Hampton Inn Mitchell Sd

... about food, don't I...<br>sorry, part of the culture here! (Besides what else am I going to blog about &#8211; the scenery?? Not today, it's prairie country!)<br><br>Arrived at the 'Corn Palace' in Mitchell, South Dakota about 4pm &#8211; a lot of shops and other<br>businesses and even Rest Area's are closed for the season &#8211; I think this time of year normally has a lot of snow around. We went inside the Corn Palace and watched some ...

... Palace and has been around since 1892. The murals change every year along with the theme and are made of corn and other native grains. <br><br>Once again last night we had our rain shower. We have had them every night since we have been on the road. Of course it is better to have them then than while Terry is driving or we are out sightseeing.<br><br>Next stop will be for a few days in Custer State Park between the Badlands and Black Hills.

... first built in the late 1890's when Mitchell was competing with Pierre to be named the state's capital and to celebrate the abundent corn harvest. In August of each year, freshly harvested corn is attached to the building to form murals and a celebration is held. Local artists design the murals which change each year. Some of the famous people who have appeared at the Corn Palace are John Phillip Sousa, Lawrence Welk , Bob ...

DAY 77 to DAY 80, Wednesday, July 1 to Saturday, July 4, 2009<br><br>Rapid City, South Dakota to Mithell, SD<br><br>Who knew there was so much to do in the Black Hills of South Dakota? This is a big recreational area with all kinds of "touristy" attractions as well. We got to Rapid City, SD, Tuesday evening after visiting Devils Tower in Wyoming on the way. We stayed at the Rapid City KOA, arriving in ...

... first point of interest came 688 miles into our trek - at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, southeast corner of the state. Thoroughly enjoyed an fascinating 3 hours at the extremely interesting and educational, but vastly underknown National Music Museum. It contains over 13,500 instruments dating back many centuries. Some extremely rare, many unheard of - with a well done audio program that let's you listen to ...

... 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 ...

... rest of the day we spent driving towards West, and we landed in a lovely Motel in Mitchell, the "Thunderbird" which we can highly recommend!! For $50 Dollars incl tax we got the nicest room so far in the US. We had a dinner a a roadside diner, and as we had to wait very long, and Vero started moaning...never leave a girl hungry to long, we were offered a free desert .... a very jummy apple lpie. That is Amercian service !! :) The place is called "Country Kitchen" (a chain we believe).

... considerably less than the RV! Oh dear, we had a problem. On such narrow roads there was nowhere to turn, so we had to reverse back down to the last switchback and attempt to turn there. It might not have been too bad trying to reverse an RV on a narrow road, with sheer hundred foot drop on one side and granite cliffs on the other, but matters were made worse by the flow of traffic, coming at us both ways. One kind passerby jumped out ...