We left Minnesota this morning and headed for Mitchell, South Dakota. We were going to stay in Sioux Falls, but decided to get a little further west. We found a KOA just off Interstate 90. I was reading up on the campsite and realized it was right next to another Picture spot from the coffee table book!! I hope we will have time to stop at the Corn Palace!! It is slow going today because of extremely high winds. We had to pull over once to put some extra straps on the awning. We already installed keepers when we encountered high winds on another journey, but this was just too much wind!! The straps are holding so we should be good to go J
There it is! The Corn Palace! This place is really interesting. The entire outside is decorated with local grains and corn cobs. It was first built in 1892, just three years after South Dakota became a state. The people of Mitchell built it to prove to the rest of country that corn could be a lucrative crop in South Dakota, thus encouraging people to settle in the area. The Palace became the cultural center of town. Fairs, parades, festivals, concerts and the like were regularly held here. It attracted so many visitors that they needed to move two blocks away and build a bigger version. Every year, from 1892 -2011 (except during WWII), the outside of the Palace is stripped of the previous year’s bounty and new grain and cobs are attached. Artists put drawings on the building as blueprints for the new murals. Every year the theme for the murals changes. Sometimes they depict the bounty of South Dakota, sometimes they are patriotic and sometimes they are historic. The town commissioned John Phillip Sousa and his band to play at the Palace when the town of Mitchell was vying for the honor of becoming South Dakota’s State Capitol. The palace quickly became famous. Although Mitchell’s hopes for becoming the Capital were dashed by the city of Pierre, the pride that the people of Mitchell had for their Corn Palace continues even today. Many celebrities have visited, spoken and performed here over the years; Bob Hope, the Everly Brothers, George McGovern (a Mitchell resident from boyhood, through his campaign and currently), Tammy Wynette, Duke Ellington, 38 Special, President Obama and many more. High schools from around the state hold their basketball tournaments here. A percentage of the proceeds gained from the various events held here, as well as the income from the “Corncession” booth are “earmarked” for the preservation and annual redecorating of the Corn Palace! We had a lot of fun here and now it’s off to our KOA.
We needed to do a laundry run, so I walked with Brett and Lindsey across the way from the RV to start the laundry. When we walked over, it had just begun to rain and thunder and lightning. We knew there was a big storm headed our way, but the good news was that the tornado watch was cancelled J As we were loading the machines, the storm got really bad and the KOA manager came in and told us to stay right there until the storm passed. Brett called Rich to let him know that we would be a while and not to worry. We finally were able to get back to the RV. Brett and Lindsey offered to be in charge of dinner tonight! They had some pasta and sauce in their food box from MS, so they decided to cook that and go over to the KOA store to look for something to go with it. While they were in the store, I went and changed over the laundry. They bought some bratwurst that was packaged locally, and more crackers for our cheese. Yes, we have plenty of cheese on board! While they fixed dinner, Rich and I went back to check on the laundry. It was pouring!! You should have seen Rich and I, each trying to hold an umbrella and carry a VERY loaded sack of folded laundry in each hand back to the RV. Did I mention how windy it was? With both of our hands full, we could only hold the umbrellas between our chin and shoulder. They almost took flight a zillion times! That was the longest run/walk ever back to the RV. Our reward…….dinner was waiting, and it smelled wonderful! We watched a movie then pre-packed up everything so we could get an early start in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment