Crossing South Dakota & Heading North

Time to start heading East.  We spent a couple of days in Mitchell,

                                                           home of the Corn Palace. 
I didn't realize how much work goes into the murals and that they are redesigned & installed every other year because the weather destroys the designs.

Front view - They have to put the grass tufts made of rye grass and sour dock, around the corn panels & put the "onion domes back on the roof. 

Side view- The designs are created by a chosen artist, then drawn onto tar paper which is stapled to the palace.  275,000 ears of corn in 12 different colors are sawed in half lengthwise and carefully nailed into place to make these beautiful murals.

This is one of the onion domes that go on the roof!

 

Columns in the entrance look like corn cobs!

Inside is the gymnasium where the Mitchell Kernels play basketball.  There is a stage where many famous musicians like hometown boy, Lawrence Welk, have played.

Photo of the Corn Palace when it's not under construction.

 

From the Corn Palace, we walked to the Mitchell Carnegie Resource Center, formerly a Carnegie Library, which houses a lot of Corn Palace memorabilia. 

 

It was fun to see the old fliers, souvenirs, autographed photos and all kinds of odds  & ends.

Like this model of the Corn Palace.

 

Probably the most striking feature of the building is the painted mural in the dome, "Sun and Rain Clouds Over Hills".

 

 

It was painted by the well known Native  Amrican artist, Oscar Howe, who was an instructor at the local college and was the designer for the Corn Palace murals  for many, many years.  Interestingly, when he began to paint the dome (in 1940), the paint he had chosen did not stand up to the heat of the summer and melted away.  On his second day of painting, he had to completely redo all of his work.

 

We also visited the Michell Prehistoric Village Museum & Thomsen Center Archeodome. 

The archeodome houses an actual archeological dig!  They think there was a large village here with many rectangular lodges about 10' x 40'.  Each lodge housed an entire extended family.

A "garbage" area that provides lots of clues as to how they lived.

Outlines of lodges & the "pits" are where they stored their food.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of funding, the dig site is only active about one month per year.

The museum has many artifacts that have come out of the dig here and other discoveries in the area.  They know that the people here traded with other people from quite a long way away.

They may have floated down the river in a Bull Boat.  The students made this reconstruction of one out of willow branches and hides and they could actually float in it!  Not easy to steer though.

There is also a reconstruction of one of the lodges. 

This is the entrance.

These are the interior, showing the beds.

It was a really well done museum!

 

 

Our next stop was Sioux Falls.  I had never stopped to see the falls in the many times I have been through Sioux Falls, so we took a trip down to Falls Park.

With the recent rainfalls, the water was really flowing.  It was a beautiful day and everyone was out enjoying the the sunshine.

                                                 That includes the ducks & the geese!

(check out the babies - one behind the adult on the left & one way down on the rocks, above the head of the adult on the right - pretty independent!)

 

We walked along the path as the falls dropped again & again - everywhere was so pretty.

 

There are also remains of the old mill, which was five stories high (only 2 remain) & the building that housed the turbine that provided the power for the mill & the electric company.

 

You can imagine the power of the water when it was flowing like it was this day - but unfortunately, it didn't - so the mill failed.

There was also this old horse barn.

 

This is the Visitors Center & viewing tower.

The view from the tower

Our continuing trip east brought us to Blue Earth, MN.  We found a great little campground at the County Fairgrounds.

So pretty! We had a fantastic, paved trail to walk on.

The wild flowers were blooming & we saw deer.

Our neighbor was a great guy!

 

Then we worked our way North to Big Woods State Park in Nerstrand, MN.

Nerstrand City Hall

 

Big Woods State Park is beautiful, with lots of hardwood trees, wild flowers & ferns and meandering streams.

Hidden Falls

 

Our next stop is the Minnesota State Fairgrounds for the Region X Arabian/Half Arabian Championship show.  We are planning to stay in the Twin Cities area for the next month or so and hope we can catch up with all of you.  Can't wait!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Off the Grid & In a Timewarp

We left Cheyenne with the Weather Channel predicting a winter storm.  WHAT?  I thought it was May....and we are in southern Wyoming.  Got to Douglas, WY safely - no winter weather yet.  Douglas is the home of the Jackalope!

Legendary part jack rabbit, part antelope - as you can see they put them to good use out here in the West.

