Day 6: It's tourist time

"It gets cornier" 

Today is the day of American landmarks you see on television but never think you'll ever visit. I am actually very excited.

We get an early start to the day because we have more than 10 hours of travel/sightseeing time on the schedule. For the second consecutive day we are also driving across an entire state, west to east. Breakfast is free at the hotel and reminds us we are in middle America - very large people gorging on free food laden with corn and not another minority in the breakfast lounge, though there are plenty laundering sheets in the rooms below us. While we haven't really experienced any discrimination, funny looks have been common; in fairness, I too would stare at two ninjas driving a German automobile. Let's get going to a real city already.

Wall, SD is not a real city. It is essentially a large "drug" store that triples as a tourist trap and small town. And it's amazing. Wall Drugs literally sells everything and anything you could possibly hope for, including Aveeno Active Naturals Itch Relief Cream (purchased, thanks mosquitos) and designer $300 cowboy boots (not purchased).

They also have restaurants, western art, animated dinosaurs, giant jackanapes and much, much more. We limited ourselves to 20 minutes and a cup of free water to prevent me from buying useless things (I really wanted that real "used" lasso) and keep us on track to reach the Corn Palace on time.

Yes, the Corn Palace. What is a Corn Palace you ask? What isn't it is a better question. In this multi-purpose civic center space decorated in corn, the following occur on a semi-regular basis: basketball games (various levels), concerts, banquets, shows, proms, speaking engagements, parties, weddings and three-ring circuses.

How do I know all of this? A worker on his lunch break informed us while answering 34 questions we did not ask him while interrupting a conversation I was having with a friend I haven't seen in more than five years. Here are other fun facts we learned during this conversation:

• Former NBA Rookie of the Year Mike Miller played all his home high school basketball games at the Corn Palace. 
• His team, the Mitchell High Kernels, has a kernel of corn as a mascot
• The team's games were broadcast on the local radio station, call sign K-O-R-N

Those were the only one's I remembered, but I believe he went on to tell us about the Annual Shriners Circus, his time as a clown in said circus, and the trials and tribulations of purchasing makeup during his time as said clown. He also invited us back for next year's circus, where he won't be a clown. As it is in April, I will busy doing anything else and will not be able to attend.

This next bit of information won't pertain to 95 percent of our readership, but it is so random I have to include it. In college I worked as a Resident Assistant and worked with Kim Cundall, formerly of Hawaii. We are friends, primarily through facebook as I haven't seen her since 2005. Yesterday, she posted a picture of Mount Rushmore; we touched base through a series of messages, but were not able to schedule a time to meet. We both knew we were headed to Mitchell the next day and thought we might run into each other in Wall Drugs or the Corn Palace. Sure enough, Corn Palace. Seeing Erik Thompson in Boise is one thing. This is random on another level. Good to see you Kim, hope you enjoyed the corn as much as we did.

Sioux City is the last stop in SD and we have one goal:  Bob's Cafe and the MegaBob Burger. Bob's Cafe has other plans however; they have won best local chicken four years in a row. Scott Lee is tempted and gets the broasted chicken, I hold the line and get my prize.

This is not Bob, he bought it from Bob several years back. He is very friendly though, as are the rest of his patrons who all appear to be regulars. And older - we are eating lunch at 5pm just as the early bird senior citizens are getting dinner. Unlike the rest of this state, they engage us in friendly banter and tales of years past. They offer advice on things to do and have us sign their guest book. This 10-seat counter cafe, with their "our chicken is clucking good" slogan, might be my favorite dining stop so far.

We push on, through our first encounter with rain, to Minneapolis. It rains throughout the remainder of the leg, ensuring a day of humidity to come.

Tomorrow's Agenda:
Route: Minneapolis > Minneapolis
Estimated Distance: 0 miles
Estimated Time: 0 hours, 0 minutes