We had heard about The Corn Palace but it wasn’t on our list of things to do.  Then we realized that we were staying in the town The Corn Palace is located in and we were in search of a grocery store.  Well, we found the Corn Palace and a parade that was blocking the road to the grocery store.  Come to find out that this parade is a big deal in Mitchell, SD and that people travel far distances to see this particular parade.  What was so special about this parade?  I have no idea. 

We saw the Corn Palace and it was interesting but I don’t ever need to see it again.  The building is covered with ears of corn in different colors to make a mural.  Think of a paint by number but with colored ears of corn instead.

The “paint by ears of corns”.  This is what they draw before they put the corn in place.  The best picture I could get.

The corn murals.

When we went inside to see what was in the building we were asked if the kids were participating in the tractor pull.  “The what?” I said.

It turns out the building is a venue for various town events.  This particular day the event was the kid tractor pull.  I didn’t know what a tractor pull was.  For those of you like me, the child peddles a tractor for as long as they can as the weight they are pulling gets heavier and heavier.  It looked like a pretty serious event with prizes and trophies.

My kids don’t love parades but they do love candy so we stopped briefly to watch the parade but really is was just to score some candy.

It was hard to see the candy after this car passed by.  There is no possible way this car passed inspection with the fumes it was giving off.

We did eventually get to the grocery store.  What a great place this was!  I started chatting with the woman managing the gluten free section of the store.  She was telling about various websites to get coupons for gluten free food.  After giving her my email address, I later received 7 emails from her with loads of info on g-free eating.  She also asked if we wanted samples of some items in the store.  Um, free stuff… yes , please! She whipped out her Sharpie marker, began picking up items off the shelf and then wrote “sample” on  the items as she put a slash through the UPC.  I was so thankful for her generosity.

When driving to our campground in Pipestone, Minnesota we just so happened to see a sign for Pipestone National Monument.  I have heard of many of the monuments and national parks in this country but I had never heard of this one.  The kids were excited to do the Junior Ranger program here and earn their first badge of many to come.  And I was excited to find out what this Pipestone place was all about.

Turns out this monument is an active quarry.  Only Native Americans can quarry here and apparently it can be a long process for them to get a permit.  What are they looking for?  Pipestone, of course.  This a red stone that is found under layers upon layers of sandstone (or is it granite?).  Traditionally Native Americans use the pipestone to make peace pipes. 

We walked the 3/4 of mile trail to view quarries and the Winnewissa waterfall.  It was hot and we were all overdressed.  But we made it through and saw some beautiful sights.

There were many different kinds of prairie grass throughout the park.  All of them are so important for the ecosystem here in the Great Plains.

Koah observing a spider web between the amazing rocks.

The falls.

A Native American pipestone artwork.

Taking the Pipestone National Park ranger oath to earn their junior ranger badge.

It’s always risky to take a motor home towing a van down a one lane dirt road that you have never driven before.  We must have looked like die hard Little House fans coming down that road.  It’s a good thing there wasn’t a soul in site because we did need the entire parking lot… well it wasn’t quite a parking lot but more of a turn around.  We were on the hunt for The Ingalls dug out home.  This is what we found…

So we thought we were going to see the dugout that the Ingalls lived in while living along Plum Creek.  It turns out that it is the ruins of the dugout.  The dugout collapsed many years ago.  Although the kids were disappointed that they weren’t able to play in a real dugout, they were all being lured by the fresh spring creek water of Plum Creek, on this hot Minnesota September afternoon.  Koah made the first plunge and the other 3 each followed in time.  We are reading On the Banks of Plum Creek so this made this afternoon swim extra special.

And the prairie…

Instead of Mary and Laura it is Makenzie and Freya.

In the book On the Banks of Plum Creek the Ingalls wheat crop is destroyed by grasshoppers.  While we were following a path along Plum Creek there were thousands, and I mean thousands of grasshoppers. Makenzie said they are locust and she is usually right but which ever they are, there are enough insects to completely destroy a wheat field.

The kids were super muddy when it was time to head out.  The beauty of traveling in a motor home, always a clean (well maybe not clean but at least not muddy) set of clothes and water to rinse off with. 

