Aug 11 – I feel as though I didn’t do justice to the sights mentioned in my last update. Let me expand some. STURGIS: This event is so big, the downtown area merchants lease their stores to those selling biker related goods for the entire month. They clear out their goods and the biker retailers put up new signs and fill the place with their own merchandize. Block after block after block all you see downtown are brick and motor store fronts selling motorcycle related goods, amazing. Everyone that has room for a motorhome or tent in their front yard rents the space out. There are doctor and dentist offices, funeral parlors and average homes, all full of tents and campers. Children hold signs “camp in my front yard $15 a night.” Hundreds of people line the streets to watch the constant parade of motorcycles head towards downtown.
THE BADLANDS: What a change of scenery. This thing look like someone took a handful of wet sand and let it run out onto the ground creating a little pile. They’re all over. They are composed of soft sand. You can rub it a bit and the sand comes loose. We saw prairie dog towns, several big horn sheep, prong horn antelope and luckily no rattle snakes. They have signs all over warning you to stay on the sidewalks because of the large number of rattle snakes they have there. Don’t worry about Val, she had no intention of straying.
The various colors of the dirt is really something. Some was, naturally, tan other yellow, then pink, then mauve (the decorator in me says there’s a subtle difference). Each color was layered one on top of the other. Made for some great photos.
We drove to Mitchell, South Dakota and saw the famous Corn Palace. This place was amazing. The entire exterior is covered in corn cobs or husks. They put them together to form murals. Check out the photos. Inside they have huge murals all made of corn. We saw a short film and it said it takes 275,000 ears of corn and over 100 acres just for the decorations. They change is every year. They just finished the 2010 exterior in time for their annual festival. Kenny Rogers is the head performer but they have people every night for a week. Gee, it might compete with Sturgis. No, Sturgis will be over this weekend and the Corn festival starts Aug 25th. Whew, had me worried there for a moment.
Tomorrow we should break into Minnesota. More to come.
I'm glad you didn't have a tornado when you were in Mitchell. Last summer we were on our way to the Corn Palace and had to divert to WalMart while the tornado warning was in affect. When we got the ok to leave -- boy did I high tail it out of town and kept a close eye in the rear view mirror. On our way back to MT we did stop and see the World Famous Corn Palace. Nicole loved the picture of the year adorning, what looks like, the swatztika (spelling?)- = good luck.
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