Whelan's Wheels (go round and round, round and round): Such a corny birthday

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Such a corny birthday

To "celebrate" Rick's birthday a few weeks back we got on the bikes and headed out to Mitchell (about 75 miles from here) to the ..... Corn Palace. Hey, a few years ago we celebrated my birthday at the Spam Museum so never let it be said that us Whelans don't know how to have a good time! We packed toothbrushes and clean clothes just in case we had a need to hang out for an additional day or two!

For those of you who have no clue what the Corn Palace is I have the answers! First of all, the Mitchell Corn Palace claims to be the worlds only corn palace (who am I to argue such a claim!). The Mitchell Corn Palace was built in 1892 when the city of Mitchell was only 12 years old. Every fall Mitchell has a corn festival to celebrate agriculture and the productivity of the people of Mitchell (in fact this year it starts next week).

Every year the Corn Palace is decorated with a different theme! The walls are stripped of the corn from the last years murals and the process begins all over again and the new murals are created using over 3,000 bushels of rye, oat heads and "sour dock" which are tied in bundles and attached to the walls. When the corn is ready to be harvested approximately 275 thousand ears of corn are sawed in half lengthwise and nailed to the building according to the patterns created by the designers of the current years murals.

As hokey as it sounds it really is rather impressive when you see it and realize what is involved! The Corn Palace is open to the public and free of charge for those of you planning a trip to Mitchell, SD! Also, it is the main venue for community events in this small rural farm town,they have basketball games, stage shows, trade shows etc. at the venue. I'm not done yet, they even have a "corn cam" for those of you that are interested!

In closing, this is one of those little fellas that used to drive Arlo crazy when we'd stay here ~ oh the hours that boy spent trying to get himself one of these prairie dogs or gophers or whatever they are. Not sure what the heck he'd have done if he succeeded ~ probably scared the be jeebers out of himself and run like the wind in the other direction, but he sure tried!

The fair just ended on Sunday so stay tuned for that adventure!

1 comment:

where's weaver said...: We visited the Corn Palace and loved it. I am glad you put a picture of the outside. They do such lovely work.

Happy belated Birthday King Richard.; August 14, 2013 at 8:37 AM

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This is our story ~ and we're sticking to it.

Our attempt at a blog - quite scary isn't it?

We left MA in early October, 2007 after I (Tracey) retired September 5 as an executive assistant for a software developer and Rick retired from his job on October 1. We passed papers on our house September 28th and off we went. We traveled down the east coast to the Florida Keys ~ where we planned to spend three nights but 17 nights later had to leave our site because someone had reserved it a year prior! We then stayed in northern FL for another month and headed off to meet our Marine returning to the San Diego area after his second tour "over there". We spent several wonderful weeks realizing why grandparents get tired easily! After the San Diego area we headed to the "low desert" (certainly a new phrase for us) of CA and into western AZ .. and decided it was finally time to start the blog we'd talked about since August or so!!

So many wonderful things we saw along the way. And the people, oh the people. I have said so many times to Rick the best part of this journey has been the people. So, so many people with so many interesting stories. Think about it - think about the stories YOU have and multiply that by the many many people we must have met along the way ~ particularly a social person like Rick .. we met a rattlesnake milker in Sweetwater, TX, we met the camp hosts in the Keys who summer back in NH ~ talk about the best of both worlds! We met the female police Sgt. at the Sweetwater Elks whose son was also in Iraq at the same base as my son. We met people in Slidell, LA who survived Katrina and had a great attitude and a smile on their faces and were proud to share their local cuisine with us. We saw the Blue Angels, purely by chance, in El Centro, CA. Or the "campground" where within an hour of arriving our house had been hit three times by golf balls! Or the Elks lodge in Indio ~ the sweetest, bike riding, bartender ~ I just wanted to pack her up and bring her along on our adventure. Not to mention the aerial tram while we were there, the warplane museum for Rick who does NOT do aerial trams! The Salton Sea ~ WOW just WOW. We stayed in the lovely little town of Wilcox, AZ - there was just something about that town. How about Pensacola, FL where the Elks Lodge on the beach is now built high, very high, off the ground! Or what about Huntington Beach State Park in Murrels Inlet, SC - talk about beautiful. What a great place that was to spend our first Thanksgiving on the road with good friends - that was something to be thankful for, for sure. Our first Christmas and New Years in the Keys!! WOW. The love and support of a dear friend in FL while Rick had to fly back to Boston and we dealt with all that entailed with unexpected follow ups back in FL .. how fortunate were we through all of that. Not to mention having the new trailer outfitted in Myrtle Beach and staying at what a week or two a year is the Broken Spoke? Or the kind and soft spoken LA Police Detective who is on the gang unit? So many people, so many stories. And there is so much ahead. The people .. did I mention how wonderful the people have been - all different walks of life .. so many personalities, so many stories! I have said many times ~ I need to pinch myself every morning to be certain it REALLY is happening to US! We are so grateful.

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