August 11
The sun was shining as we woke up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Today was another shorter drive but we had some interesting stops planned along the way. First things first, we got up, got dressed, and had a free hotel breakfast. After that we were off to the waterfalls of Sioux Falls.
Pulling into Falls park we could immediately smell the water. We got out of the car and walked along the trail that took us to the top of the Falls. Woah! From where we stood we could see three waterfalls, one after the other. 
Just sitting there breathing in the sweet air, it was so relaxing. There were many people out walking, biking, or having a picnic. If I lived closer I could see myself visiting this park often. 
We climbed over rocks and bridges to get to the base of the Falls. The rocks were wet and slippery but that didn’t stop us from taking pictures.
After we had our full of the Falls we started on our way.
I mentioned this in my previous post but I have an app called Roadtrippers. This allows you to set up stops along your road trip however far you go, or even right where you are. It shows you hotels, picturesque places, museums, off beat attractions, etc. Well that’s how we got to our next destination, I looked at off beat attractions along our route and found the corn palace. Yes, it is the worlds only corn palace. Christina has loved the idea of stopping here ever since I first mentioned it, so we added it to our route.
*Christina: Come on! It’s a building with outer walls made of corn! Who wouldn’t want to see this? There were just so many jokes waiting to be made*
If there’s one thing you need to know about Christina is that she loves puns. And let me tell you, this place had there fair share of corny 🌽 jokes (haha get it). My first impression of the outside was “Oh. My. God.” And the inside smells so much like pop corn! 
Oh and the amount of corn souvenirs they had were too many to count. Besides normal shirts, magnets, and mugs, they had corn on the cob that turned into popcorn on the cob, corn lollipops, corn socks (which we invested in), and more. We also had to stock up on some popcorn, it just smelled so good! 
There wasn’t much on the inside of the building besides the “Corncessions Stand”, a gift shop, and facts/ the history of the corn palace. One of my favorite spots was the balcony. You are able to walk out on the second floor to see the road and town below. Across the street was another corn related gift shop, and some small shops. If you are curious about what the corn palace looks like, you can see the live feed video on the website. It has the perfect view of the balcony where we had been standing. Since we knew that, we texted our friends saying that we were on the video if they wanted to see us…so they did! They took pictures of us through there screens. 
We even video chatted with our two good friends Nicole and Phoebe! It was a hilariously wonderful moment to share one of the most interesting buildings I have ever seen with them.
*Christina: I absolutely loved being on the balcony talking to a bunch of friends who were watching us from the corn cam! We also had the opportunity to meet Cornelius the corn. He’s the Corn Palace mascot and there is a statue of him across the street. He is a great listener… all ears!*
Once we spent way to much money at the gift shop we drove off three more hours to one of our most anticipated stops, MOUNT RUSHMORE! Since we still had a drive before we got there we ended up stopping halfway at an unexpected rest stop.
Right before reaching the Missouri River, we were just stopping to use the bathroom and stretch our legs, we stumbled upon a beautiful rest area. At first it seems like a normal stop at the top of a hill…over looking the beautiful river…with a giant statue of Sacajawea. 
We had stumbled upon the Louis and Clark information center. During their expedition of discovery they traveled through this particular area. The rest stop itself had a museum inside with documents, brochures, and artifacts. It was a really cool, unexpected stop.
We continued along the highway until it was time to make the decision of taking the scenic route or not…so of course we had to! Thanks to our grandparents who one, provided us with an atlas, and two, recommended we drive through the Badlands National Park to get to Mount Rushmore. Now THAT was incredible, if we had extra time we would have loved to get out and take a hike. 
We still got out at some scenic points to take pictures, even when it was raining. We had to, it was amazing. “These striking geologic deposits contain one of the world’s richest fossil beds. Ancient mammals such as the rhino, horse, and saber-toothed cat once roamed here.”
Once we left the Badlands National Park we were only an hour from Mount Rushmore. As we got closer, the land began to change from vast fields to forest. The trees were changing. That’s one thing that we have noticed throughout our trip, as we cross the country the trees transform. The foliage becomes less and less and turns more into fields or deserts. 
In Keystone there is a town before you hit the monument. Apparently we hit it at just the right time…during Sturgis. My friend Catherine informed me that this is the annual motorcycle rally that takes place in Sturgis, South Dakota. So there were a lot of bikers, at least half of the visitors. Our first stop was of course to Mount Rushmore and we hit it just before sunset. It is such a cool experience to see something you’ve only seen pictures of or learned about at school. This was the same feeling I had when I saw the Sydney Opera house. Half amazement and half not believing it was happening.
Almost everyone there was traveling. We met two woman from Mississippi and another family who were from Nevada and bringing their daughter to her first year of college at Penn State. The sun began to set behind the heads of the presidents so we went into the town to grab a quick bite to eat. 
Then we came back for the evening light show. It was a ceremony they put on every night at 9pm. There was a short video about the monument as well as the national anthem, a solute to the armed forces, and the lighting of the monument.
I’m glad we stayed to see it in the day and night, it’s the same statue but a different experience. The only part I didn’t particularly enjoy was the winding road that took us to the base of the mountain, but it was the only way down.
Slow and steady we made our way down and eventually reached our hotel for the night. A log cabin-esque looking Best Western. It was a place to sleep, just what we needed. Plus we had some big plans for the next morning so all we really needed was a good nights rest.
After spending time catching up on each others lives, Emma had to head back to her apartment. Jamie, Christina, and I then went to Jenni’s, a trendy ice cream parlor with some interesting flavors. After getting our sweet cream and honey roasted almond ice cream we walked back to the apartment. Once inside we threw on pajamas and gathered in the living room. Christina and Jamie shared memories from Australia while I worked on a blog. It was nice to hear them laughing. Midnight hit and we crawled into our sleeping spots to wait until the morning came. Jamie lives right next to the train so throughout the night I could hear it rumbling past, but it wasn’t loud enough to keep me up.
It was delicious! And filling, we each ended up taking half with us and ate it for dinner that night in the car. It was then unfortunately time to say good bye to Jamie, we each gave her a hug goodbye and promised to return to Chicago, especially because we didn’t get a chance to try deep dish pizza. On the way back to the train Christina and I decided to walk by the water. 
Like I said earlier, I love when the water meets the city. There were boats, kayakers, tours, all heading through the inner river of the city. Like us, people we walking, running, or taking a lunch break from work to sit and eat by waters edge. Eventually we met up with the train and took it back to the car. From there we began our eight and a half hour journey to Sioux Falls, SD.
It only lasted thirty minutes but was enough that everyone had there flashers on and going well below the speed limit. The state itself was beautiful, all the states were that we saw that day. We even passed the Mississippi River and shouted “M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I”. 
About an hour after the river the sunset hit. We were in such a vast area that it stretched across the entire sky, it was amazing. I had never seen anything like it before, that and the windmill farms that had about one hundred turbines. There may have been no places to stop but it was beautiful. 
I have this app that a friend recommended to me called roadtrippers, on it you can see off beat attractions along your route…that’s how I found this. He was wearing a relay for life shirt, representing the town. Christina and I were laughing and screaming, also because there was practically nothing else in this town besides this statue, a Pizza Hut, and a gas station. We couldn’t handle seeing it just ourselves, we had to share it. Pulling up our video screen we video chatted our friend Gina, who was sick at home.
Here To There 