July 17, 2013 Day eight

On the road before 7am, sorry to leave Maggie and Jeff’s house, but time to head on towards MN.

The first stop today was at Minuteman Missile National Historic Site on the edge of the Badlands National Park in SD. This focused on the last remaining Minuteman II missile silo and launch control site left over from the Cold War.  The US had 150 of these missiles in South Dakota, armed and aimed at the Soviet Union. Each of these had a single nuclear warhead that was 1.2 megatons (that is the same as over a million tons of dynamite).  As the missile sites were being dismantled after the START treaties, someone decided that it would be important to keep one of these sites for historical and educational purposes. The silo we looked into had a test missile in it.

Dick remembers the duck and cover drills done in school in the late 1950’s where school children were preparing for the Russians to send missiles and to blow up our cities.  It was quite sobering to think about how close we had come to mutual destruction.  Also sobering to find that there are still hundreds of Minuteman III missile sites each with three warheads that are aimed at Russian today.  We were not able to get tickets to go on the tour of the launch control center, but hope to do that sometime in the future.

 

Driving, driving across SD.  We made a stop at Wall Drug, the famous place where their main advertising for years was signs in all directions offering free ice water.  It is a funny conglomeration of odd stores, restaurants, old photos, and odds and ends.  Patti got her picture taken on the back of a Jackalope.

At Chamberlin SD we found a lovely museum at a rest stop focusing on Lewis and Clark.  It was here on the banks of the Missouri River that they made stops each way on their expedition to dry out and to rest.  The exhibit was very professionally done with lots of wonderful artifacts and things that helped visitors imagine what these trips must have been like.

More driving, driving. South Dakota is along state with lots of rolling prairies and farmland, about 400 miles across.  One more stop was at the World’s Only Corn Palace.  This building is decorated on a yearly basis with outdoor murals made out of dried corn and other grains.  They have been doing this since 1892.  We were kind of reminded of Rose Parade floats, getting close up looks at how you can use natural materials in a very artistic manner.  If you are driving across southern SD you can’t miss at least a brief stop at the Corn Palace.

Then finally we crossed the border into MN, with nearly five hours to drive before we stopped for the night at Patti’s aunt and uncle’s home.  It was great to be back in MN again, and we happily listened to MN Public Radio as we drove across the state to arrive in Faribault.  We were warmly greeted by Jim and Len and settled in for a lovely visit.