Badlands National Park, Day 1

Sunday, 9/18/2011
Interior, SD

Here are a few photos from our first day at Badlands National Park.  Hope you enjoy, we sure did! 

Corn Palace and on to the Badlands of South Dakota

Sunday, 9/18/2011

Interior, SD

As I had mentioned in our last post, we arrived at the R&R Campground in Mitchell, SD, on Thursday.  We had originally planned on only staying two nights. However, the weather on Saturday was chilly, rainy, and windy.  We decided to stay another night for a total of three nights.

Friday we went to the Corn Palace in Mitchell. 

I remember going there many, many years ago with my parents.  It’s a building in downtown Mitchell with murals made of different colors of corn on the cob and other grains.  This is actually the third Corn Palace.  The previous two buildings are now gone.  Other than the artwork on the outside of the building, there’s not much to look at.  Inside there are numerous photos of previous versions of the artwork on the building.  I found it interesting to look at the photos and see the different themed murals.   Also interesting was seeing the different vehicles parked on the street.  Inside the building is a regulation size basketball court where  more than 150 high school and college games are played each year.  The basketball court area is also used for other activities throughout the year.  This particular weekend was the annual Polka Festival.  NO, we did NOT polka, but we did watch for a while.  This is the first Corn Palace.

 

And this is the second Corn Palace.

Here are few more photos of the current Corn Palace.

A Mustang and some apple pie…

baseball and a close-up of the corn on the cob,

A mural before the corn is applied and a closer look,

still working on this one and one other view.

Here is some artwork made from corn shucks,

and a photo of a little baby corn…

These two places were down the street,

we didn’t stop at either one.  This area of town has a number of interesting places, but due to the cold, windy weather we didn’t go into any of them.  We rode around town a while and then stopped at Wal-Mart.  The rest of the time we just hung out at the campground.

The campground had a lot of overnighters each night we were there.  There was at least one couple staying there that were polka dancers.  They spent most of their time at the Corn Palace.

Sunday we left for the Badlands.  We stopped on the way at the Missouri River Rest Area on I-90.

  It’s more than just a rest area.  They have an exhibit about the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  It was very interesting and worth the stop.  It took us just over four hours to go 210 miles including about an hour stop at the rest area.  We’re settled in at the Cedar Pass Campground in Badlands National Park near Interior, SD.  Here are a couple of first impression photos…

actually, it’s the view out our back window.  More on the Badlands in the next post.

Another weekly update and Mitchell, SD

Thursday, 9/15/2011

Mitchell, SD

This past week went by quickly.  We did a bit of sightseeing, errands, and relaxing.

One of the places we visited was a marker placed at the tri-point where Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota all come together.

This is nothing spectacular, just something that interests me.  The top somewhat red portion is the original marker.  It’s actually sitting in South Dakota.  The actual tri-point is in the middle of the intersection.  This location is out in the middle of the countryside.  Not only is it a spot where three states meet, but it’s a three-way intersection.  After some picture taking we headed west/northwest back toward Sioux Falls and then south back home.  Just another casual, enjoyable ride through the country.

Garretson, SD, was another place we visited.  This little town is located northeast of Sioux Falls.  A city park called Devil’s Gulch

claims to be the spot where the notorious bandit Jesse James jumped his horse over a 15 foot wide chasm to elude a posse.  This is a very deep cut in the quartzite with a creek at the bottom.  There’s also a waterfall upstream from the point of the “jump.”

Also located in Garretson is Split Rock Park.  There’s a small campground with about a dozen 30 amp sites.  There are possibly two or three sites that we could actually use.  It seems like a nice quiet little city park.  Split Rock Creek runs next to the park.

We both liked Garretson.  It was a nice quaint little town.

Later in the week, we made another mail run up to Madison.  We stopped at a local museum on the way up to take a few pictures.

Today was a travel day and we woke up to this,

our first frost of the season.  Oh boy, maybe it’s time to think about heading south!!

This is the RV park sign at night.  Gotta love that neon.

Today we traveled to Mitchell, SD.  We drove about 85 miles, and it took us about two hours including a fuel stop.  We’re staying at the R&R Campground just off I-90. 

So again, more traffic noise.  Except for the traffic noise, this is a nice little Passport America park for a quick stopover.  When we arrived here there weren't many sites occupied.  But by dusk, the park was nearly full with overnighters and weekenders.  Any guesses as to what we have planned here in Mitchell?