Mitchell, South Dakota

The Lloyd-Chanin Express pulled in different directions this morning. Lloyd toward a slow start, with time for sleeping/chilling/blogging. Chanin favored an early departure, with a busy, touristy day in mind. Lots of pulling, little driving. At least not until 2. Very nice coffee at a place called Coffea was a decent palliative.

90 or so miles later, we arrived in Mitchell, SD, tempers cooled, the train (mostly) on track.

A quick stop at a Mexican restaurant, which fared pretty well in online reviews. Food was ok, the service middling, but hilarious. A very white, very South Dakota-y (if that’s even a thing) middle-aged woman greeted us with a hearty “Oh-La,” and was overheard a bit later correcting herself after saying something like “de noodo” instead of “de nada.” Full of food and south-of-the-border cheer, we pressed on.

How could we be anything but elated at the sight of the Corn Palace? In the midst of a pretty dumpy, dusty, past-its-prime town is the Palace, a work of “art” built entirely from corn. Seemingly modeled after the Taj Mahal or some Arabian home-of-dreams. Originally created in 1892 to show off the fertility of the area’s soil. Its staying power is (in my view) its most incredible quality.

The murals on the outside of the building itself (which is a basketball gymnasium, of all things) rotate annually, owing to the elements and to hungry animals. “The world’s largest bird feeder,” as the saying goes.

As far as we could tell, the theme for 2010 is travel. Huge pictures (12’ x 18’?) of a motorcycle, a car, and – yup, you guessed it – a Segway, among others, line the exterior of the building. The Mount Rushmore mural was our favorite of several pretty cool ones on the inside of the building (which last for 10-12 years).

Tons of hilarious stuff for sale in stalls placed on the floor of the gym and around the outside of the bleachers. Everything you can imagine – in a corn theme. All except for the still, brownish pheasant pelts for sale in the bowels of the CP. Laura wanted one, but I had to insist otherwise. Where would we put it, I ask? It was almost 5 by the time we finished checking out the old photos and historical kitsch, so we decided to skip what surely would have been a very memorable tour.

200+ miles to our next destination: the Badlands. 90 west is straight, flat, and pretty boring. Little variation in the landscape, tons and tons of annoying billboards. I’ve not been to Wall Drug, but I hate Wall Drug. The signs are everywhere, they are in your face, and they tend to stick with you. Effective, irritating.**

** I’ll resist the urge to rant about how commercialized/tourist-trappy many of the sights along the way have become (thanks in part - I’m guessing - to the prowess of Wall Drug’s marketing geniuses).