Day 4 - Part 1 - World's Largest Bird Feeder

50's, windy, rain

This was the view from our truck:

We pulled out of the campground at 8:20 a.m.  I am finding straight through driving boring!  David keeps reminding me it will take two weeks just to drive into Alaska.  Fortunately, we have decided to stop at the World's Largest Bird Feeder - the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.

The town of Mitchell has a neat old clock downtown.

We stopped a family to take a picture of all of us outside the Corn Palace.  Note we all have on jackets.  It was cold!

Here's what the Corn Palace should look like:

 Here's how it looked on our visit:

 It is the process of being remodeled and renovated.  Each year the outside display is taken down and redone with new patterns.  The inside corn patterns are redone every ten years.  The outside ones are made of corn, corn cobs, corn stalks and corn leaves.  The birds love it!

 These are the big bulbs that would normally go on top of the building.

 These are the designs inside the auditorium.

The columns inside the building are made of mosaic tiles that resemble many of the different types of corn that are grown to make each design.

After grabbing a bag of popcorn, we headed across the street for some serious shopping among all the corn items.  Time for lunch and then back on the road!

The wind is crazy here.  We have a 30 mph crosswind.  I know it's blowing our small unit around.  Can't image what Janice and Kay are feeling in the motorhome.  We even noticed cows on the ground in the fields.  Too windy to stand up!

We were surprised by something we saw alongside the road.  SNOW!  It had not melted from a storm that had been through there earlier the week before.

Speaking of snow, the interstates here close for snow.  They are turn arounds and barriers that can be sent down to stop the traffic.

We also found out that Big Foot lives off the interstate in South Dakota!

We're headed toward the campground in Wall, SD.  There are any billboards for Wall Drugs before you get there.  I stopped counting when it reached 100.  I don't know who has more signs, Wall Drugs or See Rock City.

I'll stop this post here and pick up with the trip into Wall, SD!

TTFN!

Jenny :)