Jackson, MN to Martin, South Dakota

We need to continue west in order to make it to Reno where we are to meet up with our friends, Pete and Ed, on Sunday prior to the start of Burning Man next Monday. We continued traveling west on I-90. Along the way, we saw numerous signs about the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, which peaked our curiosity. We stopped there. The Corn Palace was first built in 1892 to showcase crops grown in the area. There was also a festival to celebrate the harvest. Each year the Corn Palace is decorated with a different theme. Redecoration of the outside of the building is done with natural colored corn and grains grown locally. Permanent corn murals decorate the interior. Photos of building and corn murals. The building is open all year, but today was the beginning of the corn festival. It looks like something out of czarist Russia! One of the booths just preparing to open was the Mitchell Democratic Club. Inside the booth were 2 elderly ladies, one of whom had just baked a peach pie. They said they have a difficult time since South Dakota almost always goes Republican. So, we decided to help them out by purchasing the still warm, just out of the oven home made peach pie! Photo of the pie and pie baker. Mitchell was also the home of George McGovern, 1972 presidential candidate. While in Mitchell, we stopped at Menard's which is a hardware store chain in the upper Midwest. It's sort of a Home Depot or Lowe's with a little bit of Nordstroms. We were in one in Wisconsin that had two floors and a Grand Piano being played by a woman next to the escalators. Back on I-90 we stopped at a Lewis and Clark Museum adjacent to the Missouri River near Oacoma, South Dakota. The expedition camped here in September, 1804 to rest and dry out after days of heavy rain and an encounter with the Sioux band of Native Americans. Photos of Missouri River/Lewis and Clark Bridge. There was a large exercise area in the back and Richard took Tinsel for a run while Steve toured the museum. Notice the poisonous snake sign. Back on I-90 we passed large fields of sunflower crops. Photo. Later, we turned south on SD Hwy 73 and then west on US Hwy 18. Turning to our "Free Campground" book, Richard found a city park in Martin, SD located in the very south of South Dakota. This was a free overnight camp with electricity. We had some difficulty finding the RV spots, but did eventually and spent the night there.