MITCHELL SOUTH DAKOTA - HOME OF THE CORN PALACE

The pictures and designs on the front of the Corn Palace, if you check out the pictures closely, are created by using corn cobs and corn husks.

The design is changed every year just after the harvest. Volunteers assist in taking down one set of corn cobs and husks and replacing them accordingly with the new design. The Palace has been around since 1908 as I recall. That's a lot of corn.

Last October Candace and I took time on a Sunday morning to tour the Palace. We had breakfast before it opened at a little "dive" around the corner. It must have been "the place" in Mitchell for locals to eat on Sunday before or after church as it became very crowded in a very short period of time.

Unlike California, restaurants in South Dakota allow their patrons to smoke anywhere they like to smoke. Gag! Inhaling smoke during a meal is not my idea of fine dining. Smoking at the restaurant reminded me of how spoiled we are in California and how much I appreciate laws that protect non-smokers from second hand smoke. Statistics say that less than 20% of the population smoke cigarettes. It's amazing that the minority still rules in the Midwest and smokers can do their thing anywhere they damn well please. I hate smokers.