Day 2: Minnesota to Mitchell, South Dakota

Ellie made us some great eggs and the boys played FIFA on my brother's Xbox. We hit the road around 11:30, only an hour after we actually hoped to leave.

The drive was pretty uneventful. My dad did a great job driving and my mom did a mostly great job navigating except when she somehow kept closing the Google Maps app and kept opening that other iPhone map app that doesn't work as well, causing a great deal of confusion and annoyance.

We stopped once to gas up in a town called Butterfield, MN. There was a bit of an argument about whether or not to open the slide outs so we could have more space to eat lunch (sandwiches in the RV). My mom wanted to open them; my dad didn't. My dad won that argument, one of the first he has ever won against my mom in his life.

We arrived at the Dakota Campground at 5:30 pm. It was a cute little campground that cost us just $33 for a pull through RV spot and our 30 amps of power. There was a small playground that the kids immediately ran to. There was a 13 year-old very talkative boy there named Derek who was more than happy to tell us all about Mitchell, where he lives. He also told us that when we go to Wall Drug, if we tell them (not sure who they are) we know Derek we will get three free Ninja stars. Stay tuned to see if this actually happens.

We decided to drive into town to go to dinner and to check out the famous Corn Palace. We were slightly surprised to find that we were just about the only tourists in Mitchell on this beautiful Sunday night. We parked the RV on the middle of Main Street and ate dinner at a bar called Big Dummies. It was the only place open on Main Street. We had some great cheeseburgers and fried fish. Our waiter Cedric a man who moved from Miami to South Dakota, was very friendly and also wearing a Friends tshirt. When my dad asked him what beers were good, he said, "I don't drink beer," to which I responded, "That's ironic that you work in a bar," to which he answered in a deep voice, "I drink whiskey." Nope, not ironic at all.

We finished eating around 8:10 and ran down to the Corn Palace, which supposedly closed at 9. We were thrilled to see that it was still open. We energetically ran inside to learn that the Corn Palace is basically just a big store selling corn socks and corn ornaments and corn shot glasses.The murals made out of corn on the outside are really the best thing about the place and they are changed every year. Next year is the 100th anniversary of the Corn Palace. There used to be hundreds of corn palaces around the US and now they say it is the only one in the world. You better get there before it's gone.

We drove back to our RV park and the whole time we were driving back I felt like I was going back to a hotel, completely forgetting that we were just going to stay in the RV. My mom thought the RV was slanting and it was giving her a headache, so my dad got out the levelers he bought on Amazon that my mom didn't think he would need. Boy, was she wrong.

It took a while to figure out the sleeping situation because my parents had to turn the coach and table cushions into their beds.

I read a little more of The Mystery at Mount Rushmore to the boys. (Spoiler Alert: The kids find another mysterious message, this time in the form of a tattoo on the arm of a biker on his way to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. I have no idea where this book is going.)

Our first night with 8 people sleeping in the RV was fairly uneventful. The one annoying thing is that every time someone moves their sleeping position, the whole RV moves with it. My mom said it felt like someone was outside trying to tip it over. It's a pretty weird feeling.