Cohabitational Life: South Dakota Pt. 2: Corn Palace, Wall Drug, and the Badlands

The next day of our trip found us making our way through South Dakota and enjoying all the prairie scenery (what else was there to look at?). On the way, we stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, which, to be honest, was not that great. As we pulled away, we were left wondering why we stopped. The reason: what else was there to do? We checked it out, and I vaguely remembered being there as a 5-year-old with my family. Of course, we had to get a picture.

On we drove to a small town called Reliance where my great grandmother on my mother's side and her sister homesteaded in 1910 and where my great grandfather is buried. We passed through and saw Great Grandpa's gravesite and then a 1-room schoolhouse which we believe is where my grandfather attended school when he lived there. It was really thought-provoking for me to be there, to look around, and to imagine how Great-Grandma and her sister could have left home in Iowa to homestead by themselves on the prairie.

We continued on to a roadside restaurant near Chamberlain where we had our first taste of buffalo when Ken ordered a buffalo burger. Being less adventurous, I stuck with the salad bar, but took a bite of the sandwich. I must confess it was not bad at all and far less greasy than a regular "cow" burger. Then on we went until we stopped at the (in)famous Wall Drug. We barely made it there before they closed, so a quick potty break and a fast look around was all we got from Wall Drug. We decided to stop again on our way home.

Moving on, we finally made it to the Badlands and what a sight! After driving for miles and miles with nothing but open prairie around us, it was such a shock to our systems to see the wonder that is the badlands. They're sort of hard to describe, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.