We Can Stand the Heat

The last part of today's 519-mile drive reminded me a lot of our drive across Nebraska last year. That day, we spent the whole afternoon slogging through 102-degree weather to get to Scottsbluff, with the sun's brutal glare in our faces. Today it got up to 100 around 4pm, just as we arrived in Mitchell, South Dakota--not all that far from our route across the Nebraska. We spent an hour in Mitchell at the Corn Palace--more on that shortly--and had a two-hour drive left to tonight's stopping place in Pierre. During the drive, the temperature ranged between 99 and 102, and even the air conditioning didn't keep us from feeling damp. It's nearly 9pm as I write this and it is still 94 degrees here in Pierre. Except for the first day of the trip (today is day #6), it has been in the 90s every day, with more heat ahead until we get to the Rockies sometime this weekend. But we can take it.

It was hot on the Mississippi River boat trip yesterday as well, close to 90 degrees, but there was shade on the boat and it didn't drain us. The 90-minute trip (including a dinner of Domino's pizza and refreshing beer) was quite enjoyable, starting at the confluence of three rivers: the Mississippi, the La Crosse, and the Black. No ballpark there, however, just plenty of water and lots of trees (none indigenous to the area). We went up to Lock #7 on the Mississippi, where a large riverboat was waiting to be lowered to the level where we were (see photo below). Earlier, we had passed an overturned boat that had failed to slow down as it reached the lock, sending 11 passengers hurtling through the channel (all survived).

We met a fellow from Oregon on the boat whose father is in the Army Corps of Engineers and worked on many of the large dams along the Columbia River. He wondered what the name of this dam/lock was. The answer: #7. There are 27 locks along the Mississippi, starting in Minneapolis, and only the two southernmost ones have names. He was disappointed to learn that the folks in the Midwest didn't have the inspiration to name things. Here's a photo of us taken on the boat:

We were so comfortably in La Crosse that it wasn't easy to leave, but we had lots to see, though not much of it along the southern edge of Minnesota traversed by I-90. Minnesota may be the "land of 10,000 lakes," but I think we saw only one or two of them in the space of about 300 miles. South Dakota is much more interesting, especially the stretch between Mitchell and Pierre. Parts of it seemed completely covered by vast fields of sunflowers. On the north side of the highway, the bright yellow flowers faced us (and the sun); on the south side, not as much yellow was visible, as the flowers faced away from us to drink in the sunlight. The acres and acres of sunflowers were a glorious sight.

Then there was the Corn Palace, a different way of highlighting nature's abundance. Begun in the 1890s as a way of putting Mitchell on the map, it has succeeded in providing a unique, strange, and wonderful spectacle to visitors. Every year, the exterior of the building (which is currently utilized mainly as a site for college and high school basketball and volleyball--a women's volleyball team was practicing during our visit) is remade, using corn. I say "remade"; the exterior is a series of murals (newly designed each year) made from all parts of corn cobs. Here's a shot of the entrance:

Everything except the minarets, turrets, and wording is corn. It costs over $130,000 a year to redo the building (there are permanent murals along the walls of the sports arena), and it takes most of the spring and summer (the Indian corn is the last to ripen). Here's a closer view of the mural on the left:

That gives you some idea of the design, but you need a closer view to appreciate the intricacy of design and construction. Try this:

That's a lot of corn, folks! I hope you like the photos. When we did the blog during last year's trip, I couldn't figure out how to place photos in the blog, so this is a big breakthrough for me. Now that we're about the start the most scenic part of the trip, I'll try to let images speak for me a little more.