Pierre to Beresford

South Dakota – Friday, October 25

Pierre is the capital of South Dakota, and I always enjoy walking around state capitol buildings and their grounds. And Pierre had a nice traditional Capitol building, landscaped grounds, statues and memorials, and even a small lake on the grounds. There’s also a flaming fountain, but there was no flame today.  Tula and I also walked through an adjoining neighborhood, so we covered almost 2 1/2 miles in that part of town. Then I headed down to the river front and walked along the Missouri River again – covering another mile and a half back in Lewis and Clark country! I do enjoy my river walks.

Since I made 2 donations yesterday, I did not make one today. My goal tonight was to get to my dad’s house in Beresford, which is in the southeast corner of the state, so I started heading east. I stopped in the town of Chamberlain for another mile and a half of walking, then I continued east toward Mitchell.  Mitchell’s claim to fame is the Corn Palace – whatever people might think of the place, it does have some pretty amazing pictures made entirely out of different colors of corn on the cob. The cobs are cut in half length-wise so they can be nailed into the artwork, and the designers use 12 different colors of corn. They are very creative, and the artwork decorates both the  inside and outside of the Corn Palace. It is redecorated with a new theme every year. Although mostly corn is used in the artwork, they also sometimes use grasses, rye, milo and sour dock (whatever that is.)

Once I was finished in Mitchell, I spent a couple more hours in the van, driving through wide open prairie in twilight until I made it to Beresford, where I enjoyed visiting a bit with my dad and his wife Joan before calling it a day.