We awoke to promising skies and were on the road by 7:30 AM. First stop was a bit of a backtracking expedition. We saw a 
neat field that was labeled as a “test crop” late last evening and wanted to shoot it in the morning light. It had about 20 different plants from soybeans to corn. It was a neat display and hopefully will end up in a brochure or textbook. The light was perfect on the field.
We turn around and headed north again, pointed towards Nas
hua Iowa. Home of the Little Brown Church in the Vale, it will be a neat spot to also eat our cereal breakfast. We found the church with little problem and although the sun didn’t cooperate, we got some great shots. The pastor’s wife couldn’t have been more personable and even invited us to stay for lunch. They have their annual reunion this weekend and were expecting 300 people for Sunday services. It didn’t look like the church could hold that many folks. The pastor’s wife explained that priority is given to those married the longest. Last year they had 50 couples that had been married 50 years, 18 couples married 60 years and 2 couples married 70 years! Wow. We mentioned to the pastor and his wife that we remember learning the song “Little Brown Church in the Vale” in school but that our kids never heard of it. They remarked that the political correctness of our nation has stopped many public schools from teaching the song.
Back on the road, Dennis stopped to photograph a spillway on Cedar Lake and an old WWII howitzer a
nd tank displayed in a roadside park in Nashua. Again, the sides of the roads were filled with bountiful crops. The rolling hills add a dimension to the fields and beg you to stop and take pictures. Rising out of the fields are many, many windmills. They are so close to the road and so plentiful it is almost overwhelming. Makes you feel very insignificant and almost takes away from the natural beauty of the fields. The windmills were still as there was relatively no wind. Even a smokestack in the distance had billowing steam shooting straight up in the air, without wind to twist it and turn it.
We leave Iowa and enter Minnesota for a couple hours or so. We caught I-90 and headed towards Mitchell South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace. It is 403 miles from end to end along I-90 in SD, so it will be another long day. It took 160 miles just to hit the South Dakota border. I knew it wouldn’t be long before we saw our first Wall Drug sign. Sure enough, just a couple miles inside the state and a huge billboard shouted, “Wall Drug 291 miles”. Lol
We stopped at the travel center to get information about
the natural wonders that lie ahead. It’s too bad that South Dakota is so darn far from so many things. You just can’t drive there on a weekend and take in the sights. Of course, that probably makes native South Dakotans very happy.
More windmills dot the landscape and the cornfields just don’t end. From high vantage points, it looks as though corduroy fabric lines the undulating land; the corn rows are so precisely planted.
We expect to begin encountering sunflower fields when we near the center of the state. Even though Kansas boasts the sunflower as its state flower and uses it as a symbol of the state, South Dakota actually produces more sunflowers than Kansas. Even North Dakota beats Kansas. Shows you what marketing can do for you.
It seems every second or third vehicle is a motorcycle. We learned that the annual Sturgis South Dakota Bike Week begins on Monday and we will be in the thick of it. The bikers come in all shapes and sizes. Some look like they just pushed their chair away from the dinner table and other bikes bear scantily clad babes. There are bearded, tattooed riders and some that are definitely collecting social security. The three wheel motorcycle is clearly gaining popularity. We saw a caravan of about ten bikers. Behind them drove a Chevy Blazer, with a trailer on its tail. The trailer had coolers, backpacks and other belongings of the bikers. We saw motorhomes with small trailers attached, adorned with Harley stickers. Now, they’ll arrive in Sturgis with shiny clean bikes, perfectly combed hair and won’t need to stop at a restroom to pick the bugs out of their teeth. Lol
Sturgis is a very small town northeast of Mt. Rushmore. It has a population of 6,500 people but during Bike Week, it swells to 100,000. Now, we are just driving on one road that leads to Sturgis. Just imagine all the bikers coming from all directions to converge on this little town. This makes Daytona’s Bike Week look skimpy. Even the clerks at the welcome center wore Sturgis Bike Week shirts. If motorcycling was a religion, Sturgis would be Mecca and they would all be heading there on a pilgrimage. There will be the revelers, the gawkers and the in between. There will be lots of skin, lots of leather, piercings and tattoos.
