The Corn Palace Awaits Us...

The Corn Palace

Mitchell, South Dakota

Birdie and I are getting ready to take off on the BEST.ROAD.TRIP.EVER.  And by getting ready I mean that we sat at the Bakery for 2 hours this morning talking about all the things that we need to get down by 7am tomorrow morning. And drinking coffee. A lot of coffee.  The breaks on my truck are doing odd things and so our official first stop on the road trip is to stop in Bozeman and drop my truck off at the mechanics so he can fix it while we are gone.  So we will have traveled exactly 46 miles before our first stop.  We are assuming we will make better time as we go and won't be stopping every 45 minutes.

 

Speaking of which...our first scheduled overnight stop of the BEST.ROAD.TRIP.EVER is in Mitchell, South Dakota - home of the Mitchell Corn Palace.  Yay corn!  Not sure it will be open when we get into town or if it will be open in the morning before we leave - but we're hoping.  If nothing else, we can get our picture taken in front of the darn thing...just to prove we were there.  Now I have been to the Corn Palace several times, as I am good 'Ota girl.  This means that I was born in and/or lived in at least two of the 'Ota states...Minnesota, North Dakota or South Dakota.  Just for the record...Born:  Minnesota, Primary Education:  North Dakota, Advanced Education:  Minnesota, 25+ years of life:  Minnesota.  And both my parents and most of my Grandparents are from South Dakota.  Hence, I'm a good 'Ota girl.  Birdie, however has never been to the Corn Palace.  She likes to buy cheap crap just like the rest of us so I am certain she will enjoy it!

 

I digress...so after the Bakery, we both took off to finish getting packed and what-not.  I of course had to take a detour to the top of the Mountain so I could dig through my recycling garbage can.  Occurred to me while at the Bakery that I had accidentally thrown away a very important piece of paper.   It was the piece of paper that had all of Cookies phone numbers on it.  If you have been following the Blog, you will remember that our friend Cookie is who we are going to see in St. Louis.  Cookie lives in Big Sky but is currently on "off-season" and headed home to Missouri to visit his family.  Now those of us living in the 21st century have no need for a list of phone numbers because we all have cell phones. Cookie does NOT believe in the modern convenience of a cell phone.  He's all old school...

 

Cookie's Phone

 

So anyhoo, when Cookie left town he had to write down our phone numbers and I had to write down all of his Family's phone numbers so we can get a hold of him when we get to St. Louis.  I had forgot my cell phone at work that day or I would have just entered them directly.  But alas, I had them written on an actually sheet of paper, which I promptly recycled in my office.  Good grief!!  So up the Mountain I drove...

Lone Peak

Big Sky, Montana

 

And it is not that I mind driving up the Mountain; it's 9 miles of the most beautiful place on earth.  However, I have a break issue in my truck so I was a little concerned about driving down the Mountain.  I went back to my office, which I swore I wouldn't do for another two weeks, and dug through the recycling can.  Ta-da!  Right where I tossed it.  So now we are back on track; we have a means to get a hold of Cookie when we hit St. Charles, Missouri, which is the second night's stop on the trip.

Alright, back to "getting ready" so we can take off tomorrow morning at 7am.  The Corn Palace Awaits Us...