07 & 08 May 2024 Heading East, Time Traveling, and the Minneapolis

On Tuesday I left the Badlands behind and headed on a 6+ hour journey Eastwood towards Minneapolis. About 3 hours into my journey I pulled off the highway in Mitchell, South Dakota to see the worlds largest Corn Palace … yes you just read that right I said Corn Palace … special thanks to Andy Jacques for reminding me about this gem! 😂

There isn’t much in the middle of South Dakota so this was a perfect place to stretch my legs and see the one site that there is to see. The exterior of the Corn Palace is decorated in over 350,000 years of corn along with grain and native grasses, and the exterior decoration is changed every year. A different theme selected every year and the murals are designed by local college students. The corn mules are stripped at the end of every August and the new ones are installed by October. They use 12 different shades of corn (yes all the color is natural and not painted on) and they even now have a new variety of green corn!

The interior is a large civic auditorium that also has corn meals throughout. They hold graduation and concerts and events here year-round.

i then time traveled losing an hour crossing into the central time zone, and a few hours later I arrived in Minneapolis. I was starving and luckily my hotel is only 0.2 miles from the Mall of America so I walked over in search of their food court. The Mall of America is a giant square with a central area that is 4 stories tall and open under a glass ceiling filled with “Nickelodeon World”, a mega amusement/theme park with lots of rides and games and attractions. Wow is this place big! The mall itself is 3 stories of retail that surrounds the amusement park with a 4th floor that comorises of some bars and large entertainment spaces. I did laugh out loud when at one point I was passed by a mall cop on a Segway! 😂

I had planned on spending much of Wednesday exploring the Mall of America but it was a beautiful 75° day and I just couldn’t bear to spend it all indoors so I went to explore downtown Minneapolis. First stop was Minnehaha Park, where there is a giant waterfall right in the middle of the city! There’s a beautiful network of trails and places to gather and recreate, and spring is in bloom. What a gem just south of the city center.

Next stop was the Minnesota Sculpture Garden. It consists of 19 acres with over 60 different sculptures – all outdoors and many of them huge. The most famous is a spoon with a cherry on it and a big blue rooster …. But there are more. I had fun wandering around all the different art installations on such a gorgeous day.

My third stop was to go see the famous Stone Arch Bridge. This is the only bridge of its kind that crosses the Mississippi and has been there since the 1800s. Due to snow melt volume the Mississippi water level is high and the water going over the falls is extremely turbulent. The area where the stone arch bridge has been made into a lock by the USGS so that ships can navigate the river north of Minneapolis. Very interesting!

I returned my car to my hotel and walked back over to the mall and did a little bit more exploring, got a manicure, and might have done a little shopping. It’s funny but I haven’t shopped at all on my trip so it was weird to be in a mall!