Corn & Snow

We decided to drive the northern route back to Oregon despite the scare of snow in the mountains. We took off on Friday, October 10th and made it to Lake Vermillion, South Dakota. The campsite where we called home for the evening was very nice with a spot directly on the little lake. There was a slight breeze, but overall comfortable enough for Matt to lay in the grass and relax after a long drive.





Yesterday, October 11th, we hit the road again and stopped in Mitchell to see the famous Mitchell Corn Palace. To our surprise it was parade day, so I got some pictures with both the a-maizing (clever, huh?) palace and the high school bands playing as they passed by. Matt and I had stopped to see this palace back when we moved to Utah (over 10 years ago now) but it hadn't changed a bit. Still a big building with corn stock smacked on the sides. Kind of cool. The first time I was expecting to see the building covered in kernels, however that isn't the case.



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We skipped many of the other fun attractions that South Dakota has to offer; Wall Drug, 1880 Town, Laura Ingalls Wilder's home town, World's Largest Metal Bull Head, etc. I think that South Dakota does have a lot to offer and the time flies by when watching all of the billboards speeding by as we drove I-90. We had stopped at many of those things back when so we skipped to get to Rapid City before dark.




Last night we made it to Rapid City and I did some grocery shopping. We watched "The Happening" and were quite cozy in our little camper as it rained/snowed outside. We are at the KOA and although they seem to be overpriced, they have all of the amenities of a hotel - plus $1.00 All-You-Can-Eat pancakes every morning. I'm trying to get Matt out of bed so he'll go with me this morning. Some snow on the ground, but not much and since it is sunny out now, we plan on heading South (with the pick-up only) today to see Mount Rushmore. We'll stay here another night in anticipation that the snow will stop falling in Billings, MT by tomorrow a.m. (still snowing there now and that's our next stop).



Off to Billings, Montana tomorrow. And for Matt's sake, we're stopping in Sturgis to get a tour of the Motorcycle Museum in town. More updates after that...