Mitchell's Corn Palace was built in 1892. The city was just 12 years old. Early settlers used their bountiful produce to decorate the building's exterior, proving the fertility of the soil and hoping to attract more immigrants and farmers to settle here. Over 100 years later, the tradition of the Corn Palace and the Corn Palace Festival continues....Each year a decorating theme is chosen, the outside of the palace is stripped and a new decorating process begins with new corn and grains. It costs something like $130 000 to decorate the palace each year. Inside the palace is a huge auditorium, adorned with more corn pictures!
We started on our journey west, on the I-90. Stopped for fuel at Chamberlain. As we drove over the Missouri River bridge, the landform changed almost immediately. The pictures below show the 'prairie land'. Very few trees, covered only in grasses and fairly flat! The reason the prairie is flat is because the land is too dry for tree roots to find water, too windy and frequent fires from lightning strikes.
The US 'interstates' are known as the 'Eisenhower Interstate System' - it requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections mean that the interstate highways are useable as emergency landing strips. (Smart man that General 'Ike' Eisenhower!)
Stopped at a rest area to do our 10 minute quick walk, which we try to do on long days in the car. We had seen several of these trucks transporting blades of wind turbines, and were so excited to be able to take this photo when we saw a truck parked at the rest area. That's me walking alongside the truck, I am about 2 metres to the right of the truck. It's a wide load and very long (the truck - not me)!
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