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Published: July 23rd 2008
Corn Palace, Mitchell, SC
A picture from the outsideToday was a little more relaxed driving wise since we'd knocked off so many miles in the first 2 days. We started out around 7:00-ish again and as we were driving, decided to stop in Mitchell, SD to see the world famous Corn Palace!!...couldn't pass it up! We had breakfast there, then went to find the Corn Palace. They were in the process of changing the pictures and things already for 2009 (go figure!!) and we spent probably an hour there going through the gift shop and picking out a few souveniers.
Anyway..we got back on the road and since it was only about 200+ miles to Rapid City, we were not in any particular hurry. We started to plan the route of "attack" at that point to visit the sites along the way from east to west so it was a bit more efficient. Oh..my..gosh!...there is hay -EVERYWHERE-!!!! And land as far as you can see!! Solid Alfalfa fields in perfect bloom and ready to cut again but the fields are just stacked and lined with round bales as far as you can see!! Farther west then you'd see the herds of mostly Angus brood cows and calves...all just
Corn Palace
All around inside, there were also a lot of pictures out on hundreds of acres of pasture land. Most had a natural pond around in it somewhere and we laughed because the cows were nearly always standing in the water!
I had decided at one point that I'd have to stop at a rest stop but didn't need to immediately as I was upon one, but the boys were napping and I didn't want to wake them and decided I could hold off to the next one which was another 30 miles away. Boy..was I glad I did wait! The next one was right around Chamberlain, SD and when I went off on the exit, it said it was a scenic outlook..the ramp wound around for probably 2-3 miles and the rest stop was then perched on an overlook of the Missouri River!! It was a point where Lewis & Clark had stopped several times to camp both on their trip to the Northwest and on the return trip, so there was all sorts of interesting things to learn there (such as the keelboat that they used on their trip was built in Pittsburgh!!). We spent another hour or so there and then go back on and went down
Corn Palace
more from inside across the Missouri then.
We continued west then until we got to the Badlands and we got off then to see them. OMG..it's UNBELIEVABLE! You and see how there must have been an ancient inland "Great Lake" there and as it receded, it just left layers and layers of sediment that eroded over time into what it is now. It goes on forever. We drove the road through it after stopping at the first lookout or two and it's probably a 30 mile road just winding through it..I'm glad I didn't go into it with only a 1/4 tank of gas or I'd have been sweating!! We probably spent a good 2-3 hours just there...but that was ok since we had gained another hour by going into the next time zone again!!!
We left there and drove through Wall, SD just a bit to see a sight there and got gas and then headed to Rapid City. We got here then somewhere around 5:00 and I stopped at the Holiday Inn there to see about a room but they were booked full. So she called the one in Hill City, which was really where I was hoping to
Dad & Stephen
Posing with Dad & Stephen in the corn was beneath Thomas's dignity (he claimed!) go to anyway because it's closer to the sites we wanted to see and they reserved us a room there. It was probably a good 25-30 miles away but we got here and checked in, then just went to Subway and go a sandwich for dinner. The hotel literally overlooks the train station for the 1880 Train ride so that's really cool...we can just walk to it tomorrow to do that!
Now's time for some serious sightseeing!
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