More State Fair and the Dakota Museum

The first two photos are from the State Fair. The disk Roger is standing by is 42 feet wide. The tractor I am standing by is just plain huge!

Sunday, August 31, we went to the Dakota Museum on the grounds of the South Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell. The museum includes a Victorian/Italian house that was built in the 1800s in downtown Mitchell and recently moved to the museum grounds, a one-room schoolhouse, an old church, some early to middle 1900s farm machinery, and a variety of South Dakota museum and art displays.

South Dakota State Fair

We went to the South Dakota State Fair on Saturday and were quite impressed with how large it was and how many people were in attendance. It is at least four times bigger than the New Jersey State Fair that we attended about a month ago. 

Here in South Dakota, we saw three large buildings full of 4-H exhibits, lots of animals, RVs, and farm machinery. We also watched the 4-H Performing Arts acts, which was quite enjoyable. And, like in New Jersey, we got a chance to talk to pigs.

Our Camp Staff

Our Mitchell, SD, campground is small and we have somewhat gotten to know the owners since they are nice people and we talk to them several times each day.

The two men in the yellow shirts are Jerry and Jim who own the campground. The woman in the aqua dress is Jim's mother. 

We took the photo of the brown-eyed Susans because they grow rampant here and are so gorgeous! This particular group of flowers is one of many along the walking path at our campground.

Grilling Dinner

Since our big outing today was to grill dinner, we took pictures of the dinner process and our campsite.

Still More RV Pictures

These pictures show the dining room table, the kitchen, and the couch that is on the passenger side of the RV. The dining room table is in the bumpout and the kitchen and this couch are on the other side of the RV.

More RV Pictures

The first two pictures show our bathroom sink and the bedroom. The next two show in front of and behind the driver's seat. The driver's seat is turned backwards and I use it as the chair for my "desk." On past my "desk" is the couch and dining room table, both of which are in the bumpout. Roger's "desk" is in front of the couch. Behind the chair on the steering wheel modified table is the computer printer. The last picture shows the passenger seat and the door. We sometimes have the passenger seat turned at an angle towards the livingroom and other times we leave it in driving position as in this photo. The door by the passenger seat is the only door in the RV. There is no door on the driver's side.

First Full Day in Our Camper

Today, Friday, August 29th, is the first time since we left San Antonio on July 28th that we spent all day in our RV without doing any sightseeing or even going into a Wal-mart store. We did take a couple walks around the campground, but otherwise we just worked. Here in Mitchell, SD, we do not have a lot of things to go see like we have in all our other locations. We are going to be here a whole week, so it should be nice just to relax and not run around so much.

Since we stayed in our RV all day, we decided to post pictures showing what we saw today: our RV!

The first photo shows the couch and kitchen table (both of which are in the bumpout), and the small pantry at the end of the room. The second photo starts with the corner of the kitchen table, then the couch with Roger's "desk" in front of it, my "desk," the driver's seat, and the shade that covers the front window. The third photo shows from the kitchen toward the passenger side of the RV. The bottom of the TV/VCR/DVD center shows in the top left of the photo. Our scooter helmets show on the dashboard. The other two pictures show the kitchen.

The Corn Palace

Today, we explored Mitchell, SD a little. Mitchell is a town of about 15,000 people. Since it is located on Interstate 90, it has more amenities than a typical town of that size. For example, it has a K-Mart, Wal-mart, and Shopko. Those three stores would be a lot for 15,000 people to support.

The most exotic thing in Mitchell (and the reason we chose to stop here) is the Corn Palace. The entire exterior of the Corn Palace is redecorated with corn and grains every year. This week happens to be when they are tearing the old murals off and preparing for new murals. So, we got to see workers removing corn from the old murals as well as some of the base drawings for the new murals. The first photo shows some new parts that are finished for 2009--the mosaic with the date and the star and background, which are made of grains. The second photo shows one of the outside murals that has been partially removed. Shortly after we took this photo, workers climbed upon the scaffolding under mural and continued removing the mural, ear by ear.

An artist makes all the base drawings and keys each part to a corn color, similar to creating a paint-by-number drawing. Once the artist finishes all the base drawings, a variety of workers actually apply the corn and grain. They use 11 different colors of corn and prepare each ear of corn by splitting it lengthwise down the middle to create a flat side. The flat side is laid against the building and the corn is nailed in place. The result is a mosaic effect with corn ears instead of stones.

Although the murals outside of the building were not there for us to see, we did get to see several marvelous murals inside in a decorated basketball arena. One of the employees told us that the inside murals are only changed about every five or six years. Also, he told us that the expenses of the Corn Palace are paid through revenue taken in by renting the basketball arena. The last three photos show the basketball arena. The last of these three photos shows a close-up of the mural that is behind Roger's head in the photo right before it.

The Bad Lands

After we left Wall Drug, we took a 41-mile trek off of Interstate 90 to check out the Badlands. They certainly are amazing and gorgeous--although of no use to anyone for anything outside of viewing them. Although, I did wonder if it would be a great place to have a huge windmill factory--once we figure out the technology to allow us to capture and save wind energy. There certainly is a lot of wind in the Badlands! They could become the Goodlands if they began providing significant amounts of alternative fuels!

Checking Out Wall Drug

On our way from the Mount Rushmore area to our campground in Mitchell, SD, we stopped at Wall Drug in Wall, SD. What an unusual place. As you can see, we enjoyed some of the animals and people who live there. Besides the animals and people, there many rooms of souvenirs, several places to eat, a charming chapel, and many specialty shops. 

Last Outing in Hill City

The first photo on this page is part of the last post and shows another scene along the mountain hike. 

On Tuesday, after our mountain hike, we rode back into Hill City for one last outing. We went up to a 3rd story balcony to have a drink and look down upon the main street. We had parked our scooter right beside a bunch of Harleys. As we looked down on the street, we saw the Harley owners take off. They were obviously intimidated by our bike! 

The last photo on this page goes with the next post and shows us arriving at Wall Drug in Wall, SD.

Sunday Gulch Trail by Lake Sylvan

We learned about Lake Sylvan from Donna and Phil Schumer from Ames, Iowa. We met them in the campground and learned a lot about the area from them since they have been camping here since 1978, and were spending three months here this summer. 

On Tuesday, August 26, we decided to take the hike around Lake Sylvan. The first picture shows the trail that we were planning to take around the lake. As we were starting, we bumped into some people who were just coming off of a 2.8 mile mountain hike (Sunday Gulch Trail) that started at Lake Sylvan. So, we decided to take the mountain hike rather than the simpler hike around the lake. The other pictures show some scenes on the mountain hike. 

If we return someday, we will take the mountain hike again, but we might go the first mile and turn around and repeat it since we liked that part of the trail most. It was VERY steep and VERY rocky and VERY shady. The remainder of the trail was nice, but it was more boring (lots less rocky) and a lot of it was quite sunny. 

After the fact, we also learned from Phil and Donna that there is another mountain trail on the other side of Lake Sylvan. This other trail goes to Harney Peak, which is the highest point in the U.S. east of the Rockies. Phil says that this trail is long, but not strenuous. The trail we took was not as long, but quite strenuous.