Day 17 and 18: Badlands and Lots of Corn

We have finally arrived in Fort Dodge, Iowa and Deb is like a little kid at Christmas...

Yesterday we left John and Sue's home in Rapid City and headed for Iowa.

However, not to far out of town, we started to see many, many billboards advertising a place called Wall Drug... in Wall, SD.

We decided to take the detour and see what it was all about.

It was a fun place with all kinds of shops and fun things to do... and they have free ice water... the whole reason why the place exists... for the story, google Wall Drug.

Deb had fun riding the many attractions and

I had fun with the local gals.

I had a buffalo dog for lunch... it was not a J Dawg but it was good none-the-less.

We started towards Iowa again...

However, we decided to take another detour through Badlands National Park and we are glad we did.

The landscapes are amazing... like nothing we have ever seen before... except the fake ones in Disneyland.

The colors changed all day long as the sun moved across the sky. We took all day to travel through thr park end to end.

Then we turned around and went back to the beginning so I could get some photos in the warm evening light... it was worth the wait.

After watching a beautiful sunset in the Pinnacles area of the park, we headed towards Iowa again.

We didn't make it as we decided to spend the night in Oacoma, SD.

This morning we headed out again and were detoured one more time when we saw a sign for a place called the Corn Palace...

It is just what it sounds like...

The outside of the building has been decorated every year since 1892 with murals made out of corn...

They are in the process of changing the murals to the 2008 theme of honoring public workers... I had to take a picture of this mural... I don't know why?

The palace is an in-your-face tribute to a statement made by Lewis and Clark that said the town would never be able to raise anything... I guess they showed them.

Jayson, across the street there is a dog shack... they had a couple things that you may want to consider...

Especially the menu girl!

Finally, we arrived in Fort Dodge at about 7:30 p.m. CT and Deb was so excited...

She has not been here for over 24 years and she was so excited to see her great-grandparents home (on the left) and her grandparents home (on the right).

We will probably be here until Wednesday morning (the genealogical society that she needs to visit is only open Tuesday - Thursday), so we will explore all the museums that are here starting tomorrow. I am anxious to see the museum at the Fort Dodge because my grandfather served there during World War I as a blacksmith and a personal cook for the fort Commander (or at least I think that is the way the story goes...)

Goodnight.