seems that many bikers come the week before and go on on different "rallys" or rides.<br><br>We went into town to see the ...

... and Willie Nelson to name a few. Workmen were in the process of attaching the grasses to the murals while we were there. Another interesting fact is that the place is eco friendly since birds can eat the corn off the sides of the building. The building is used by the town for basketball games, shows and concerts. We thought this would be kind of corny (ha,ha) like the biggest ball of twine but turned out to be worth the stop.

... with a plethora of kids. We have been spoiled by our earlier touring without the family vacation crowds. (Time to go home again.) We took a ranger tour, watched the movies, and saw the exhibits; then we were glad to go. Leaving Rushmore, a torrential rain started and continued with 20 minutes of dime-sized hail. Our picnic lunch was served in the car as we waited out the storms. That evening we ...

Despite my 15 year old's objections, I had to see the world's only corn palace. Unfortunately, it was neither as corny nor as palatial as I had hoped. Also, we got lost in town, which, as my son pointed out, was a hard thing to do. We had a nice room though (although, IMO, a bit pricey for a rural spot).

... by local Native Americans for &#8211; you guessed it &#8211; Native American ceremonial pipes. A short self-guided trail took us around the quarries, but unfortunately it was too early in the year to see any quarrying going on. It&#8217;s extremely hard work and the craft of making the pipes has been passed down for generations. I bought my first souvenir &#8211; earrings made from pipestone ...

... get very close to them. Sooooo cute although extremely fat! We continued with a 2 mile dessert trail, and believe it or not we did see a rattle snake! We actually nearly stepped on it, not a good idea around these places...so after that we are very careful of where we put our paws. Further on our drive through the park we saw bisons and many more oopses. Finally we arrived at our goal, the Custer State Park, were we found a lovely spot for our tent, and decided to stay three days.

Today was a magical day in Badlands National Park. In the morning at the KOA in Interior, Bret let me sleep while he took the kids to play minigolf. I showered and met them for the pancake breakfast, where the kids didn't eat anything - $12.00 down the drain. But, Bret and I enjoyed the pancakes and bacon and coffee, sort of. "I hate this coffee," Bret said of the Dunkin' Donuts, massive, ground-coffee pack that I bought from Costco. "It's bitter." It was true. We left the morning open ...

For some reason it took us forever to get going this morning. Not that we got up to late, but we were just slow to pack-up and go. The drive was going OK until we got into Iowa when we went into a headwind and lost a lot of gas mileage. This was also due to the rough roads. For the first time this trip we had lunch in the RV at a rest station - a very nice South Dakota Visitor ...

... Mitchell's Corn Palace isn't the first Corn Palace and certainly not the first grain-based palace. Several sprung out of the ground across this section of the Midwest including a Bluegrass Palace in Creston, Iowa (oh Iowa, why do you misbehave?) Mitchell Corn Palace's claim to fame: the only one to survive and become profitable. That, in itself, with all my seriousness, is a feat to be mentioned.