Monday, November 26, 2007

A surprising turn of events...

Who knew that South Dakota had better cheese than Wisconsin? On our travels across the great state of SD we stumbled upon a small dairy farm in the very tiny town of Dimock (pop. 125!). We got the impression they didn't get many visitors since their whole office was one lady and a small fridge with cheese! But we did get to step inside the factory and take a peek at how the cheese was made, not to mention sample tons of cheese! We got to try bacon cheese, salsa cheese, and tons other of the best tasting cheeses we've ever had. This is a picture of one of the only two dairy farms in SD.



So of course being the cheese lovers we are we promptly bought 3 pounds of cheese, and I had to get a t-shirt!



After getting tons of cheese, we went to the next town and stopped to visit the world's only corn palace. We're not really sure what the big appeal is; we discovered it's just a big building decorated on the outside and used as a basketball arena on the inside. But we did get a good picture!



Leaving the corn palace we made many stops along the side of the interstate (there wasn't much traffic) to take some pictures. One is a giant teepee we found at a rest stop, and the others just random spots along the road we thought were pretty. SD is such a beautiful state to drive across! There are just endless miles of farmland along the sides of the interstate. Tons of cows line the road along with bright red barns. It sometimes looks like the fields are never-ending and that the road might meet the sky. It's very peaceful to just ride and look out across the fields.













Our last stop for the day was at the Badlands. The Badlands National Park is right outside of Rapid City, SD. It's an incredibly beautiful national park that you can drive through or hike, bike, or camp. It has all sorts of animals from bison, deer, big-horned sheep, prarie dogs, and coyotes. We drove through the park on a pathway that was about 30 miles long and winded us through the rock formations. The Badlands were not what we expected; unlike the Grand Canyon you view the Badlands from the bottom of the rock formation. We have lots of pictures of all the formations and open fields we saw; a few from the top of rocks. We also did not see any bison, which was disappointing, but saw lots of deer and even a big-horned sheep.















For the next two nights we are staying in Rapid City, SD and touring Mt Rushmore tomorrow. So hopefully we'll have lots more pictures to put up tomorrow pending the weather! It's supposed to be in the 20s and possibly snowing!!

3 comments:

MPA said...

Great pictures Al and Will. Looks like you are having an amazing trip. Be safe, keep warm, and have fun.

Rick

Dorothy said...

Sounds like yall are having a blast!!!! I LOVE THE CHEESE PICS!!! Too funny!!! Hope yalla re doing great! SOunds like you are! :)

Robin said...

Al Pal,
You forgot to say that being the cheese lovers (and avid bloggers) you both are, when to went back to the hotel you promptly put on the cheese tshirt you bought and held up the cheese to photograph this moment against the hotel curtains.
p.s. got the postcard today! thanks, its now on the fridge. love you!
-bob