Today was another travel day – a longer one – and anything
but boring - mostly in a good way. This
morning we left Leavenworth, KS about 6:30 with hopes of reaching Mitchell, SD
by late afternoon. We had very light
rain, with temp of 69, and minimal winds.
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| Geek-traveling from Kansas |
Forecast for this afternoon in Mitchell, sunny with 15-25 mph winds and
a low tonight of 39. We were hoping for the 15mph. We re-entered MO and before reaching Iowa we
hit heavy rain but it really didn't last long.
We entered Iowa about 0840 and about 10 miles later had our first
exciting wild life sighting in several days.
Our first bald eagle of the trip!!
That was fitting since we have been watching the Decorah, IA Eagle Cam for the last few years. We just never tire of seeing eagles.
Yes, we see them in Alabama and we get excited when we see them there,
too. About a mile on up the road we,
spotted the large nest of the eagles.
Yea! – Now maybe we will be adding more wildlife to our list. Sorry – no picture because we didn't have a
camera out.
The trip today was primarily
through acres and acres, miles and miles of what we think were corn
fields. Most were still showing the
stubble from last year's harvest but some had been turned revealing the very
rich looking black soil.
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| Unusual cloud over fields |
Road signs
indicate we are in a different culture – signs for stetson outlets, stores with
18,000 pairs of boots and guided water fowl hunting trips. We saw a lot of the water fowl at a nature
reserve at a rest area a few miles north of Council Bluffs.
As we were leaving Sioux Falls, we saw our
first herd of buffalo. There were feed
lot buffalo – the kind they make buffalo burgers from. The sign advertised "skulls, hides, halves and quarters." They don't really count on our wild
life tally since we didn't count all the black Angus cows we saw at feed
lots. Also as we left Sioux Falls, there
was this bizarre sculpture garden with huge metal sculptures of a
strange assortment things – a hammer, a longhorn, a rocking chair, all brightly
painted. Strange to see on the side of
the interstate. Unfortunately the entire
drive from Sioux Falls to Mitchell the winds continued to increase. About 20 miles out it was gusting
40-42mph.
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| Whitecaps on small pond |
If we hadn't been so close we
would have just pulled off the interstate and found a campground, but since we
were so close we just slowed down and continued. We arrived safely in Mitchell and
unhitched the truck and went to “The Word's Only Corn Palace.”
What is a Corn Palace you ask? Well, the first Palace was build in 1892
where settlers displayed their bounty on the building's exterior to prove the
fertility of the soil and to attract immigrant farmers to settle in South
Dakota. Each year a new decorating theme
is chosen and the outside of the Corn Palace is stripped and redecorated with
new corn and grains. Roughly 275
THOUSAND ears of corn are sawed in half lengthwise and nailed to the building
following patterns created by local artists – sort of like a paint by number
but with corn.
The area above the stage
inside the building is also decorated with a corn mural. It is really something to see.
The pictures can not do it justice. It is considered “around the world as a folk
art wonder.”
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| Corn shuck dolls |
We then returned to
Cabela's where we had left the rig and are overnighting in their parking
lot. Cabela's really caters to the
RVers. The Mitchell store has a
separate parking lot just for RVs. The
trucks are in another lot. They even
have a dump station and water. Right now
there are 5 other rigs here with us. I
wonder if any of them are going to Alaska?
This Cabela's is known for its wild life exhibits inside the store. They have a polar bear, caribou, elk, moose as
well as stone sheep and long horn sheep – very well done. We plan to go on to the Storm Mountain Center, south of
Rapid City, SD tomorrow if everything goes as planned. See – we told you it wasn't a boring
day.
A road trip is never boring. Miss yall!
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