South Dakota, Part 4: Mitchell!

Friday, after a day at the Hillcrest Aquatic Center (which features two tube slides and a very nice spray/splash area for younger kids) in Brookings with the cousins we headed for Mitchell. It's two hours away, another corner in a right isosceles triangle. Mitchell's main attraction for us is Ruth and Paul, but we also toured the other highlights while R&P were off the wedding of a friend of Katie. 

This always means a trip to the Corn Palace, which is, put simply, an auditorium decorated with corn husks. It's actually nicely done, and has more the feel of a civic building than a ruthless tourist trap--though currently the main floor of the auditorium is taken up by the gift shop, as you'll see below.

Before that we went to an air show five minutes away at the regional air port. Showed some neat small planes, and even offered plane rides for kids, though Josh was too small and Sam not quite up for it. Sunday morning an air race started from this airport with some of the planes shown below. A brief trip, but pleasant.

This is a "Long EZ", with a top speed of 180 mph and a range of 1200 miles, built in the garage of Jerry Peck of Kansas.

A formula RG-Blue with a top speed of 235 kts. 

Preparing for the new decorations they put up roofing paper marked up like color-by-numbers paper. 

While Sam was watching a video presentation on the history of the Corn Palace, Josh played on a tractor. Very appropriate. 

Also made a trip to Cabela's. It's a hunting/camping store. Very up-scale. (There's now one in Columbus.) It's the Apple of hunting stores: expensive, but high quality. Which means it's nice to visit but I never feel I can justify purchasing anything. Still, fun to visit.

Rounded out the day with a trip to Corona Village, a nice little Mexican place. Afterward while hanging out outside, Josh made friends a Mitchell boy, who bonded over a huge grass hopper.