The Corn Palace - Mitchell, SD

I know, you're dying to hear about our visit to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. Sadly, you won't get much from me. It was an impromptu stop made after the Palace had closed for the day. Thank goodness for our AAA guidebook though, otherwise we wouldn't have even known it was around.

The Corn Palace helped us reach three kitschy Americana landmarks (Roswell and Carhenge being the first two) during our road trip. Much to my husband's disappointment (he truly felt cheated), the entire building is not made of corn. The exterior is decorated yearly using all parts of corn and must be a better use of the plant then high fructose corn syrup.

As far as I can tell, the theme of this year's mural was to showcase the palace "throughout the ages". How a sailboat and pictures of man on a segway "show" the theme, I have no idea. It was pretty awesome though and I'm sure GOB Bluth would've been proud.

Carhenge

Part of our goal for this road trip was to see all kinds of quirky Americana along the way. Carhenge helped us to meet this goal en route between Denver (where we stayed with wonderful family and didn't sightsee) and South Dakota. It's famous enough to have been listed in the book "1000 Places to See in the USA Before You Die".


Carhenge is modeled after England's Stonehenge which neither of us have seen. However, thanks to this road side diversion in Alliance, Nebraska, I no longer think its necessary (wink). The 38 vehicles are all American-made and covered with grey spray paint. However, there's more than just this Stonehenge replica to the site. "Car art" including the pictured "Dino" sculpture is also present.