Jeff doesn't remember watching Little House on the Prairie growing up.... Wait... What? How did I not know this till now.  We have watched episodes with the kids from Netflix and he never mentioned this.  I've forgiven him.

This museum was fun for us Little House fans. 

There were replicas of a school house, a chapel, a dugout, jail cells and a general store.  The only original item from the Ingalls time is the bell that rang in the chapel.  It still rings to this day in a new church.

Playing school… whatever that means to homeschooled children.

A sermon from Pastor Koah.

Running the Olsen’s General Store

The mailman.

The banker.

Making farts noises while sitting on the pots in the out house.

This is Grandma’s House.   There was a room in this house dedicated specifically to the book On the Banks of Plum Creek.   This is where they had some hands on activities for the kids, like a slate board and chalk and dress up clothes.

If one thing was clear it was that life on the prairie for the Ingalls was not as happy and joyful as depicted in an hour episode of Little House on the Prairie.  This family worked really hard and struggled much for long periods of time.  If I am reading the time line correctly, the Ingalls were only in Walnut Grove for two years where they lived in the dugout on Plum Creek for about year of that time.

Today we made it to Minnesota.  We are staying in the town of Winona, in the bluffs right along the Mississippi River.  It is breathtakingly beautiful yet impossible to photograph. 

This is highway 14 which hugs the Mississippi River to the left in this picture and the bluffs and coulees to the right.  The word coulee was new for me.  I had no idea it meant deep ravine.  We drove this road several times while here (it’s the only road) and each time was as beautiful as the next.   When Makenzie saw the mountain in the distance she immediately said,  “That is how I pictured God’s thumb to look like from the book Holes.”  We all agreed with her the closer we got.

That’s the Mississippi River out there.  Like I said, I had a hard time photographing the river… maybe it’s because I’m so darn tired!

This is the view from the Grandad Bluff in La Crosse, WI.  You may ask why we are back in WI?  The main reason is because we found someone willing to fix the AC in the motorhome… for the price of $550…ugh!  But worth every penny as temps are rising this week into the low 80s. Oh, AC how I’ve missed you!

We are also in WI because there is a children’s museum in La Crosse that we were checking out while the motorhome was getting fixed.  It is part of the passport museum  program so we entered for free.  The museum was nice but was definitely geared toward a younger crowd.  This usually doesn’t stop my kids, they still always find something fun to do.  But after about 2 hours they were finished.  Off to the public library, why hadn’t I thought of this before?  Complete silence,  a beautiful thing after living in an RV for almost a month.  I almost fell asleep at one point until Koah came to me asking me questions about a Star Wars book he was reading,  “Uh, ask Daddy.”

We learned that this stand alone rock formation is called the Sugar Loaf, while in the Target parking lot in Winona.

This is the American Dagger… well technically it will be when it becomes a moth.  The black spikes on this are considered to be mildly poisonous by some and not poisonous at all to others… go figure.  As I’m looking at this picture I’m realizing it doesn’t look all that impressive.  Like I said I’m tired.

I really enjoyed this town and would love to come back to do some hiking and summer water activities.  Onward, further into Minnesota…but first some sleep.

Makenzie flies her first plane at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, WI. We had a great day at this museum but this was definitely the highlight.

Young Eagles is a program they run at the museum (actually Young Eagles is a world wide program) with the goal to have 1 million kid pilot names recorded in a book by December 2013. The museum surpassed that goal and is now at 1.8 million kids who have hit the skies, Makenzie being one of them. What is so cool is that Makenzie was able to fly this plane for free as part of this program! Let me say that again… FREE!

The process runs smoothly. Sign the waiver, step 1. We happened to be here on a quiet day so our wait time for Makenzie to fly was rather short. I was told that on busier days the wait time could be as long as an hour and a half. When your turn is up the very friendly pilot takes the whole family out to the plane. He then talks a little about the plane itself and then gives a brief explanation of some of the buttons and numbers you see on the dashboard. He explains to Makenzie that she will be steering the plane if she chooses to do so… and she did!

