Further into South Dakota and a stop at the world-famous Corn Palace

Tuesday we drove about 270 miles from Mitchell to the Badlands National Park. More about that in a day or two.

Before we got on the Interstate, we stopped at the world-famous Corn Palace. Sometimes you just have to go see the tourist trap places, but this was a pleasant surprise. It was free to go inside and look at the exhibits, but it was more interesting outside where they were doing the annual replacement of the exterior covering which is made out of corn and corn products. The cost to change the exterior design is $130,000 per year. 

Here is a partially completed panel on a side wall.

And here one of the local artists is using a pair of hand-held grass shears to refine his creation.

This is a photo of the original Corn Palace built in 1892.

And here I am with a local guy who claims to know my good friend in Inverness, Wally Henderson -- aka Wally Gator.   (private joke)

Last night we experienced one of those torrential  thunderstorms that sweep across the Dakota Badlands.  When it was done I took this photo of the hail that accumulated outside our cabin door.


See you later.

As those of you who travel know, finding wholesome food ont he road is not always easy.  Too many fast food places and they are tempting because they are convenient and don't take much time.  But we didn't want another salt-laden laden meal long the Interstate.  So we got off and drove a couple miles into the small town of Chamberlain, SD . We found a real life main street that was busy and went into a restaurant that was bustling with locals. The food was first rate, including the slice of home-made pie we shared. We will follow this new strategy in the future.

One of the reasons the town has an active main street is that there are no big box or Wallmart stores within a short distance. So the locals tend to shop locally. I like that.