Chicago to the Corn Palace

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Chicago to South Dakota Even though it has only been 2 days since we’ve written, a whole lot has happened. Right now we’re driving from Mitchell, South Dakota and headed for Murdo, where we’re going to spend the night. I am very excited to see what kind of sunset we will have on the completely flat horizon. On Monday morning, in Chicago, we woke up and gathered our carload that we had taken from the car and headed over to that sketchy valet that we talked about before, which didn’t end up being too bad. We paid them and got into the car and looked for Millennium Park. The GPS didn’t like the tall buildings and basically did nothing for us while we were in the city. We did find our way there though and we parked the car and headed over to The Bean to take some pictures. It was REALLY hot outside. After Millennium, we went over to Chicago’s Little Lady for the architectural boat tour. The boat left the dock right across from what will be the new Trump Tower. The architectural tour was a great way to see the city. We learned a lot about the history of the city as well as where everything was which helped us out later when we were walking around. Many of the buildings were built on top of railroad tracks and have main roads going under them. The tour guide was very proud of the city planning. After the tour, we walked over to the Sears Tower. On the way there we got sidetracked by a few stores. My sunglasses had broken in the car before we got to Chicago and I wanted some more. I talked Lindsey into getting some, very fashionable! She put them on, feeling very proud of her fashion purchase. It was too funny when we realized that she hadn’t taken off the 100%!U(MISSING)VB Protection sticker that was still on the lens. The Sears Tower has an observation deck on the 103rd floor which went up to. The elevator ride was very quick… The number counter in the elevator counted by 10s. On top, the view of Chicago was amazing! When we got to the bottom, we called Tanner and eventually met up with him at Gino’s East for some Chicago deep dish pizza. We had a great time catching up after 8 years! At about 9:30 we headed out of Illinois and headed for Wisconsin. Lindsey drove while I slept on and off. The weather was really crazy. Downpour one second, major fog the next, and the most clear, brightest starlit sky that I can remember seeing the next! We stopped about 3 hours later at a 24 hour BP and went in to get some waters. We walked up to the counter to pay for our drinks and I said “Hi” to the cashier. Without hesitation he responded, “No, but I wish I was”. Too funny, keeping himself amused I suppose! I started driving until about 2 am and made it to La Crosse, Wisconsin where we decided to find ourselves a place to stay. We ended up in the Holiday Inn Express. This hotel was MUCH nicer than that crazy Travelodge. In this place we each had our own beds, we had a parking lot, and there was even a couch in our room! All this for about $60 less! We got into the car at about 10:30am this morning and headed to the Minnesota border. We got out at the Upper Mississippi River and walked around a bit and talked to a woman who told us to take the more scenic route 16. We did that for a while meaning to head to Lanesboro, Minnesota. Somewhere along the way, we took a wrong turn and ended up on I-90 about 45 minutes later. Oh well, it was beautiful while we were there, just didn’t make it to Lanesboro. At least we ended up on 90 because that is eventually where we wanted to be. We pulled off to get gas and ate in Dexter, Minnesota. Our cute waitress definitely had the accent! When we were leaving a kid pulled his tractor up to the gas pump… what a sight! We headed out again and made it to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. One of the things that I noticed and liked immediately was that the speed limit was 75. I personally think that it is that high so that they don’t have to patrol this place. We haven’t seen a cop yet! We got the call from my mom that we weren’t able to get Rockies tickets, so Lindsey and I decided to get going on our route and we’re going to get there earlier and try to scalp tickets. We stopped at the visitors center in Sioux Falls and the man there told us to go to Mitchell, South Dakota to visit the World’s Only Corn Palace. The palace’s outside wall is covered with decorative corn that is designed each year by a different artist and costs about $130,000 to complete! Lindsey and I pulled into Mitchell and immediately knew that this place was going to have better stories than McKean, PA. We went into the corn palace and spent about 20 minutes in there. Then we walked across the street, around town, and back. The town was so small and deserted that we even saw people that we had just seen 2 hours before at the visitor center. We decided to eat at the Jackpot Gamblin’ Saloon. We checked out the menu and had a few questions. As most of you know, Lindsey loves Buffalo wings and things of the sort, so she asked about the Buffalo burger. She asked about the sauce that they put on the burger and the girl said, full with hand motions, that it was not in fact the Buffalo that she was used to, but it was actual Buffalo meat! She didn’t end up getting that, but it was funny all the same. It took about an hour to get our drinks and food. While we were waiting there, the entire population of Mitchell descended on the bar for a good old fashion game of poker with 3 tables set up complete with folding chairs. A few of the players pulled up chairs for their drinks, definitely funny. It seemed as though, and was probably true, that everyone in the place knew each other and we were definite outsiders. I guess we should have known that we were the outsiders because of the attire that we saw in that bar. The waitress was wearing flipflops, a tanktop, and was really pregnant, one of the guys who was drinking in the bar had no shoes on! On our way out we contemplated buying the Jackpot Girls 2007 Calendar who were clearly townie regulars and employees, (June was our waitress). It was only $5 but we decided against it. We are thinking about going back for the bikini contest after seeing that calendar. We got into the car at about 8:15pm and proceeded to take ourselves back to I-90 to Murdo. We pulled over to the side of the road when we thought there was a good opportunity for sunset pictures and hung out there for a while. One of the many truckers that passed us must have thought that we were in trouble because a few minutes later a state cop (in a full uniform of a police shirt and hat, with jeans, we were bummed that we didn’t get our picture with him!) pulled up to make sure that we were alright. We told him that we were just taking pictures and he let us know that about 15 miles up the road there was a river. We eventually made it up the road to the river which turned out to be the Missouri River. As soon as we crossed the river the landscape immediately changed from flat farmland to beautiful rolling hills. Right now it is 10pm and it is still light out! The bugs must come out at dusk because we’re hitting so many swarms of them that it sounds like rain. Tomorrow we’re going to go to the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. Tomorrow night we’re staying with one of Dan’s friends who we haven’t met yet in Fort Collins, Colorado. I do have to say that I’m impressed with us for staying on our schedule so far!

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