Kadoka, ND, population 736. I stopped at the Roadway Inn, primarily because they said ‘Free Internet’ on the sign. There was a restaurant right next to the motel, owned by the same people as the motel. I had a buffalo burger there, kinda dry as buffalo tends to be, and pretty well done on a grill.
I started writing, but got tired and fell asleep instead.
It’s hard to avoid all the billboards next to the highway pulling you towards the Corn Palace. It is basically what you’d imagine, a palace covered in corn: cobs, husks, grass, etc. It was started in the 1892 as a way to get people to move there and work on farms. From the pictures you can see that there used to be a lot of people living here, working in the farming industry, before mechanized farming. The design on the outside walls changes every year. This year two big murals were of the Corn Palace itself and Mount Rushmore.
I also swung by an Indian Ruins location, where about 1000 years ago there lived a group of Indians who built about a dozen homes. Only the foundations exist now, indentations in the land. Two or three of the homes have been excavated, which seems few. I asked the worker why the others have not and she said they just haven’t gotten to them yet. The archeologist only works here in July each year, helped by some interns from England. So it takes many, many years to do just a little work.
After that I had a jalapeno hot dog at the general store and went across the street to the Jitters, a local coffee shop that boasts “world’s best coffeehouse” (they also have smoothies and chair massages). The lady making my ice coffee asked me where I’m from, since she couldn’t pin my accent. I told her New York, but I’m an Army brat so my accent is mixed. She was a 44-year-old Air Force brat and she blames this fact for her inability to make friends. I didn’t quite get that but nodded.
This is an attraction beside the highway where the owner of the land has set up a collection of artifacts to replicate a 19th century town. It started when a movie was being made nearby, and when they left, they left behind the set, which the owner of the land used to start his town. He then began collecting authentic artifacts and replacing the set.
There are big pieces like homes and trains, but also lots of small junk like tools. There is also a small church and a homestead, where turkeys, a couple of longhorns, and some mules live.
When I left they owner said “That was fast.” He said it normally takes a couple of hours to go through, but I’m guessing that is if you are with a group or family. There’s only so much time one person can spend there.
There is a nice rest stop with a scenic overlook just west of Sioux City. I parked and walked out to the cliff edge to see the river and surrounding landscape.
An old couple was out there too. I offered to take their picture but her camera was out of batteries. It was an old film point-and-shoot; her digital was stolen. I had some batteries in the car so I gave her two, but never did take their photo. They were from Iowa and they just met on the road, although it seemed they had been together a long time. We talked a little bit about politics and they were conservative but didn’t like Bush at all, mostly because the country’s broke. They mentioned the government’s failure with Katrina too.
We also agreed that the economy is very complex and there’s not a whole lot anyone can do to affect it in big ways and also that it’s harder to pinpoint how we got to this point than it is to predict where we can go based on our decisions today. Also, gas is expensive!
There was a spigot with free water, so I filled up two gallon jugs and my water bottle.
I left the Adrian campsite and got back on the highway. I stopped at a rest stop that had an information center, where I picked up some brochures on different things to do in South Dakota—biking, hiking, horseback riding, caving. I asked the lady working there about Hot Springs, a town on the south end of the Black Hills. She said there are hot running streams there. I said “I guess there’s lava down there.” She said “We don’t know what’s down there. It’s just hot water.”
I stopped for breakfast at a friendly diner in Sioux City. Then I drove through town to get to Falls Park. There used to be a flour mill at this falls, which included a seven-story building; only the first floor walls remain.
There were some teens jumping off the rocks next to the falls. I was able to get a couple of pics of this before a park employee told them to get down. She told me that a young boy had gone over the falls recently.
I stayed about an hour then visited the historical marker on top of a nearby hill before getting back on the highway.
The road after Winona went through rolling hills, lots of cows, and many windmills as far as the eye can see.
I stopped for the night in Adrian. I actually pulled off the highway sooner trying to follow a ‘camping’ sign, but it seems these signs are not always helpful. The Adrian campsite was filled with RVs, I assume people taking advantage of the holiday weekend. It was like a KOA place. I had soup and an oatmeal raisin cookie for dinner. There were a ton of mosquitoes here. I was bit even though I covered my skin with quality repellent.
