Wednesday - July 28, 1982 - 7:52 am C.D.T.
7:52 am C.D.T. - Out of the motel and looking for breakfast. We didn't find any as we stopped at the Corn Palace first. It was interesting, found out it was also known as the world's largest bird feeder. But now it was time to feed these four hungry birds. Found a cafe which had delicious food and was inexpensive, right in the heart of Mitchell, S.D.
Below you will see our pictures of the Mitchell Corn Palace. A few important points about the Corn Palace. The reason it is known as the world's largest bird feeder is the murals you can see on the building are all made from corn and corn by-products. Thus, birds LOVE the Corn Palace and eat the murals. The ones on the outside have to be replaced every year. The same holds true for the inside mural, except it is replaced only every 10 years. (Birds can't get tickets to get inside.) It is interesting, but essentially it is a municipal auditorium with a nice gimick.
10:50 am C.D.T. - Stopped at the Lewis and Clark Welcome Center at I-90 Chamberlain overlooking the Missouri River. The view was excellent. The terrain was low rolling hills along the Missouri then we hit the plains again.
12:25 pm C.D.T. - Entered Mardo and it is now 11:25 am M.D.T. I'm getting younger by the day.
12:25 pm M.D.T. - Entered Badlands. The rock formations are majestic, sharp, and jutted. The color of the rock changes after a rain and with each season. As we drove through the colors become more varied. You could go crazy taking pictures.
As you can tell here, we did go crazy taking pictures. Enjoy!
3:45 pm M.D.T. - Stopped at the world famous Wall Drug. (Of course, none of us had ever heard of it before.) There were signs for hundreds of miles touting this place and I must say it was unbelievable. We joked about it probably being a 'hole in wall' and if we blinked we would miss it. Well, believe me, you couldn't miss this place. It looked like a souvenier junk shop that exploded. And in between all the tourist trappings was a real drug store, a donut shop, and ice cream parlor, with some pretty good ice cream and several more nooks and crannies we didn't have time to explore.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, we only got one picture of the place. (Yes, we had a most excellent adventure. LOL)
5:15 pm M.D.T. - Checked into motel. Good thing we had reservations, they were full.
8:30 pm M.D.T. - Arrived an Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. They light up the faces at 9 pm. A park ranger spoke to us about the monument and patriotism and then there was a movie. After the movie, everyone sang the National Anthem. It was very moving. The monument itself is magnificent. It is a tribute to the Presidents depicted and also the American way of life. It was interesting reading about Gutzon Borglum the sculptor. Just a quick note on Mt. Rushmore here. The first time you see the mountain, you should really do it the way we did, in the evening when they light it up. It's incredible. Coming home to Rapid City that night, going down hill from the blackness of the hills into the brilliance of the city was almost like coming in for a landing at Logan with the same sounds as a plane being produced by the car in second gear.
The Park Ranger speaking to the audiance about the mountain.
What you see from the distance - The faces against a black background!
From the Telephoto lense.
(Wow-We packed a lot into that day, didn't we?)