Before leaving Mitchell for Minnesota, our first stop of the day was the “world-famous” Corn Palace. This place is advertised as much as Wall Drug in South Dakota and is crazy enough that I could include it in the same category as some of the kitsch we saw along Route 66. The Corn Palace is no longer a palace, and it’s not even made of corn anymore. Due to health & safety regulations, some time back in the early part of the 20th century, a permanent concrete building was constructed, and now every year they just decorate the exterior walls with coloured corn husks. The Corn Palace is all sorts of crazy – some of the stuff in the display cases inside the building cracked me up – see pictures below – suggestions included “you should move to France if you don’t enjoy the Corn Palace” and “the USA would produce more corn/ethanol if Saudia Arabia didn’t exist” – hilarious & scary.
As we had an extra night to play with due to not going to Yellowstone National Park (too crowded & too large for us to meaningfully visit in one day), we decided to stop in Minneapolis for a night. Much love & respect to Scott Sveiven & his fantastic family for putting us up at short notice. I met Scott in Dublin 3 years ago through our mutual friend Paula, and he very graciously offered us a place to stay when I called to tell him we were stopping in Minneapolis for a night (his hometown) – despite the fact that he was already busy with his moving party that night & packing to move to Syracuse the very next day! Scott is the 3rd person moving homes whose life I have unceremoniously crashed back into during this trip (Melissa & Hillary being the other two). Much hilarity & (on my part) many failed attempts at shot-gunning ensued at an awesome party in Scott’s back yard. Next morning, Scott’s fabulous mammy Vicky made us breakfast before we headed on our way to Chicago.
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