Day 41: La Crosse, WI to Badlands NP

Stops:

The Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD

Badlands NP, SD

Every town has to have that one thing that brings in the visitors and the tourism.  For Mitchell, SD it's the World's Only Corn Palace.  No, the palace isn't made entirely of corn but it has murals decorated from corn cobs and grains from the local region.

The process takes some time as the old murals are stripped starting in late May and the new murals are laid out in August and finish up in October. Every year has a different theme, this year was "We Celebrate." By the way, it's not cheap to do the new murals either.  It costs $130k every year.  There are 12 different colors of corn used and special fields laid aside just to grow the corn.  It's quite a process to keep up every year.  If you are thinking, what about a drought? Does that affect the murals? The answer is yes.  In fact, in 2006, because of severe drought, there were no new murals.

The palace was built in 1892 to show the world that South Dakota had a healthy agricultural climate.  Did you know that the corn palace we see today is not the original.  In fact, this is the third iteration of it.  

We made it just in time to the Badlands NP to catch the sunset, and I mean just in time as I literally had 10 mins to get the following pictures.

Once the sun went down, we tried to find a campsite, but the Badlands only has campsites at opposite ends.  We went to the one towards our entrance but it was full.  The other one was of gravel road over 20 miles away. No thanks.  

We decided to go to the ranger program at the amphitheater instead.  We learned about the park, but even better, we learned about the National Grasslands.  Mostly they are located in the Great Plains region of the US, but there are little areas in California, Oregon, and Washington for example.  You can take your car 35 ft from the center of any road on the grasslands and disperse camp up to 350 ft away from the center of any road.  It just so happens that Buffalo Gap Grasslands is just outside of The Badlands.  After the ranger talk, we tried to find a road in Buffalo Gap and we ended up finding a road to a trailhead and stayed at the trailhead for the night.  Another night, another problem solved and complete privacy and silence to boot.

Day 40: Spring Green WI to Lacrosse, WI

Stops:

House on the Rock, Spring Green, WI

Don Q inn, Dodgeville, WI.

Located in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin is probably the ultimate roadside attraction, The House on the Rock.  Yes, it is a house built on and into a pinnacle rock with an asian decor and very low ceilings built by Alex Jordan, Jr. as his dream house.  Alex wasn't short either, so it is unsure why the low ceilings. Not only is it a weird house but it is also a bizarre collection of stuff.  By stuff I mean a collection of dolls and dollhouses, the worlds largest carousel, mechanical music machines and much, much more.

When you enter the property, you are greeted with giant planters that have giant dragons and serpents on them.  

There are 3 tours you can take, but we got there late enough, we only were allowed to take one tour, mainly the house itself.  

As you start the tour, you see the Japanese Gardens complete with koi fish and lily pads and a little bridge and waterfall. 

The first house you enter was the original house.  It wasn't very big, but I would consider it a rocking bachelor pad.

Then you go up a 375 ft long ramp into the House.  You notice that some of the walls are the rock itself and once again, the low ceilings and the asian decor.  

The House contains many mechanical music machines, fireplaces, and even a 3 story tall bookcase, and lots of stained glass windows, some used on the walls and some used as tables.

Perhaps the most unique feature of the House is the Infinity Room which juts out over 218 ft from the House unsupported on the bottom and contains 3000 windows.  It really does look like an endless room.

Just up the road is a crazier-than-most fantasy room hotel.  One of the suites is a church steeple. Others include a hot air balloon, a dungeon, an igloo, a geisha garden, and so much more.   These suites are called "fanatasuites."  

The place is so crazy, they use a large airplane as their road sign.  Once featured in a TV ad with Farrah Fawcett's, she left her signature on the fuselage.  Unfortunately, on a recent paint job, the painters painted over the signature.  They tried to fix it trying to remove a layer of paint but it didn't really work well.  The hotel also has a 300 ft underground tunnel that connects it to the nearby restaurant.

Inside the main lobby you can see pictures of the rooms and there are a bunch of dentist and barber chairs around a fireplace.  

Yup, definitely one of the weirdest hotels I have ever been to.