Corn Palace and Homestead cabin in the Badlands

Mitchell is the home of the one and only Corn Palace, yes, a palace made of corn! (Or at least decorated with it every year) It's a weird sounding place and definitely one of the well known stops for any serious US road tripper so obviously we have to visit it. However that only takes about 10 minutes and it smells a bit funky so we get back in the car and drive to the homestead cabin in the badlands. It's a shame we weren't here a day earlier or we could have seen a rock show in there and eaten some of the decor during the intermission!

that's corn that is.

Corn art along the walls and above the stage

Some corn.

Friendly corn.

On the way we see lots of signs for a place called Wall Drug, and we mean LOTS! Wall Drug, only 200 miles. Wall Drug, only 180 miles, and so on.. We're intrigued so we stop and have a walk around. Wall Drug got popular from one business woman's genius idea of offering free ice water to passing motorists to get them into the shop, the idea worked and business was booming! Clever lady. In Wall Drug's back yard there's a big Jackalope and lots of weird sculptures and things to play on. Part of it is shut so we can't see the T-Rex...boooo! We stop for 5¢ coffee and donuts and claim our free "...... miles from Wall Drug" sign to fill in when we get back to Manchester (we'll have to post the photo, it's a bit of a tradition) before getting back on the road and driving to the Badlands cabin.

Wall drug's history.

It's a step up from camping as there is a roof and a stove but we weren't told that there wouldn't be any water which turned out to be a pain in the ass. Luckily we had some drinking water but as for washing? Babywipe time!

No dishwasher?! Our brick tent for the night.

That's the cabin by the river bend

Dinner.

Time to get the stove going so that we can cook some chili. While we're waiting we go for a walk around as the cabin is in a great location in the middle of nowhere. We get an outdoor fire started and watch the sun go down. James even manages not to burn himself this time, and with 2 fires going that's got to be worth a round of applause! After chili we go to bed and try to ignore the scuttling sounds that have appeared, as long as it's not wombles we'll be fine!

"Still got my fingers!"