Life on the "Res": Weekend Getaway- Mitchell, SD

Weekend number two on the Res... or should I say OFF the Res!!? 

Along the drive

We couldn't get off the reservation fast enough. We originally planned to leave Saturday morning to head for Sioux Falls, but it's about a 4 hour drive, so we decided Friday morning that it would be awesome to leave a day early, get a cheap hotel somewhere on the way, and find a movie theater to see Magic Mike! I jumped in the shower while Katelyn booked a hotel in Mitchell, SD and we booked it out of here. Best. Decision. Ever. Mitchell was about 3 hours away, so the Saturday morning drive went from 4 hours to 1 hour. Whew. Another bonus of this idea - an extra night in a comfortable hotel bed! I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but our beds are mostly springs here. Definitely no Sleep Number bed. Instead of taking I-90 the whole way there, we took the scenic route which is supposedly faster. Here is the view...
There is some weird thing out here about saying "West River" or "East River", meaning west or east of the Missouri River. I think that people "West River" think it's better than being "East River"? or vice versa. I honestly can't remember which way it goes, but we decided to take a picture of the river to mark our transition "East River" for the weekend.

Missouri River

The city we stopped in, Mitchell, SD is famous for one thing--The Corn Palace. If you drive anywhere on I-90 you will see hundreds of billboards for it. So, being the month-long tourists that we are, we had to stop by and give it a looksie. Here it is-

The outside has corn husks and corn cobs making up the designs that you see. Inside, there was a picture of the very first Corn Palace design, where it was fully made of corn. Much cooler. They redesign the entire thing every year.

First Corn Palace

Corn cobs

Display inside

The Corn Palace is, besides a giant tourist trap, a venue for a lot of events. Sadly, there were none going on while we were in town, but we checked out the auditorium anyway. The walls were all designed with more corn, but it was pretty generic besides that. I wasn't impressed at all, but at least I can say I've been there!
they have concession stands in there open all day. They sell anything that has anything to do with corn and/or popcorn, so we got corn on the cob. I was HIGHLY disappointed in it. Illinois sweet corn is much better!
We walked around to a few shops after we left the Corn Palace, but unfortunately, they were ALL closed! It was only 5pm on a Friday!  We did find a little Ice cream shop, so at least we got something worthwhile out of the trip :)

 We headed to the hotel after our afternoon events, and decided to head downtown to walk around and do some shopping before our movie started. Every shop was closed. it was still only about 6pm on a Friday night. Apparently everyone has plans besides their jobs in this town. Anyway, I decided to try and be artistic and get this picture of the alley.

We headed to the movie early to make sure we got a good seat. We ate way too much popcorn, listened to a lot of ladies cackle, and went back to the hotel to get a  luxurious night's sleep before the big day... here's my ticket stub (more tourist stuff)... I can't figure out how to turn it :-/
It was not the best night in the world, but DEFINITELY beats any night on the reservation.