East River West River: Day 3

The third day of our road trip from Ambridge, PA to San Diego, CA started in Fairmont, MN at the Flying Goose Campground.  We drove on one road pretty much all day (I-90), entering South Dakota before lunch.  We stopped in Sioux Falls to view the falls and smell the meat packing plant (think canned cat food), went a little further to the World's Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, and then had a quick five cent cup of coffee at Al's Oasis.  The scenery was beautiful.  We traveled through farmlands growing corn and transitioned into ranch territory once we crossed over the Missouri River.  Finally, we entered Badlands National Park and set up our tent for the night.

For breakfast (and yesterdays blog) we stopped at McDonald's.  This was a highly anticipated trip for Brian, as he was eagerly looking forward to a sausage egg mcmuffin, a childhood treat.

State #7 - South Dakota.  By far the most peaceful sign stop that we have had thus far, probably due to the low volume of traffic headed through South Dakota.

We stopped at Falls Park, in Sioux Falls, SD to see the falls and to have some time to read Scripture and pray.  As we approached Mandy read out some interesting facts about Sioux Falls, like that it is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the US and that 28% of the population of South Dakota lives within the city limits.  Who knew?

The John Morrell & Co. meat packing plant was what put Sioux Falls on the map, industrially, in the late 1800s.  It also put itself on our map, olfactorially.  It smelled bad...like canned salmon, tuna, and ground meat all mixed together.  Appetizing.

The World's Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD is decorated entirely of corn cobs, sawed in half and nailed to the outside of the building.  The town of Mitchell redecorates it every year at the cost of $130,000.  A corn farming company originally built the palace in the mid-1800s because Lewis and Clark declared that corn could not grow in South Dakota.  Yeah right.

Proof that Al's Oasis really does only charge 5 cents for a cup of coffee.  It was a much needed boost for the latter part of our drive.

From East River fertile farmlands to West River rolling hills, South Dakota is divided in half by the Missouri River.

Throughout the day we saw cows.  At one point a whole bunch of them were gathered together against a fence just staring at a rest stop several yards away, as if they were watching the desperate travelers as they jumped out of the car and raced into the rest area.

We noticed that most of the cows which we had seen were gathered together in herds.  Reflecting on this, we thought that this was probably for safety, so that one cow would not get picked off by a predator without being seen by others, both for help and as a warning.  It occurred to us that this is a bit like the church.  Believers gather together to encourage one another and it is important that we do not isolate ourselves and get picked off by the enemy.  We are very thankful for the body of believers from which we are coming and into which we are going.

 We stopped at the first scenic overlook and saw the breathtaking vista of the badlands.  The walls of the canyon are being constantly being eroded by high winds in the area, which we definitely experienced.  If you look closely, you'll see that we made our mark there.

Our campground was in the lower prairie of the badlands, and without any nearby light pollution we saw an amazing amount of stars.  Mandy set up her camera on her tripod and took pictures of stars, constellations, and the Milky Way, including this one. She had a great time, often saying out loud, 'This is addicting!'



Now we're off to see some dead presidents and a crazy horse.