MT – Day 3 – The Corn Palace

7 photos in this post.

No stop in Mitchell, SD would be complete without a visit to The Corn Palace. We first visited this back in 2002. Yikes that was 17 years ago! Michelle, Michael and myself, along with our friend Bev and her niece, Michelle’s best friend Ali, were on a trip from West Virginia to look at property in Montana.

Richard and the three little ones had never been and I honestly could not remember much about our visit way back when. Before heading back on the road this morning, after go-karting, we drove downtown. The inside, permanent murals are absolutely incredible. Created using different colored corn cobs the detail and artistry is first class. I think this one of the hands was my favorite – so realistic:

The murals outside right now are in disarray. Unbeknown to us, this is the time of year that the murals get changed. Yes, all the old ones are taken down and new ones put up. What a job! Watching the informative video we learned that each year 275,000 ears of corn are used to create the different themed murals. This corn is grown locally on 100 acres with each color being grown in separate fields to ensure the colors stay distinct. Wow! Last year’s murals were a tribute to the US military. This one was still intact:

No trip is complete without the “corny” pics as a friend said:

All three kids wanted their pic taken in front of the corn cob:

Last but not least here we are as a family:

As you can see, some of the walls behind are now bare, awaiting their new adornment.

Rushing back to the campground we quickly got hooked up so that we were out of there on time. Now I have a confession to make. Forgive us, for we have sinned! LOL! I told you that at the beginning of this trip we were not going to eat out for the first three days. The Twin Dragon was just TOO tempting! Once again, we discovered this Chinese restaurant 17 years ago and boy, is it good! There was no way we could NOT eat there today! The second time we ate here was in September 2010 when we were moving from Montana to Missouri. It was here, whilst we were eating lunch, that we got the call to say that everything had gone through with the sale of our ranch and we were debt free. What a relief! Michelle, the other kids and I ate here whilst we were transporting in 2011 but that was the last time until today. There is no buffet here, the food is cooked fresh for you and is delicious. No, their egg rolls do not compare to the Chinese we like in Holbrook, Arizona but everything else is DELICIOUS!

With full stomachs we didn’t leave Mitchell until nearly 2pm, way later than we had anticipated and with more stops planned on our way to Piedmont. Where would we stop? What would we see next? Stay posted! We’re going to bed now but will post more tomorrow.

Blessings,

Liz