I can’t remember if I had mentioned that the campground we stayed at last night was Blue Earth Campground. Nice place! And the hosts were Sean and Marian. Nice people! We stopped on our way out to dump our garbage and Sean came out to wish us well. I gave him a Christian hug. I don’t think he was expecting that, but he didn’t object.
Beside Lura Lake at Blue Earth Campground
We drove back up toward Mapleton and then west toward Amboy and south to Blue Earth.
A beautiful farm house
Driving through a small town
We stopped at Walmart to get a few things, and who should we see but the Jolly Green Giant!
Finally we hit I-90.
We’ll be on I-90 from here to Washington.
Windmills
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many bales of hay!
“Welcome to South Dakota: Great faces, great places”
At the rest stop and visitor center just over the border
When Mark saw this on the horizon, he said it’s new since he used to drive long haul along this route.
Most of the route was fairly flat and dry. I asked Mark if, just for a change from the monotony, we could exit toward Mitchell, SD, home of the Corn Palace. We didn’t stop and go in, but at least we drove by it.
This building is world famous and it’s been around (this is the third building) since 1892.
Every year they choose a different theme and decorate the outside with naturally colored corn, grains and grasses.
Back on I-90, we crossed the wide Missouri River.
When we reached Kennebec, our GPS steered us wrong. We find when that happens, Mark’s tablet gets us where we want to go with better accuracy. However, to get us back where we needed to be, the tablet took us on a couple rough gravel roads.
Getting turned around the hard way
Cows trying to eat dry grass
Piles of hay bales
A little bit of something kind of pretty
We finally got into the Kennebec KOA where I had made reservations. At this time of year it’s kind of hard to find campgrounds open in the north. This KOA was the only thing open within the time frame we wanted to travel today. It’s a dry, flat, ugly place to stay for the night. We can hear the highway traffic. The people in the office are nice, but there really isn’t anything much to recommend about this place. At least Mark and I were able to take showers in their bathrooms.
They said the only reason they’re open is because of the pheasant hunters this weekend. Apparently South Dakota is the place to go if you want to hunt pheasant. I know that Tim was leaving today to go pheasant hunting in Mitchell (home of the Corn Palace) with his brother. We are a couple days ahead of him. Happy hunting, Tim!