Corn & Steak–with Tea–Day 2 continued

Tea for 2? There were no tea rooms in Tea, SD.

Further up the highway was the delightful discovery of the town of Tea, South Dakota (where they crown Mr. and Mrs. Teapot each year)–the women at the antique shop by the exit were not sure of the origins of the town's name. We ended our long day from Kansas City with a requisite visit to the Mitchell, South Dakota Corn Palace and dinner at Chef Louie's for a fabulous steak with a nice glass of wine. We could have gone to Colorado across Missouri and into Kansas–the fastest route. As we rarely like to return on the same road we head out on, I suggested South Dakota.

I had been through South Dakota almost thirty years ago when my father treated me to a month-long post-college Western trip. After a summer internship at a funky historic house museum in Brunswick, Maine, and as maid of honor in an old friend's September wedding in Ohio, we set out for the great American West. We had a great month seeing many sites and new country together–all sites in places Dad had not taken us altogether as children but where he had been on trips before as a child and college student. It was invigorating after so many years in academia and before deciding what to do next with my life. As my father had done, I wanted to make sure the boys and T. saw the Corn Palace––and Mount Rushmore, of course, and other sites in the western end of the state. One must always balance corny with the magnificent.

Much of the South Dakota soil was rich and chocolaty, something we don't see in our part of Kentucky.

Individual ears of corn are glued to the outside of the Corn Palace each year,
and on murals inside, by volunteers. The theme changes yearly.

Original Corn Palaces were quite exotic and Byzantine.

We we are partial to large bovines on the side of the road.

You come back when you're ready! 

Catherine