Wandering Out WestyAdventure is Out There!

Mitchell, South Dakota
Woke up late the next morning and started some laundry. We texted Kyla and Kathy for an update, we didn’t want them to be stranded all day at a hotel with four boys and no car. Kathy had decided to tow the van back to Keith, a superb choice, and left early to go with it. That left Kyla as the entertainer. Mitch and I decided to invite them to join us to explore the town of his name sake. They excitedly agreed. After a bite to eat at Arby’s we all went to investigate the Mitchell Corn Palace! It was fascinating how artists change the massive corn mosaics on the exterior of the building annually. Each so elaborate with detail and shading, its bewildering to know it is made solely of dried corn cobs and husks! The interior tour included displays on corn uses, hands on grinding corn meal, a simulated combine cab, an old tractor to crawl on, an informative movie on its history, and a fabulous gymnasium with corn mosaics from a century ago. The boys: Carson, Devon, Blake and little Owen, had a lot of fun. With corn on the cob suckers in hand we strolled around the streets but quickly decided a shaded park was much more appealing than the hot sun. While waiting for the next movie time at the theater, we set up the slack line in the park. Mitch introduced this new sport to the boys who spent the next hour bouncing and balancing on the line with smiles stretched ear to ear. After, we wandered over to cool down at the theater to see Monster’s University. The movie and the little family we got to chaffer around all day, stole our hearts. It was truly the best day! Back at their hotel we hugged them all good bye and hoped to see them again someday. The genius Keith would have then back on the road by morning. All filled up with love we drove 20 miles north to visit the itty bitty town of Letcher. This is where my grandma grew up! It was so very fun to hear her thrilled voice on the other line as she directed us around the town from her memory just sixty some years before. We saw her school and that so much has changed except the town is still tiny. We paced through the cemetery, and sat between my great great grandparents and imagined what they would be like, what life would be like, back in the late 1800s when homesteaders like them came west. Drove back to our campsite as another gloriously orange South Dakota sunset stretched across the endless sky.