Traveling from South Dakota through Minnesota

July 23 we head into Minnesota. My goodness – we are seeing corn field after corn field. There seem to be many soy bean fields as well. The countryside is lovely – the corn really does go on seemingly forever. We arrive at Mystic Lake Casino RV Park in Prior Lake, MN. That afternoon the four of us head to the casino for the dinner buffet (we were hoping for seafood, but no….).

The next day we drove the less than 20 miles to Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. It is huge – 3 full floors with a partial 4^th floor that is the theaters. We walked and walked and walked around all three levels. In the center is a large amusement park with rides of all kinds. There is also a Lego display area. It took us about three hours to accomplish our trips around and do a bit of shopping along the way.

July 25 we were on the move again – this time heading south to Albert Lea, MN. We find ourselves in an RV park next to a corn field.  From the RV and on the road, I figured the corn was 4 or 5 feet tall. Well, from ground level it is clear that it is closer to 7 feet high. Most of the corn in this area is seed corn we are told. Since we have some afternoon left, we drive the 14 miles to Austin, MN to visit the SPAM Museum – it was a very entertaining tour. We didn’t realize how many foods Hormel makes!

Crossing the Mississippi River

The next day we drove the 40 miles to the Winnebago Factory to go on their factory tour. Our traveling companions have an Itasca, made by Winnebago. The tour lasted 2 hours and from there we drove back to Albert Lea to pick up our RVs and took off for DeForest, WI – just a few miles from Madison. It was a long afternoon and we enjoyed crossing the massive Mississippi River. We’d missed seeing the Missouri River during that rainstorm earlier in the trip. It continues to be very humid (about 75%) with temps in the upper 80s.

The next day we drove to Taliesen – the 1st home of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. He used this house to experiment with his architectural ideas, so he was always building and tearing down to try something new. He was a very interesting fellow.

Then just 6 miles down the road we visited ‘House on the Rock’ – I don’t even know how to describe the place. When he was a young man, Alex Jordan visited the area of Wisconsin called Spring Green. He saw a huge rock overlooking the countryside and paid the owner of the property $20 so he could picnic there. Over the next years he managed to purchase the property with the rock and eventually land around it. He built his house there (incorporating the rock into the house) and began collecting things – it seems like he collected hundreds of items. 

One of several unique pots

He expanded his home on the rock to include all these collections. The tour is a 3 mile trip through (1) the house, gardens, and Alex Jordan Center; (2) Streets of Yesterday, a tribute to the sea, Music of Yesterday, aviation area, and a huge brightly lighted carousel; (3) An organ collection, doll collection and doll carousel, and the Circus Room. By the time we were finished, we were exhausted. It was a bit frustrating that we couldn’t get good photos because everything (especially the house) was very dimly lit. But it was amazing.

One of the many huge musical displays

The next day we visited the capitol of Wisconsin in Madison, the Monona Convention Center (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright) on the bank of Lake Monona, and the Olbrich Botanical Gardens – there was a butterfly exhibit going on that we especially enjoyed. We also visited a nearby Cheese outlet – I mean, we ARE in cheese country. There are wonderful farms, many with small dairies all over the area. This is a beautiful and peaceful area of our country.

From the butterfly exhibit

From the Thai exhibit at the botanical garden. The gold is actual gold leaf - just beautiful.

Rapid City to Mitchell, South Dakota

July 18 we drove to Rapid City S.D. where we met friends Diann and Rich Coy. They will travel with us the next 3+ months.

On a very pleasant July 19 we drove the 45 minutes to Deadwood where we walked up and down the main street. They claim they have 84 casinos, but most have just a few slot machines. The town’s claim to fame includes the likes of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill, etc. – lots of interesting bits of history.

The next day we left the RV park early and headed for Mt. Rushmore. The viewing is free, but you must pay $10 to park your car. Once you are parked and walk toward the monument, you become aware of the many improvements made there. 

As we walked toward the monument, we walked along the Avenue of Flags where all 50 states have plaques on granite pillars (one on each of 4 sides of each pillar). The date they joined the union is on the plaque. And at the top of each pillar the 4 flags are flying. It’s really neat. 

There is a nice museum and the workshop of the monument designer where you can see how the monument was designed and created – quite nice. You could spend several hours if you wanted to learn all the history.

Once we were done at the monument, we drove the wildlife highway through Custer State Park – along the route we saw buffalo, elk, pronghorns, prairie dogs, and burros; and much lovely scenery.

From there we continued to the Crazy Horse monument. I imagine many of you have either seen it or heard of it. It is still a long way from being done. We didn’t care to pay the $27 to drive into the monument, but we were able to take good pictures from outside the entrance and that was enough for us.

July 21 we headed east again – our goal was to see Wall Drug and Badlands Nat’l Park on our way to Mitchell, SD. We drove the RVs to the large Wall Drug parking lot and unhooked Rich’s car which we took on the loop drive through the Badlands. It was much more massive than we expected – very beautiful rock formations at the east end of the park; grasslands toward the west end.

