Following the Missouri River Through South Dakota

Early this morning we left North Sioux City and continued to follow the Missouri River all the way to the tiny town of Oacoma and a camping spot facing the Missouri River.  The weather was gorgeous though the skies did start getting a bit more threatening shortly before we pulled in for the night.  In fact, we were still hooking up when the rains came including lots of thunder and lightning.

We started out with plans for a couple of stops along the way but ran into disappointment at the first spot - The National Music Museum  - which was on the University of South Dakota campus in Vermillion, SD.  We drove around and couldn't find a place to park so continued on.  Our friends, Frank and Bette, were lucky enough to find a spot later and told us it was a wonderful museum filled with an amazing collection of instruments from virtually all cultures and historical periods.  The museum itself owns over 15,000 instruments!!!  For the tour they were given a player that provided a self guided tour providing information about the instruments along with how they sounded.

They shared a couple of pictures with us.  This one is of a Glass Harmonica which was invented by Ben Franklin.  We had an opportunity to see one played when visiting Williamsburg, VA with our granddaughter Rachel a couple of years ago.  It has a beautiful sound.

And this one shows a variety of horns.  The one on top is an echo horn and the one below it is a double bell euphonium.  Certainly not your everyday instrument!!

Meanwhile we continued on to Mitchell, home of the famous Corn Palace.  They are in the midst of a huge reconstruction project both inside and out so it was not at its prime but we still enjoyed both the inside and outside murals completely created from varying colors of cobs of corn.  We were told that one farmer provides all of the corn used each year growing a variety of colors on his 100 acre field. Each year in the fall, all of the outside murals are changed to fit that year's theme. This year is a American Pride

The murals on the walls inside remain the same though they are refreshed every few years as the corn dries up and starts to fall.  The building itself is the towns auditorium and basketball court but becomes a "store" filled with rolling shelves of tourist stuff when it is not being used for either of those things. As you can see in the picture below there are lots of murals on the walls above the stage and each end of the building.

All of this started when a couple of business men decided something needed to be done to attract more people to the area - to settle on the end and "grow" the area.  This is the second building as the first one was simply too small once they had achieved their goat of attracting many.  This is a picture of the first decorated palace back in 1894

And this was in 1937

While there, we enjoyed lunch with one of the other couples on this caravan, Ted and Mary Kerr, before heading back out on the road.

Our final stop was at a "Lewis and Clark" Rest Stop and Visitor Center.  They had some interesting displays inside including the prow of a keel boat with hatches opened to display items taken on the trip (covered in glass or course).

And on the outside balcony we could look out at the Missouri River.