We Are 'Ear!

Day 7 Mile 1923
Mitchell, SD

The word for the day is, “CORN.” It’s everywhere.  Sweeping vistas of corn fields align the
highways. They say it’s “knee high by the fourth of July” but these crops are tall enough to carve out a corn maze (those things always frighten me as invariably some mass murderer lurks within the stalks.)  Our corn adventure began in Lincoln, NE, the home of University of
Nebraska and, you guessed it, the Corn Huskers!  The stadium is enormous, holding over 90,000.  Home games have been sold out since the year Jeff was born.  He takes issue with the sign over each gate stating, “Through these gates pass the greatest fans in college football.”

 There are plenty of “corny” things in this neck of the woods- Wall Drug Store (the Midwest equivalent of South of the Border, the tourist trap on I-95 with ubiquitous signage for hundreds of miles along the highway.) We visited the Prairie Dog Camp where 50 cents buys you peanuts to feed the alert little creatures who dart in and out of their holes.

But the mecca to corn is in Mitchell- the famous Corn Palace. Let me share a few “a-Maiz-ing facts about this 113 year-old icon to the yellow stuff.  600,000 pieces of corn in nine colors adorn the palace and intricate murals each year. The palace has served as a community forum and celebration of all things corn and now the wonder draws thousands of tourists off the highway to sleepy Mitchell, SD. We were “ear!”