Cross Country Day 9

Today was a long travel day. We got up and I had the intention on taking the kids to the pool. But the clouds were rolling in and the wind was picking up. A tree branch actually snapped off and fell right in front of the RV. After packing up and unhooking, we were able to get on the road around 10:00. We knew it would be a long day with the plan to go over 300 miles. The nice part was we found some neat places to stop. The first stop was a rest area with a cool stone monument. Turns out all the rest areas in SD had the same one. The next stop was Mitchell SD home of the Corn Palace. The corniest place on earth. The kids were really excited looking at it from the outside, but less impressed once inside. The outside is covered in corn making up murals and the year and lettering. It is similar to paint by number, only corn. They change the outside every so often. On the inside all around the walls are pictures of the different looks that have adorned the outside of the palace. Also in the main room there are murals all around made of course of corn. It really was neat. The sad part was I couldn't convince the kids to try a popcorn ball. And they looked really good too. So we went across the street to a gourmet ice cream shoppe.


The last stop was another rest area. This one had the prettiest view I have ever seen. Behind the picnic area was a path down to an overlook. Very cool, even with this warning:

We made it to the campground at 8:30, but crossed the into a new time zone a couple miles beforehand so it was actually 7:30. This was the most beautiful campground. I don't remember my other trips west so I didn't remember the smell. The air has a sweet smell to it. It is amazing. The view was as far as you could see of nothing but green. We went into the KOA resteraunt since it was so late. The kids and grandparents got hot dogs or hamburgers. I decided to try the house specialty, a taco on indian fry bread. It was great and Nan and Pops were jealous. After a stop at the playground and a beautiful sunset, we headed back to the RV to clean up and go to sleep.