On the way out of Sioux Falls we stopped off at the towns namesake. The falls were intriguing but underwhelming because we were used to the massive waterfalls from North Carolina. However, for people accustomed to the rolling prairie-land I’m sure this was quite a sight.

Perhaps the single most awesome (non-nature related) stop on my summer 2009 road-trip was at Porter Sculpture Park along I-90 through South Dakota, between Sioux Falls and Mitchell. I had marked the Sculpture Park as a must-stop but was about to pass it by on the interstate. However, the massive cow sculpture was hard to miss and we caught the exit just in time. Driving across the large corn-field and into the parking area we realized that we’d just ran short on cash. Fortunately, Wayne Porter cut us a break on admission because he said it was all about fun anyways. We set out about the mysterious sculpture with their cryptic descriptions after we signed Mr. Porter’s guestbook which required us to write the most important thing we knew. I think I paraphrased Arthur C. Clarke by writing, “Either we are alone in the universe or we aren’t, either possibility is terrifying.”

Walking about the sculptures was like entering Wonderland as Alice. These massive metal designs were all created by Wayne Porter himself, accompanied by his thoughts which were apparently the inspiration. We returned to the car and discovered that Erby had lost his ipod on the walk. Fortunately a nearby South Dakotan family found it and we celebrated the triumphant return of Erby’s ipod to the roadtrip.

We then hit the road for Mitchell, SD and the Corn Palace. I had first seen the Corn Palace on a documentary called King Corn, regarding America’s obsession with corn. This structure was indicative of this obsession. Originally built in 1892 to celebrate the corn harvest, The Mitchell Corn Palace was rebuilt every year with a new design. This was a bizarre place, I had high hopes for the interior though which were dashed when I realized the whole thing was just a basketball court. After lunch at a local train station re-imagined into a restaurant, as our buffalo burgers settled we discovered that Mitchell didn’t have any grocery stores (that we could find) only a Super Wal-Mart… how depressing. So we loaded up, visited Cabela’s Outdoor World to get Jane some hiking shoes and hit the road for the Badlands!

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