Rapid City, SD to Sioux City, IA

Today was a long day of flat driving.  For as far as the eye could see everything was flat.  There were the occasional herd of cattle clustered in a grassy field, but otherwise, flat grass and corn.  Before leaving Rapid City, we of course had to visit the South Dakota Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base.  It was an air and space museum not much different from all the others we have been to (Andy loves planes!).  They did have an interesting exhibit about the Berlin Wall and the Berlin Airlift since some of the pilots involved in the Berlin Airlift were from Ellsworth AFB.  This base was also home to many underground nuclear missile silos during the cold war, and the museum had a replica of what one of the control rooms would look like.  They also offered a bus tour to a silo, but we unfortunately did not have enough time to see that.

South Dakota Air and Space Museum

The other interesting thing today was the world's only corn palace!  The small town of Mitchell, South Dakota decorates the outside facade of their civic center with corn.  There are panels of corn cobs making different designs and sections of the outside walls shingled with hay.  They also have the hallways of the civic center busting with corn history and facts.  They use the space in front of the stage in the hall for a giant gift shop and some other exhibits.  The walls of the inside area are covered with corn cob artworks.  It is truly ingenious because it gets people into the town and utilizes the space in the civic center on a daily basis.  As if that was not enough, across the street is a little village of gift shops.  Definitely the kind of thing I hoped to see on a cross-country road trip!

Corn Palace - all decorations are made of corn

Wall panel on inside of building made of corn cobs

Display of everything that is made of corn

After a lot of time in South Dakota, we entered Iowa and soon stopped for the night in Sioux City.  Sioux City has undergone a lot of downtown revitalization.  There is a lovely park along the river and a rejuvenated historic district where we ate a great Italian meal.  Tomorrow there will be much more flat driving through corn fields and hopefully more kitchsy Americana to stop and see!