July 5th: Corn, archaeology, ice water, Bison and a buffalo burger

Every day since we left a week ago Wednesday the temperature has been at least 95 and today would again be no exception.  At least we have found places to go swimming most days.  How have the rest of you been doing?

We were on the road early to Mitchell to see the Corn Palace because that's just one of the things you do when you cross the great state of South Dakota.  This year's theme is Youth Activities and the murals included sports, dancing andlots of other things.  They were just completing some of the surrounding backgrounds when we were there.  All of they artwork is made of corn or other natural crops and grasses.  I had assumed that in order to get the various colors like the black they just painted the corn cobs, but instead they have developed hybrids of the colors they need.

We also visited a prehistoric indian archaeological site where an ancient village is being excavated and studied.  The work has been going on for 16 years now and is no where near complete.

And then on to the Badlands.  It is at this point that I'm realizing that creating a blog of this trip is a very bad idea.  What we have seen in the Badlands and at Mt. Rushmore (tomorrow's entry) makes me realize that any of my polysylabic palaver is incredibly inadequate to do justice to what nature has created for us to experience.  I'm going to let the pictures do the talking and even those pale horribly in comparison to the real life experience.  We reached the Badlands, drove the scenic road, stopped off in Wall to tour the Drug Store, came back via the Bison (and Prairie Dog) Prairie, saw BigHorn sheep and ended up with a dinner of buffalo chili and a buffalo burger at the park lodge.  The view from the campground (as were all the rest): stunning.