West Trip....Day 1 and 2

Well.....the long awaited, anticipated, cousins trip finally arrived and on August 8th at 7:00 am, forty three cousins and friends of cousins got on board the.....

Pioneer Trails Bus for the adventure of a lifetime. In the mad rush to get boarded and everything stashed away, (it takes a lot of stuff to live on the road for two weeks) I forgot to take a picture, but here is the bus at the hotel the first night.

We do a trip every year varying from two to four nights, but every five years we do a long trip. This is that year and I've been looking forward to seeing some places I haven't been to, especially the Canadian Rockies. I hear they are pretty awesome.

 

The first day is a long driving day and nothing really noteworthy to report or photograph. 

 

We stopped for the night at a Holiday Express in DeForest, Wisconsin.

 

Since Wisconsin is the cheese capital, we checked out the Cheese Chalet across the street but decided to buy our cheese on the way home. We will be coming through Wisconsin again and we will get the aged cheddar cheese we like so well then.

 

Two of our passengers, my cousin Sara Mae and her Mom, my aunt Elsie, relaxing outside after a long day on the bus. This is their first cousins trip. We are so glad you could go along.

 

Day two is much like the first....a lot of driving! To pass the time I took some pictures of barns which I happen to love.

 

There were some nice barns.....

 

 some shabby barns....

and even some Amish Barns. It looks just like Ohio.

 

 

 

Eventually we arrived at our first touristy stop, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. I call it the worlds largest bird feeder!

The first Corn Palace was built in 1892 and the present building in 1921.

What makes it unique is the exterior is covered with thousands of bushels of corn, grain, and native grasses and arranged into murals.  A theme is selected each year by a committee and then a local artist creates the designs. This exterior has to be redone every year.

The Corn Palace serves as a multi-use center for the community. The facility hosts stage shows as well as sports events.

 

The walls in the arena are also covered in murals, which I assume don't have to be replaced every year like the exterior.

 

 

 

 

 

Our home for the night is the Comfort Inn in Mitchell, South Dakota.

 

'Russian Sage'

I love flowers so you will see lots of them in my blog posts.

 

Later that evening a few of us went to a near-by Cabelas.

 

 There were a few mammals I really wanted to see on this trip. One was a Moose and the other a Grizzly Bear.

Unfortunately this was it.

 

 

Coming soon....... the Badlands and Mount Rushmore.