9/23/14 - Day 9 Corn Palace

Well...the T-Bird is back in the shop.  That loud noise last night was caused when a nut stripped off the top of a shock.  While we wait for parts from Sioux Falls, we had breakfast at Fanny Horner's, then we were off to see the Mitchell Corn Palace. 

What a interesting place!  There are large murals with an agriculture motif that are all made  using corn and other grains. They are remodeling and reworking the murals at this time.  The grain tends to get moldy and the birds like the smaller grain so they change them every year.

We got gifts at the gift shop for the granddaughters.  There were plastic tomahawks, plastic guns and even pink gun sets for girls, and all types of corn stuff, including corn cob jam!

Now we are headed for the George McGovern Legacy Museum.  It is part of the college here in Mitchell. We were unable to find the museum. It must have been in the Library at the College.  

The car parts were due at about 1pm so we were hoping to make some progress today. Parts arrived and were skillfully installed after one of the guys called his dad to ask a few questions about how to get the shock out of a car this old.  (The car is older than he is.) We had the manual and his dad just said it would tell him what they needed to know.  there isn't anything hard about it. We want to thank the guys at TMA in Mitchell, SD for there fast work and for the loaner car to use so we could go to breakfast and look around town.  They were great!

Our Team At TMA in Mitchell SD

We were out of town by 3pm headed east.  I-90 heads thru some flat parts of the country where there is lots of corn and more corn.  There are also power generating windmills along the highway.  The difference between these windmills and the ones in the Columbia Gorge is the Gorge windmills face the way the road travels following the Columbia and the wind.  In SD, and Minnesota the windmills face perpendicular to the road the way the wind blows. Today most of them were working due to the windy conditions.  It was fun driving. We passed the Jelly Stone Campground and we went by Laura Ingalls Wilder's home and through the landscape that was the setting for her Little House on the Prairie books .  Her books were based on her own experiences and as we were traveling along we realized where she got her ideas.  Trust us..  Even though there might have been mountains in the TV show scenery, there are no mountains out here at all.  Thanks Al for the information on the Pipestone National Monument.  We enjoyed reading about its history.

As we got to Austin, MN we started to smell an unusual odor.  About the time the odor got the strongest we were passing the Hormel plant and the Spam Museum. We are about a day behind schedule so we continued on at night.  The highways don't have lights at most exits and it takes your eyes a second to adjust from the travel stops, we continued with care and we made it to LaCrosse, WI.