Adrian is about 40 miles east of Sioux City.
Bike on back (rather than in back) I took to the road. Not long after, I stopped for gas and snacks at an Amish market. I bought some oatmeal raisin cookies, which were pretty good.
A few hours later I stopped at the Blue Earth Rest Stop. This stop had a bike path that led all the way to the town, about 2 miles. I decided to ride down there and get some coffee. This didn’t work out exactly as planned.
The ride was nice, through some trees, out by some cornfields, past baseball fields and the public fairgrounds. But I didn’t see a place to get coffee besides the DQ. So I rode over to the DQ but couldn’t find a place to lock the bike. Sure, it was probably safe sitting out there, but who knows. I rode up to the drive-through window and asked the lady if I could either bring my bike in or order coffee at the drive-through. She sold me a coffee through there, which cost 30 cents. It was about 30 cents worth of caffeine too. I rode the bike halfway back with a cup of hot coffee in one hand, drinking along the way, which was probably not safe.
I had breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel. It wasn’t the hotel’s restaurant, but the hotel gives you a coupon for pancakes, eggs, bacon and coffee. I skipped the eggs of course. The waitress brought over three syrups. She said one was honey, one was maple, and one was ‘the twin.’ Twinberry syrup is a mix of raspberry and blueberry. It was pretty good.
After breakfast I decided to take the bike around town. As I was getting the bike out of the car and preparing, a guy in a folding Dahon mountain bike rode up and asked where I was going to ride and how long I was in town. He suggested a route that would take me over the bridge into Wisconsin.
I rode through town, a town that is not particularly bike friendly, and over the bridge to Wisconsin, though I don’t think it’s the same route that the guy suggested. It was about ten miles in all. On the way back I rode past Winona State University, which I didn’t know was there.
Back at the car I called the local bike shop to check on racks. He had one so I headed over there to buy it. He told me about how they were going to make 7th street an all bike street, but there was serious public opposition—an editorial in the paper, postmen upset, people wanting to drive. They wouldn’t even let them make half of the street for bikes.
There was a big purple bike on display that towed a seat. He explained to me that they built that for an old guy who used to ride in the town’s parade every year for 40 years until he got too old. After that he would just ride on back of this one. He died recently.
It seems no one wears helmets here, not for bicycles, not for motorcycles.
This morning was cold, but not too bad. I packed up my tent and headed to Chicago. On the way I had breakfast at the Iron Skillet. The food and drink portions were out of control big. Fox News was on the TV there.
The Cubs game was pretty good, though they lost 5-0. It turns out that it was a makeup game with the White Sox. So Wrigley Field was filled with Cubs and White Sox fans, seemed like half and half. But because it was a makeup game, there were seat problems. Four people showed up with the same tickets as four people in the row behind me. So they took four other seats and when those people showed up they took other seats and so on. The original people had gotten their tickets free from the guy who sang the national anthem and I think that’s how the problem started. Everyone got seats eventually.
There was a young girl, 7 or 8 years old, in the row behind me that kept trying to start a White Sox cheer: “Let’s Go White Sox. clap… clap… clap clap clap. Let’s Go White Sox.” Her voice was loud, but no one joined in except to clap. Her father encouraged her to shout louder, stand up, and even go to the aisle. Still no one joined. But she’ll make a good cheerleader one day.
I drove until ten then looked for a place to stay. Winona, MN was the first place that had lodging. The Quality Inn here is not a great room. She said “Is it okay if you don’t have an outside window?” Sounds weird right? Well, my window looks into the conference room.
I left Mercer at 10am as planned and headed for Chicago. I made reservations at a KOA campsite about 70 miles south of the city. Somehow I missed an exit and ended up in Chicago rush hour traffic. That was about a 90 minute detour. I finally made it down to the campsite around 7pm (central time now).
Camping here is a lot like camping in your back yard. They even have wifi, which is how I’m posting this now. I had to buy firewood for $5. It was good wood though; burned hot.
I cooked my soup over my stove because the fire was just too hot. There are no rocks around to build a platform for the pot and the site doesn’t have a grate. So stove it was.
I’ve been listening to the Red Sox game the whole time on the iPhone. I got a ticket for the Cubs game tomorrow afternoon. I’ll see that before continuing west on 90.
