Happy 58th birthday to my husband and travelling companion - Jack!

Today was a day of many "changes" - from Corn Palaces to Drug stores to the Badlands of South Dakota.

Before leaving Mitchell, SD we visited the World's Only Corn Palace! The first Corn Palace was built in 1892 when the town of Mitchell was only 12 years old. It was a "marketing tool" where the early settlers displayed their agricultural bounty on the building's exterior to prove the fertility of the soil and to attract immigrant farmers to the area. Each fall a festival is planned to celebrate agriculture and it's productivity.

Each year a new decorating them is chosen and the outside of the building is stripped and completely redecorated with new corn and grains. They use over 3,000 bushels of rye, oat heads and sour dock along with approximately 275,000 ears of corn and husks. This has made the Corn Palace knows around the world as a folk art wonder.

The current Palace now sits at a third location and is the centre of community activity hosting basketball games, stage shows and trade shows. In fact while we were there they were setting up what looked like a craft show (we were too early in the day). The murals inside the building are permanent ones and are not changed every day. They also have a great display of pictures of each of the Corn Palaces built since 1892.

Across the street from the Palace we went into a gift shop and it was lucky that we did because the lady there told us about a scenic sidetrip to do which would take us through the Badlands National Park. We also met a couple that told us it was worthwhile stopping at the Wall Drugs - which we had been seeing hundreds of signs for - and I mean hundreds.

Heading West on the I90 we saw lots of farmland with cattle and horses. Most of the cattle appeared to be Black Angus. We exited at exit 131 - Cactus Flat - to take the scenic route through the Badlands National Park. We are so glad we did this! It was 35 miles of the most amazing landscape. We went from seeing farmland to seeing the most unusual rock formations - we felt like we were in a John Wayne movie when we were travelling through. We expected to see cowboy and Indians come out at any time. Besides the landscape we were lucky enough to see a chipmunk, a rabbit (that was right beside us on the walking trail), tons of prairie dogs, mule deer and Mountain goats. For anyone travelling out here it is well worth the short drive. We only saw a tip of the park so on another trip we will have to go further into the park. They have lots of look out points and even camping spots.

When we joined up with the I90 again we were in Wall, South Dakota so we had to drop in to the Wall Drug, World's Largest Drug Store. In 1931 Dorothy and Ted Hustead bought the only drug store in Wall but by 1936 the business had not grown much. So Dorothy came up with the ideas that since all the people passing by would be hot and dusty after driving through the prairie that they should advertise that they would offer Free Ice Water. The store took off and now is a hugh series of stores offering everything from leather, jewellery, pharmacy and souvenirs. Their café will seat over 500 people and their backyard is like an amusement park complete with a mine and a T-Rex.

We were really hungry so we had their famous Buffalo Burgers for supper. It was yummy

After all the sightseeing we didn't arrive till 8:30 at the campsite - Custer's Gulch Park. Apparently Custer camped here in the olden days. We were greeted by 2 deer as we drove into the park.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.