Today we left Rochester MN and
headed west on I-90.
One stop today will be the Corn
Palace. We really have no idea what it
is… but we’ll find out. It is located in
Mitchell, SD.
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| 2015 Corn Palace Theme "American Pride" Still being decorated. |
Linda put it into the GPS. It takes the shortest route which was through
a residential area. As we were driving
on 6th Avenue we came to an intersection with a stop sign. No big deal.
Then at the next intersection there was no stop sign so I continued
on. Just in time I noticed a SUV coming
from the left with no intention of slowing down, let alone stopping. I stopped quickly and he whizzed by at about
40 MPH. That’s when we noticed that
there were not any stop signs on any of the four corners. Whatz Wid Dat?? Well we made it to the parking
lot without injury.
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| I only turned for a moment to snap these pix and Linda took up with one of the locals. |
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| Farmall Model H |
Here is what the Corn Palace is about. The building (the third on the site due to expansions) was originally built in 1892. The building’s exterior was decorated with the bounty of the harvest to prove the fertility of the land and to attract more settlers. For over 100 years the area celebrates the Corn Palace Festival.
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| 1944-1945 "WWII Theme" |
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| 1937 "Arabian Theme" |
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| 1916 "Patriotism Theme" |
Each year a different decorating
theme is chosen. The Corn Palace is stripped and redecorated with new corn and
grains. Each summer 3,000 bushels of
rye, oat heads and sour dock are tied into bundles and attached to the
building. Then when the corn is
harvested roughly 275,000 ears of corn are saw in half lengthwise creating over
a half million pieces to nail on the building to make the murals.
Ok, now what goes on inside? The Corn Palace is a multi-use facility which
hosts folk art festivals, basketball games, stage shows, farm shows, and other
venues as an exhibition hall. The murals continue on the interior of the auditorium.
For more info follow this link The Corn Palace
It happened that the Corn Palace entrance
was having construction and you had to pass through City Hall to get back to
the street. I saw a sign “Mayors Office”
and I went in.
I was greeted by two smiling
ladies. I reported that there was an
intersection about four blocks away on 6th Avenue that didn’t have a
stop sign on either street. I got a deer
in the headlights look and the one smiling lady said, “That’s normal here. A lot of intersections in residential areas
have no stop signs. You just yield to
the car on the right”.
I asked what the insurance rates
are like in this area and she answered, “I think they’re kind of high.” I answered back, “No wonder”. She said, “They monitor the intersections
and unless there is a problem with accidents there is no stop sign”. I told her, “You could have just about
chalked up another one for that intersection”.
So be forewarned…If you go to Mitchell, MN don’t expect to see stop
signs and be ready to stop for anyone on your right! Especially if you leave one of the main
streets.
Gone with the Wind. Not the movie…the air conditioning. The van has a throttle position sensor on
it. It sends information to the engine’s
computer. One of the functions is to
shut down the a/c compressor when a demand for extra power is needed, like
flooring it to pass another car. We were
fighting 30+ MPH winds and the cruise control would have to add so much
throttle that the sensor would shut down the a/c. I finally took it off cruise so we could keep
our cool. The temps here are 10 degrees
above normal, and have been in the high 80s.
We ended the night at the KOA in Kennebec, SD. We asked where we can get a good dinner.
Terry, the KOA lady, said to go to the Hutch about 10 miles up the road in the town of Presho. Sure enough it was good eating. Out here nothing is close so a 10 mile trip to anything is status quo.
The night was hot and stuffy. There were flies by the dozen that were not going to be out done by mosquitoes by the hundreds. Bigg’ins too. One took my cap off and I had to chase him all the way across the campground to wrestle it back from him. It was my new Dodge Ram cap from the Carlisle Truck Show. I wasn’t about to let him get away with that! We ended up copying notes for the blog in the laundry room, then hit the sack. During the night we had several soft showers…ZZZZzzzzz
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