Upside Ann

To review: day 2:  Sioux Falls, The Corn Palace, Dignity of Earth and Sky, (sadly not FireHenge), Badlands National Park, Wall Drug.  I am not posting anything from Wall Drug.  I wasn't interested in seeing a giant tourist shop...and then it ate Mjolnir.  Pretty unforgivable.  We ended up spending the night in Sturgis,Wyoming - and thereby eliminated Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills from our itinerary. There was a quick stop at Minuteman Missile National Historic Site which is really convenient to Badlands - but I got creeped out by the nuclear war/atomic bomb atmosphere and begged out of staying.  Kevin and Zupe looked around while I tried to avoid getting stung by some sort of flying insect while sitting on a bench outside.  Nuclear weapons, world-wide destruction have been a horror of mine since I was a kid.  I'm not sure but it may have started after reading " On The Beach " by Nevil Shute.  Why would THAT novel be on a scholastic book ...

 Not this Monday, mind you.  But it was A Monday and it is in keeping with the South Dakota Badlands theme. Last week I watched about 1/2 of a webinar hosted by two insufferably cheerful people talking about taking better photographs.  Here's an example of one of their "light taboos".... asking your subjects to look directly into the sunlight.  I have SEVERAL of these photos of myself throughout the year - not all taken by me.  But me with my wimpy blue eyes cannot tolerate any direct light - note intense squint and look of pain.  In addition, as my teachers wanted me to learn, there are unattractive shadows.   The one good thing I can say about this image- you can easily see those badlands behind us. And - I don't have my finger in the screen. Happy end of October.

  You may remember, I have sort-of-a-thing for  panoramic  photos on my phone.  If that is news to you, here are two reasons why.  These are so much cooler than any of my standard photographs.  They have just so much more there there.  I really appreciate the way both the near field and far field are in focus.   I did not expect much from the Badlands.  A friend of mine had been very unimpressed and this had colored my view.  If they had not been so very convenient off I-90 or not had such a do-able drive, I might have skipped them.  I am so glad I did not.  If nothing else, marvel at that blue sky!  I even managed to earn my Junior Ranger Badge for the park. I would have preferred to not include the edge of the keep-behind-the visitor fence on the first photo and the quarter car on the second.  Not include as in I wish there wasn't a car parked or a fence.  I considered cropping the photo, but felt editing ...

  I believe the first location is called  Firehenge .  OK.  Yes.  I know it is because I just looked it up.  Firehege has great billboards along the highway featuring that green alien you see perched atop a  red ladder truck.  We pulled over.  Bought gas- but ultimately did not pay the entrance fee for admission.  We still believed that Wall Drug was important.  (We meaning Kevin.)  Absolutely, I would recommend Firehenage over Wall Drug - unless you are really in need of chep coffee or a place to lose your son's cardboard Mjolnir. The latter two images are of "Dignity of Earth and Sky".  A quick break from the highway.  Easy on.  Easy off.  Educational Ranger Center.  A pause to consider the American people who first called South Dakota - and every other state- home.

We could NOT miss the Corn Palace, The Word's Only Corn Palace.  It isn't build of corn - which I was hoping for - but, rather, it sports several very large murals contructed from ears of variably colored corn.  The murals change each year and these masterpieces of vegetable art have been on display in Mitchell since 1892 - long before the concept of a pixelated image was coined. It is no surprise that this year the images are patriotic in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States.   It is hard to get a great photo of the palace: trees, traffic, scaffolding.   If you are finding yourself in Mitchell and considering the Corn Palace, you do want to go inside.  You, unlike me, might be a person interested in the gymnasium full of flea-market like souvenier vendors.  More importantly, the murals continue inside AND there are photos of previous years work.  This week I celebrate the artists who design these exercises in edible poi...

 If your response was "new washing machine".......winner, winner chicken dinner!