We arrived at the Corn Palace and despite the cloudy weather we experienced for the last few hours; the sun peeked through the clouds and drenched the Corn Palace with great light for picture taking. The town of Mitchell is relatively unchanged from 22 years ago. While the murals they design on the sides of the building (out of corn) change annually, the palace looked the same. The town did add a cute 5 or 6 foot plastic corn man for posing purposes. Stand on either side of the figure and the Corn Palace is in the background. Life is good. The small town’s streetlights are adorned with corn symbols at the bases. The one thing that did appear different was the appearance of a casino or two. We have noticed a few of them in South Dakota in these few short hours so perhaps some legislation was passed in the state. Makes for great revenue.
The last two days Dennis has harassed me because I forgot to load the motorhome with bottled water. Now mi
nd you, this is after I loaded it with food, pop, clothing, chairs, pickleball equipment and more. Dennis had one responsibility: load the camera equipment into the motorhome. As we were leaving the vehicle to photograph the Corn Palace, Dennis decided to grab for his 14-24mm wide angle, $2,000 lens. It is great for taking shots when you can’t back up (buildings) but want to get a full image of a building. He panicked when he couldn’t find it. He looked in both camera bags and it wasn’t to be had. Uh oh. Seems that Mr. “sure wish I could have a bottle of water” for the 
last two days LEFT the lens at home. He also left another lens, camera bag, tripod, data storage cards, back up batteries and probably other things. Suddenly, he has stopped reminding me of the forgotten water. He has shifted his requests to pop and milk to quench his thirst as we tool down the road.
Back on the road, we are heading west and then north to the state capital, Pierre. We will probably wait until morning to photograph it. Then we will drive south towards Vivian, where we hope to see those sunflower fields. We learned today that the sunflowers face a different direction, depending on the time of day. They turn towards the sun. Pretty cool, as that means that when you photograph them the sun is always at your back…perfect for picture taking.
neat field that was labeled as a “test crop” late last evening and wanted to shoot it in the morning light. It had about 20 different plants from soybeans to corn. It was a neat display and hopefully will end up in a brochure or textbook. The light was perfect on the field.We turn around and headed north again, pointed towards Nas
hua Iowa. Home of the Little Brown Church in the Vale, it will be a neat spot to also eat our cereal breakfast. We found the church with little problem and although the sun didn’t cooperate, we got some great shots. The pastor’s wife couldn’t have been more personable and even invited us to stay for lunch. They have their annual reunion this weekend and were expecting 300 people for Sunday services. It didn’t look like the church could hold that many folks. The pastor’s wife explained that priority is given to those married the longest. Last year they had 50 couples that had been married 50 years, 18 couples married 60 years and 2 couples married 70 years! Wow. We mentioned to the pastor and his wife that we remember learning the song “Little Brown Church in the Vale” in school but that our kids never heard of it. They remarked that the political correctness of our nation has stopped many public schools from teaching the song.Back on the road, Dennis stopped to photograph a spillway on Cedar Lake and an old WWII howitzer a
nd tank displayed in a roadside park in Nashua. Again, the sides of the roads were filled with bountiful crops. The rolling hills add a dimension to the fields and beg you to stop and take pictures. Rising out of the fields are many, many windmills. They are so close to the road and so plentiful it is almost overwhelming. Makes you feel very insignificant and almost takes away from the natural beauty of the fields. The windmills were still as there was relatively no wind. Even a smokestack in the distance had billowing steam shooting straight up in the air, without wind to twist it and turn it.We leave Iowa and enter Minnesota for a couple hours or so. We caught I-90 and headed towards Mitchell South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace. It is 403 miles from end to end along I-90 in SD, so it will be another long day. It took 160 miles just to hit the South Dakota border. I knew it wouldn’t be long before we saw our first Wall Drug sign. Sure enough, just a couple miles inside the state and a huge billboard shouted, “Wall Drug 291 miles”. Lol
We stopped at the travel center to get information about
the natural wonders that lie ahead. It’s too bad that South Dakota is so darn far from so many things. You just can’t drive there on a weekend and take in the sights. Of course, that probably makes native South Dakotans very happy.More windmills dot the landscape and the cornfields just don’t end. From high vantage points, it looks as though corduroy fabric lines the undulating land; the corn rows are so precisely planted.