We returned to Wall Drug and strolled through many of the 28 stores and 540-seat restaurant. You can get coffee for 5 cents – free if you are a US Veteran. But most of the 72,000 sq. ft. store is drug stores and other specialty shops. It was interesting and we can check it off our list!

Then the fun began – we had about 220 miles to drive to reach our RV park in Mitchell, SD. The first 1.5 hours were not a problem. But we were hearing about a thunderstorm to the north. Unfortunately we ended up in the storm and drove 120 miles in driving rain and wind whistling across the RVs. It was really nasty. As we drove Gordie noticed that water was bubbling along his window well. Oh my goodness – all the window wells on the driver’s side of the RV were full of water. I got dish towels and cleaned up, then stuffed the towels into the tracks. I ended up using every kitchen towel I had over the next 5 hours (they would get completely soaked) as we continued through constant rain and wind – and I mean constant, there was NEVER a letup. We finally did get to Mitchell, but it was still pouring rain. The next day as we visited with the RV park managers, they told us that their swimming pool overflows with more than 4” of rain and it overflowed that night.

Fortunately the next day (though super humid and warm) was relatively nice. We headed out to visit the Corn Palace. What an interesting place – the only corn palace in the world. The town first built the corn palace to draw attention to Mitchell in hopes of it becoming the South Dakota state capitol. Even though that bid was unsuccessful, they have made the most of this unique place. Inside is a basketball court and large auditorium. 

Outside the front and side walls are covered with corn artistically attached to the wood walls. An artist designs the pictures and each year the corn is replaced at harvest time (usually mid-August) with a new set of designs. They even have special fields where they grow the specialty colored corn to use for the pictures. During August they have name entertainment every weekend to celebrate the corn harvest.

Closeup of corn in the design

 And last but not least for this blog - the Meade's first hokey photo - it's a must occasionally !!!!!

And we head onward to Mystic Lake Casino RV Park in Prior Lake, MN where we will drive to investigate Mall of America!!

More next time...................

  

From Boise, ID to Rapid City, SD

Our journey began – July 9, 2010. Our first stop was Boise where we visited with our son Kelly, wife Margo, and our grandson, David. After a very hot weekend (temps in the high 90s) we headed east at 6:45 AM July 12, driving 434 miles to Dillon, MT. We stayed at a lovely campground where we enjoyed watching yellow headed and red wing blackbirds that live in the nearby marsh/cat tails feeding nearby. During our drive that day we enjoyed the wide open spaces and lots of hay fields. When the wind blew, the grasses waved – it was gorgeous.

And of interest to our PacNat friends, at the park we ran into Betty Jo and Guy Patterson; former Pacnat members from Bullhead, AZ.

The next morning we drove to Billings, MT. and visited the historic Moss mansion – a three story home that was built in the late 1800s. The family became wealthy and traveled the world searching for furnishings, so the inside was quite spectacular.  

Then we drove to Pompey’s Pillar – the one location on the Lewis and Clark trail where Clark etched his name and date on the pillar on his way back to St. Louis. Here we took the boardwalk to the top of the massive stone and saw marmots lounging on the rocks – fun.

Then it was on to Garryowen, MT where we spent a day and a half visiting Little Bighorn Battlefield – site of Custer’s Last Stand. If you didn’t know about the 7^th cavalry battles of June 25 & 26, 1876 when you left, you didn’t pay attention. 

In an effort to show sympathy for the Indians, additions are being added to the monument like this iron art displayed.

Then it was across the street to the Museum and restaurant where we had yummy Indian tacos and spent time in the extensive museum and gift shop. Before heading back to camp, we visited the Custer Museum – very good film there (an A&E special) about the battles. 

One afternoon we also drove the 12 miles west to Hardin, MT where there is a free county museum on acreage with furnished buildings from the area in the early 1900s – doctor’s office, school, church, train station, etc. and many farm machines – quite good.

Next stop, Sundance, WY – a small town that was close to Devil’s Tower Nat’l Monument. It was hot, so we left the RV park at 7:30AM to do our hiking early. The Tower is huge – we walked the trail around it (1.3 mi) enjoying the scenery and stopping to watch crazy rock climbers on the monolith faces. As we arrived back at the Visitor’s Center, we saw the parking lot was full of Corvettes – dozen’s of them – all shined and beautiful; not dusty like our Saturn. Below Devil's Tower near the campground was "Circle wind", a sculpture depicting the first puff from a pipe - again, an Indian symbol. We drove a loop road back to the park, stopping for excellent hamburgers at Cindy Bee’s diner in Aladin– clearly the restaurant where all the locals go.

We completed our drive by visiting Vore Buffalo Jump. Before the Indians used horses to help get meat and hides, tribes would join forces and get the buffalo running to the edge of this sink hole where the animals would fall over the edge. The Indians would then follow them into the hole, kill those still alive, and collect the meat and skins and whatever else they could use. Archeologists from the U of Wyoming are excavating the site and have found bones down more than 30 feet deep.

Tomorrow we head to Rapid City, SD and the Black Hills where we will meet up with our traveling companions.