I made the discovery of a lifetime last night as I was perusing our TripTik to find good gas prices and possible places to stop today during our marathon drive - I found the SPAM Museum!!! In the little town of Austin, Minnesota is a Hormel plant and the official SPAM Museum. We probably would've seen signs for it since it's right off I-90, but it was great to be able to look forward to the stop today, which came about 3 hours into our drive. The AAA website said to give it about an hour to cover it, which we thought would probably be too long, but about an hour and $60 in the gift shop later, we pulled out, smarter about SPAM than we ever thought we would be!
As if the excitement of the SPAM Museum wasn't enough, our travels also brought us through Mitchell, South Dakota, home of both a huge Cabela's store AND the World's Only Corn Palace! Jason was excited to be in an actual Cabela's store, rather than just browsing through their catalogue, but we held ourselves back in the shopping and stuck to just a few necessities and super sale items. The Corn Palace was so funny and touristy - HILARIOUS! I've seen stuff about it on Food Network before - basically they cover the entire building in a mural made of corn and other local plants - but it was too funny to be there in real life! There wasn't much to it, but we picked up a cheesey magnet and shotglass to add to the collection, along with some popcorn, of course! Here's the outside of the Corn Palace:
This is a shot of the inside of the auditorium/sports arena/convention hall/summertime gift shop area. In the off-season, they use it for pretty much everything that happens in Mitchell - basketball, proms, the Shriner Circus - and then they set it up for the tourists in the summer.
This shot is one of the murals up on the wall in the picture above. Yes, that's Mt. Rushmore in CORN!!! 
We're now in Wall, SD - we got here about 15 hours after we left Wisconsin this morning - and it's about time for bed. We'll hit Wall Drug in the morning while we can still leave Fred in the hotel room. After we check out, we're planning to take the scenic byway through the Badlands since temperatures are forecast to be in the high 80s, so we can't leave Fred in the car while we hike. I think we'll have plenty of places to stop and take in the view and get some pictures. From here we head only 75-ish miles down the road to Custer where we'll camp at Flintstone's Bedrock City and finally get to those s'mores! We'll hit Rushmore Monday morning and then drive down to Gering to see all the Russel clan. We definitely won't have internet tomorrow night (no electricity!), so I'll try to figure out a way to get pics of both the Badlands and Rushmore up once we get to Gering.
Looking forward to our Mexican dinner in Nebraska!!!!
3 comments:
Wall Drug huh? My recollection is pretty much just a regular drug store, but with billboard advertisements for miles and miles. I hope you took a picture. always wanted to see it but never got the chance.
A couple of car games you can play to pass the miles (especially after leaving Gering.
How many miles without meeting a vehicle going in your same direction.
How many miles without seeing any vehicles at all.
How many miles without seeing any sign of human life (buildings/houses).
I'm glad Spam makes you so happy. I guess driving in a car that long changes your prospective on things. Tell everybody Hi for us in Ne. Love you both. Mom(Mary)
You guys are corny...yeah, I said it! Hope you guys enjoy camping tonight! Have a smore for me too. We'll go to the beach when you get here for a campfire and smores since I know you like them so much.
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