We expect to begin encountering sunflower fields when we near the center of the state. Even though Kansas boasts the sunflower as its state flower and uses it as a symbol of the state, South Dakota actually produces more sunflowers than Kansas. Even North Dakota beats Kansas. Shows you what marketing can do for you.
It seems every second or third vehicle is a motorcycle. We learned that the annual Sturgis South Dakota Bike Week begins on Monday and we will be in the thick of it. The bikers come in all shapes and sizes. Some look like they just pushed their chair away from the dinner table and other bikes bear scantily clad babes. There are bearded, tattooed riders and some that are definitely collecting social security. The three wheel motorcycle is clearly gaining popularity. We saw a caravan of about ten bikers. Behind them drove a Chevy Blazer, with a trailer on its tail. The trailer had coolers, backpacks and other belongings of the bikers. We saw motorhomes with small trailers attached, adorned with Harley stickers. Now, they’ll arrive in Sturgis with shiny clean bikes, perfectly combed hair and won’t need to stop at a restroom to pick the bugs out of their teeth. Lol
Sturgis is a very small town northeast of Mt. Rushmore. It has a population of 6,500 people but during Bike Week, it swells to 100,000. Now, we are just driving on one road that leads to Sturgis. Just imagine all the bikers coming from all directions to converge on this little town. This makes Daytona’s Bike Week look skimpy. Even the clerks at the welcome center wore Sturgis Bike Week shirts. If motorcycling was a religion, Sturgis would be Mecca and they would all be heading there on a pilgrimage. There will be the revelers, the gawkers and the in between. There will be lots of skin, lots of leather, piercings and tattoos.
We arrived at the Corn Palace and despite the cloudy weather we experienced for the last few hours; the sun peeked through the clouds and drenched the Corn Palace with great light for picture taking. The town of Mitchell is relatively unchanged from 22 years ago. While the murals they design on the sides of the building (out of corn) change annually, the palace looked the same. The town did add a cute 5 or 6 foot plastic corn man for posing purposes. Stand on either side of the figure and the Corn Palace is in the background. Life is good. The small town’s streetlights are adorned with corn symbols at the bases. The one thing that did appear different was the appearance of a casino or two. We have noticed a few of them in South Dakota in these few short hours so perhaps some legislation was passed in the state. Makes for great revenue.The last two days Dennis has harassed me because I forgot to load the motorhome with bottled water. Now mi
nd you, this is after I loaded it with food, pop, clothing, chairs, pickleball equipment and more. Dennis had one responsibility: load the camera equipment into the motorhome. As we were leaving the vehicle to photograph the Corn Palace, Dennis decided to grab for his 14-24mm wide angle, $2,000 lens. It is great for taking shots when you can’t back up (buildings) but want to get a full image of a building. He panicked when he couldn’t find it. He looked in both camera bags and it wasn’t to be had. Uh oh. Seems that Mr. “sure wish I could have a bottle of water” for the 
last two days LEFT the lens at home. He also left another lens, camera bag, tripod, data storage cards, back up batteries and probably other things. Suddenly, he has stopped reminding me of the forgotten water. He has shifted his requests to pop and milk to quench his thirst as we tool down the road.Back on the road, we are heading west and then north to the state capital, Pierre. We will probably wait until morning to photograph it. Then we will drive south towards Vivian, where we hope to see those sunflower fields. We learned today that the sunflowers face a different direction, depending on the time of day. They turn towards the sun. Pretty cool, as that means that when you photograph them the sun is always at your back…perfect for picture taking.
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