For part one of The Dakotas Trip, click here; for the second part, click here; and for the third segment, click here.
After getting out of Wall Drug and hitting the road again, I once again had a long trip in front of me to Sioux Falls. It was a warm, windy day in South Dakota - the kind of day that helped make Wall Drug a favorite destination of thirsty travelers years ago. But I was certainly happy to be out of there and back on the road.
Heading east on Interstate 90, I had nothing but miles and miles of road ahead of me as I traversed through the Badlands. It became a rather monotonous drive.
About a hundred miles east of Wall is the turn-off to go to South Dakota's state capital city of Pierre. Once again, I'm such a geography nut and Pierre would be the last state capital of the 11 states I cover that I haven't visited. Pierre is about 35 miles north of the interstate, but US Highway 83 is a four lane road between the interstate and Pierre, so I thought it would be a rather quick side trip. (See map) Well, it was and it wasn't.
For 30 miles, the rolling Badlands scenery offered not much in terms of scenic beauty. It was void of trees and gold from drought with the lack of rain in the region. Suddenly, the road began a gentle slope down into the valley. In front of me was the Missouri River with Pierre just ahead.
Actually, Pierre was kind of a nice little town. After getting some gas and a snack (I hadn't had any lunch), I struck out to find the South Dakota state capitol building. After finding the downtown area (what there is of it in Pierre), I saw a sign that directed me toward the state capitol.
Pulling up in front of the capitol building, I was very pleasantly surprised. It was nothing like the North Dakota state capitol, and the grounds around the building were very well manicured with lush green lawns, flowers and plants. There was a very nice little lake to the east side of the building. Given how dry the area was, it looked like a green oasis in the middle of the Badlands.
I drove to the east of the capitol building and took a left in a residential area to see if I could get any pictures of the capitol from across the lake. I looked over and there was a sign that said, "Governor's Mansion". I couldn't believe it. There was this modern mansion with this huge lawn. Most of the governor's mansions I've seen in other states are usually large older houses. This one looks like it was built within the last couple three years. The gambling and banking businesses have obviously been very good to South Dakota.
I turned around and found a place to park on the street on the south side of the governor's mansion. I walked out onto the lawn and took this picture of the capitol building across the lake. It was actually very pretty.
There's not much else to Pierre, so I ended up going north of town a little bit and went up to Lake Oahe. Formed by a massive power dam across the Missouri River, Lake Oahe is one of the largest man made lakes in the U.S. 
The power plant at the dam provides power for many of the residents in the Dakotas, Western Minnesota, Northern Nebraska and into Wyoming and Montana. It was well over a mile to get across the dam.
I was able to get out on the other side of the dam and take in the sight of the lake. Lake Oahe is one of the biggest destinations for fishermen across the Midwest. It stretches for over 200 miles north of Pierre, well up into North Dakota before ending just south of Bismarck. It's also the boundary line for the Central Time Zone and the Mountain Time Zone. The east side of the Lake Oahe dam is in the Central Time Zone, while the west side is in the Mountain Time Zone. I'm fascinated with geographical boundaries, almost fanatically fascinated. You'll see a little later on.
Back on the road and back down Highway 83 toward the interstate, it was getting late in the day. I knew I had one more stop to make before I made it to Sioux Falls for the evening. And that was in Mitchell to see the Corn Palace.
Driving east on Interstate 90, it was rather interesting how the topography changed tremendously once I crossed over the Missouri River. West of the river was the rolling and grassy hills of the Badlands, while just over the river to the east the land became flat and green with farm fields full of soybeans. It reminded me earlier of how the land changed from the tree filled mountainous region west of Rapid City to the Badlands just east of the city.
I pulled into Mitchell around 7 p.m. and went toward their downtown area. I'd heard much about the Corn Palace over the years and wanted to see it for myself.
The Corn Palace dates back to the 1800's when a wooden structure was built and decorated on the outside by corn kernels and stalks. The original intent was to have the structure serve as a community center and help lure residents to the area. The original Corn Palace was torn down and a new structure was built in 1905. The present day Corn Palace was built in 1921 and has been added on to over the years.
Every year since the late 1800's, the exterior of the Corn Palace has been decorated in corn kernels. Well, every year except for last year when a severe drought across the region in 2005 affected the corn harvest. Local artists have annually designed and decorated the exterior. It costs about $130,000 each year to decorate the building.
Inside, the Corn Palace is a multi-use building with a large stage, a basketball court and theater seating. The interior is also ornately decorated with corn sculptured pictures throughout the place. They had a church bazaar going on when I was there that evening.
There's also a long hallway stretching from the main entrance lobby down to the floor area of the auditorium that shows pictures and paintings of previously decorated Corn Palaces. It was kind of neat to see some of the previous designs they came up with.
Here's a picture of the first year (1921) of the present day Corn Palace. (As always, click on the picture to enlarge.) This shows the building before the Moorish domes were added in the late 1930's.
Here's some more of the designs inside the Corn Palace. Many of the sculpted pictures inside the building depicted the history of the area. And they also show many of area's outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing. And they even had a "corn" Mount Rushmore. For as corny as it all was (pardon the pun), it was still pretty cool.
Across from the Corn Palace was a hot dog shop that was closed for the evening. But they had this sculpture outside their front door. Too bad the place wasn't open. I would have liked to gone in and tried one of their hot dogs.
And on the corner at the hot dog place was a sculpture of The Blues Brothers hanging out on a park bench. Being that it was right across from the Corn Palace it looked a little out of place, but it was pretty funny see.
It had been a long day, and I still had to go on to Sioux Falls and a late evening dinner. One of the things I realized after leaving Mitchell - for an area that celebrates corn, I didn't really see much corn along the interstate coming from the west. However, east of Mitchell toward Sioux Falls, there were miles and miles of cornfields.
One more day on the road including a long trip home.
(Coming up - Part 5 of the Dakotas Trip. My fascination with state borders.)
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