Ok, so now that we had one day under our belt, Day 2 ought to be a cinch…. maybe…..? On our second day we travel from Rochester, MN to Rapid City, SD in our hopes to see Mt. Rushmore lit at night. After driving through parts of Michigan, Indiana (only the NW corner), Illinois, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota on Day 1, it seems like we have an easy day today…. drive the rest of the way accross Minnesota, and all of South Dakota into Rapid City, and be there by 9pm. Well, that’s all fine, and seems easy when you see it on the map, but with 3 kids and too much stuff in a van, towing a Uhaul trailer….I don’t think I need to say much more.
We did see some cool things along the way. We we pulled over into the gas station, we saw this really cool car…. on the license plate it said 4D1 WDY. I thought it was cool, so, the owner was nice to let me snap a picture.
As we were driving accross South Dakota, we kept seeing signs for the ‘Corn Palace’ in Mitchell, South Dakota, Tim called it the biggest waste of 2 hours on our entire trip. I thought it was good to get out of the car for awhile…. even if it was 97 and humid. So, the Corn Palace was a community center with the outside decorated entirely out of corn…or pieces and parts of corn, corn stalks, silks, cobs, seeds, you name it, they used it. 
And the kicker… they have been decorating the outside of this building for 100 years. Every year they create a new design and they have photos of every year since 1907 hanging inside the walls
of the Mitchell Corn Palace. And then came ‘Zeke’… the Man….nequin that sits outside the trading post. Maddie was very unsure about having her picture taken with him.
Several hours earlier, before we stopped in Mitchell, we began seeing signs for WALL Drug, in Wall, South Dakota. Wall Drug began as just a drug store in 1931, 
and has developed into a family attraction…. they have a fountain that shoots from the ground, and is controlled by old country standards that they play on a loud speaker, they have an animatronic T-rex, which comes to life every 15 minutes, he roars, moves his head and his eyes turn red. And from behind the fence, smoke appears. It is quite the sight! They also have the largest privately owned collection of western art… paintings, sculptures, etc. hanging on the walls of their Cafeteria. Upon leaving Wall Drug, we came 
upon this very interesting motorcycle/volkswagon/thing….. This guy made this Motorcycle with a volkswagon bug trailer on it. He has spent 3 years traveling accross the country, visiting all 50 states, and sleeps in the Volkswagon. You can visit his website worldfamoustrike.com Needless to say, we did not make it in time to see Mt Rushmore @ night. By the time we got to our hotel, the kids were so tired of traveling, we didn’t want to subject them to another 80 minutes of driving to Rushmore and back to the hotel. Would have been great to see it lit up at night! Maybe next time. Photos from top to bottom: The 1941 Woody we saw at a gas station in Minnesota; The side of the Mitchell Corn Palace where the design is made entirely of different colored corn cobs; The Mitchell Corn Palace from the front corner, which shows both decorated sides of the building; Taylor, Emma and Maddie with ‘Zeke’ the Man….nequin; Emma , scared silly of the T-Rex @ Wall Drug; World Famous Trike in Wall, SD. If you want to see the photos close up, click on them, it should open a larger version for you.
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