Getting prepared.

Ready for take off!

It’s blurry but there she is in the sky!

I’m so proud of this girl. She was so nervous but she did it anyway. Because she was the last flight of the day, she got a little extra ride, she had the opportunity to drive the plane to hanger where it would then be parked for the night. Not long after her flight she said, “I want to be pilot!”

Jersey girls don’t know pudgy pies.  But I’m in Wisconsin, so now I do.

It all started with a fellow camper asking to borrow our can opener.  She was needing to open 3 cans of pie filling.

Jeff:  “Whatcha makin’?” (truly sounding like a midwest boy,  that’s not far from “you betcha”). 

Vicky: “Pudgy pies.”

Jeff:  “What are pudgy pies?”

What Vicky said, I don’t entirely know.  But what I heard was something about white bread, pie filling and a fire.

End of story…

Until about an hour later Vicky returns.  She says, “Why don’t you come by after dinner and we can show you how to make pudgy pies.”

And we did go and learn the art of how to make a pudgy pie.

Directions:

Take 1 slice of white bread and butter one side.

Place bread, butter side down, into cast iron pudgy pie maker thing (yes, this is a real thing).  It’s like a Panini maker on a stick.

Glob lots of pie filling on bread.

Place 2nd piece of white bread on top of pie filling, butter side up.

Close pudgy pie maker thingy.

Place in fire.

But not for too long.

It’s like a grilled cheese without the cheese but instead pie filling. I guess you could put whatever you want inside.

I have to be honest, I wasn’t a big fan.  The kids on the other hand…

Thank you Vicky, Mark, Steve and Ruth for your food and fun!

We debated a long time about doing this boat tour.  Because everything in the town is made for tourists to pour their money into, I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it.  When we finally made the decision to do it, it turned out that because we are here off season we got a great deal on tickets (2 kids free and 2 kids half price).  Or maybe they just felt bad for us because it was a cold rainy day. 

I would say that the boat probably holds at least 60.  There were 16 passengers on the boat and we were 6 of them.  During most of the ride up the dells a guide gives lots of information on the dells and points out interesting rock formations that look like things like Indian heads and alligators.  It was very informative and it felt much like a private tour.

The beginning of the tour:

Boat Stop #1- Witches Gulch

I was very excited to see this and it did not disappoint.  I couldn’t take enough pictures to capture the magnificent beauty of this gulch.  Because it was so dreary and rainy, it did have a rather eerie feeling.

Boat Stop #2- Stand Rock

We were told that Stand Rock is known for the famous dog jump.  Not famous enough that I had heard of it.  But indeed a dog does jump the distance of 5 1/2 feet between these rocks, except when it is raining.  No dog jump for us.

What an interesting place?  The best way I can describe it is to think of Las Vegas and Orlando, FL colliding… that is the town of Wisconsin Dells, on a much smaller scale.

It is the “Water Park Capital of the World”.  How it got this title?  According to a local, here is the story (although Wikipedia tells a different version).

It all started with 2 brothers opening a water park in 1979, Noah’s Ark, with the money they made from a game they had patented and sold.  Their goal was to bring a little excitement to a poor poor town.  The park had a handful of water slides.  They set the park a distance back from the main road to preserve the appearance of the beautiful farm land when driving the main road.  The brothers sold the park many years later for $44 million. Noah’s Ark is now the biggest water park in the world.  Also, the street it is located on is jammed packed full of other gaudy water parks, amusement parks, hotels, big signs, and bright lights.  The women I spoke with didn’t seem too bothered by this entertainment boom.  She mentioned that it brought a lot of jobs to a very depressed town.  An interesting perspective.

If you ever decide to come here with kids plan to sink hundreds of dollars on “stuff”.  We managed to get away with the cost of a boat tour because we spent most of our time in state parks away from the many attractions… not to say that my kids didn’t ask for more because they did.

But originally people came to this town for it’s natural beauty, the dells.  More on the amazing Wisconsin Dells tomorrow.  I would come back here to explore more of the dells, other state parks, and the incredible natural land formations that are found in the area.

Here is a tiny glimpse of the main road: