So I was right about nothing exciting happening before Mt. Rushmore... except for the Corn Palace! After leaving Missouri I was ready for the boredom of the Missouri country side having been to Kansas City before. What I was not ready for was the monotony of Iowa. I honestly could not tell you one thing we saw in Iowa that was not a farm or field. We passed through Omaha in about 30 seconds and Sioux City in even less. Our original plan to stop in Sioux Falls went out the window when we started seeing signs for the Corn Palace. I had seen this before on some travel channel show and figured it was hokey enough to stop at. So we detoured into Sioux Fall for dinner and a stop at the falls the city is named for. For some odd reason the main street of the town was lined with small statues, some cool, some very odd. I grabbed a picture of 3 dancing pigs because it was 3 dancing pigs. We walked the whole downton (about 3 blocks) then jumped in the car and headed for the Corn Palace.Now when I said Iowa was bad, I had not seen South Dakota. It literally was nothing but fields and big sky. Highway 90 cuts across the state connecting Sioux Falls to Rapid City, with very little in between. When making this drive Apocalypse Now comes to mind with the line "Don't get off the boat". Much the same, you should not get off the highway. We made the mistake of getting off for gas about 60 miles from Sioux Falls. Little did we know that the town was 5 miles from the highway, obscured by fields. The whole town smelled of manure and everyone seemed to be sitting on their front lawn (frankly there didn't seem to be much else to do). We stood out like a sore thumb with gigantism. I am sure the Virginia license plate didn't help. We quickly jumped back in the car and headed back to highway, convinced that this would be the last time we left the highway.
So now we sit in a Motel 8 (our hotel of choice recently) in Mitchell, South Dakota, about 10 feet from the highway. Tomorrow we brave the Corn Palace, the Prehistoric Indian Village and Wall Drug. Anticipation so high I am not sure how I will sleep tonight.
New pictures on Flickr and I added a direct link to the front page over to the right.
