Good evening and welcome to Stappcation 2020 – South Dakota: COVID-19 edition. Or as we like to call it – a poorly executed attempt to vacation while social distancing. Read on and you will understand.
The World’s Only Corn Palace!
We began our day traveling up I-29 from KC through Misey, Iowa and South Dakota with minimum stops until Mitchell, SD where we visited the magnificent Corn Palace. This architectural phenomenon created such a feeling of cultural accomplishment that we just had to enter and explore this building.
The Corn Palace is not made of corn, as you would assume from the name. This brick and mortar civic center is decorated with corn and used by local high schools play basketball. There is also a balcony where we were able to view some of the amazing corn art up close.
Now, I know you are waiting for the puns and dad jokes. Sorry, but I have nothing I can come up that will be funnier than visiting someplace so corny. It only takes itself seriously until you get to the souvenir shop(s) where you cannot throw a cob without hitting some cornball joke. We will move on from there.
Wall Drug
Our next stop was at the famous Wall Drugstore. This is basically a tourist trap mall disguised as a drug store – but it had cheeseburgers and we were hungry. We wolfed down our meal and wandered around looking at the souvenirs. Eventually made it back on our way down I-90 to Rapid City, where our hotel was waiting for us.
Now, I’m going to rewind a bit back a few weeks ago. We had something completely different planned for vacation this year and ended up canceling it due to COVID-19. We hastily threw this vacation together in a few days and missed an important detail.
Rewind a little bit to our visit to the Corn Palace. While visiting with the lady at the souvenir shop, we found out that President Trump had plans to be at Mt. Rushmore on the 3rd of July. Amy and I are not really fans of politics, but we had just cancelled plans for two different trips and we weren’t happy about the possibility of being caught at security checkpoints for the next several days. We decided to go to Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park and the Black Hills on Wednesday and tour the Badlands on Thursday.
Rapid City, SD
When we finally arrived at the hotel, we discovered a few (2-3) Dept. of the Interior and Forest Service vehicles in the parking lot. Upon entering the lobby, we spotted a sign directing incident units downstairs to a conference room. This could get interesting.
Wish you were here,
The Stapp’s
P.S. I apologize for the late posting of this. I was very tired last night and spent today writing in my free time.
P.P.S – I apologize again, Cade did not join us on this journey. We came up with it too quickly for him to ask for time off work.
However, he is having an adventure of his own as his car broke down after we left town. He is having to learn how to adult a bit without us. Pray for him!
#Stappcation2020