September 5. It was pouring in Rochester, Minnesota when we got on the road, and it was pouring all the way through Minnesota. While not very nice to drive in, the weather had the beneficial effect of convincing Grace that it was not a tragedy to have left the green bookshelf behind on a Chicago sidewalk. The particle-board would have been a soggy mess after an entire morning of rain.
We were extremely impressed by Minnesota’s wind farms — wind turbines as far as the eye could see, for miles and miles and on both sides of the road.
Oddly, it reminded me of being surrounded by whales in Frederick Sound.
We needed air in the tires anyway and had to make a pitstop, but how could we resist making that stop at the home of the Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, Minnesota?
Crossing into South Dakota, we timed it perfectly to get lunch across the street from the Corn Palace:
They resurface the facade each year IN CORN and have been doing so since the 1920s. This year’s theme is rock and roll.
Just as remarkable as the corn facade was the fact that the interior consisted of a gymnasium full of people cheering at a tractor pull, at which young girls were competing to pull tractor loads. And more corn murals. You don’t get this in Princeton, New Jersey. We were dumbfounded.
I spared Grace a side trip to Brookings, South Dakota, even though I would very much have liked to see that town. My grandmother grew up in Brookings, where her father was the president of the university. (She hightailed it to Manhattan the moment she graduated.) But Brookings would have been a big detour, and we wanted to make sure we made it to Badlands National Park while there was still daylight. Soon after the turnoff for the Park we came across a prairie dog haven, where Grace could have happily spent the rest of the day:
They were pretty cute, but I was eager to get to the Badlands. The scenery was spectacular so you’ll indulge my multiple photos, please. I took some awesome panoramic shots, but they just don’t look good on this website so I’m skipping those.
Grace climbing a small mound…
…then sliding down it rather ungracefully:
Out of the Badlands and back onto the prairie:
The loop had taken a long time with our multiple stops, and we were pretty hungry by the time we got to Wall, SD, our stop for the night. As anyone who has driven across South Dakota on Route 90 knows, the most notable feature of that stretch of Route 90 is the hundreds of billboards for Wall Drug. Naturally, we had to check it out. Wall Drug is a bizarre collection of stores plus some odd attractions like a life-size moving T-Rex and some Western stuff.
We stayed at the best hotel in town (the Best Western), after a hearty meal at The Red Rock Tavern. I had initially regretted not reserving in time a room at the Cedar Pass Lodge in Badlands National Park, but when we passed it on the Loop Road it looked like some dumpy cabins, so it was just as well that they were full. The Best Western was fine.