We were scheduled to stay 3 days in a nice campground with free wifi and cable.  Woo-hoo.  Good thing, cuz this is what I got for Mother's Day.

Yep - 8" of snow.

The only one who hates snow more than I do is Guido!

Needless to say, we were thankful for the Cable t.v.

 

The snow was gone the next day and we were on to our next stop - Country Charm Cabins & Corrals, just south of Custer, SD, in the southern Black Hills.  The owners, Owen & Lois, were from Inver Grove Heights, MN.  They had raised their family of 7(!) there, then moved to the Black Hills and built this nice little campground.  Up until last year, they had 15 horses and would take their guests trail riding.  The campground is down in a little valley with Ponderosa pine trees and lots of wildlife. 

We were all alone, except for the deer & the turkeys.

The only downside was no cell reception, no wifi & no t.v.

There were beautiful trails through the trees and meadows.

Trails, like this, went on for miles.  We were also only about 2 miles from the George Mickelson Memorial Trail, which is a gravel trail that runs from Deadwood to Edgecumb - 109 miles!

Loved this little pine growing out of a rock!

Towering old Ponderosas.

Caves in the rocks.

What a view!

Owen & Lois told us that South Dakota had had a very mild winter with very little snow.  There was a lot of concern about the wildfire possibilities.

Well, Mother Nature sure took care of that in the 2 weeks we were there!  We had some kind of precipitation every 2-3 days.  There was everything from driving rain, thunderstorms, sleet, snow and one entire day, it was like we were sitting in the middle of a cloud!  Fog everywhere, light mist - never seen anything like it!

On those days we took trips into nearby towns.

Hill City is a pretty little artist's community just north of Custer.  They have 3 wineries (we tasted at Prairie Berry) & lots of galleries full of all kinds of artwork. 

The artist who did these two metal sculptures was fantastic.  There were many of his pieces on display.

Of course, I loved this horse sculpture.

 

Another day, we made our way down to Hot Springs.  It is one of our favorite Black Hills cities.  Really friendly, not as touristy as some of the others.

Our drive down took us through Wind Cave National Park, where there is a large herd of bison.  They are not at all afraid of cars and will walk right up to you - pretty intimidating!

We did some retail therapy at Wanda's Finds.  If you ever get to Hot Springs, make it a point to go to Wanda's!  It is full of all kinds of stuff - from horse tack to western things to antiques - and Wanda is wonderful! 

We stopped at "The Vault Bar & Grill" to get dinner.  They had an impressive display of mule deer and elk trophies.

And this one, nasty looking boar.  I asked about where it came from & the bartender said the owner had been asked to come down and help round up some of these that had escaped from their enclosure (not native to South Dakota).  He got to shoot one & keep it for his wall!

 

We also spent a couple of days in Custer seeing a few of the sights we had not seen last summer.

This is the Custer Museum.

It included all kinds of exhibits of the various industries through the years in the

Custer area.  These are old tools used in the lumber industry.  There was an exhibit on the mining industry, too.

A recreation of the general store

and the outfitter's store.

This is a shackle and a part of a tree used to hang a man!

Obviously, this one is about ranching - but it was honestly one

I could not stop laughing at.  LOOK AT THAT HORSE!

 

The other museum we visited was the National Woodcarving Museum, just west of Custer.

It was originally built to house a collection of carved wooden scenes, many of which are animated.  Dr. Niblack, a chiropractor & inventor, spent over 70,000 hours carving the pieces.  He also invented and built the "animation engines" that made them move.  His work was so innovative that Walt Disney brought him to Disneyland to help animate Mickey & friends.

There were several intricate small scenes like this hospital. 

This one was life size - the chief pounded his drum & the squaw's chest moved in and out like she was breathing.

The mirror under this one shows the "works" that make it move.

Dr. Niblack made his own furniture too!  This was his desk (he also made the lamp on top).

And, this was the desk chair (see the cowboy boot feet?)

 

Speaking of cowboy boots - with all of the rain, I was able to spend some time on my hand painted cowboy boots. 

When we were at Saguaro RV Park in Benson, AZ, I found these boots in the "Nieman/Marcus" area (You donate stuff you don't use and can take something you want.)  My original idea was to "bling" them, but then I decided it would be more fun to paint them.  Now I can't wait to wear them!