After a day of Big Horn Mountain, Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands, the rest of South Dakota didn't have a chance.

I left from Kadoka early, as usual and had adjusted myself to central time the night before. The drive across South Dakota featured a lot of nothing. Just a lot of signs advertising my next destination...the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.

When I arrived at the Palace, I was surprised to find, it wasn't made of corn, it was about corn. And I'll tell you, I didn't hang around too long. Instead, I made my way through town to get a Dakota Wesleyan University sweatshirt.

When I arrived at the university bookstore, I had plenty of items to choose from. But the one I liked the most was not in XL, so I choose the second best and went on my way.

After Sioux Falls, I drove into Minnesota. I followed state road 23 north to meet my next destination. Again, this was supposed to be a scenic route, but now I was jaded by scenery and Minnesota just wasn't going to live up to my prior experiences.

When I reached US-14, I followed it about 30 miles before coming across the town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota. For those of you who lived under a rock in the 70's and never watched the television show "Little House on the Prairie" - or if you never read any of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, Walnut Grove was the little sleepy town that was home to the Ingalls family.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum (Walnut Grove, MN)

As you might have guessed, the town looks quite different now. There are place markers where the old schoolhouse and church used to be. The Olssen Mercantile is there, but it doesn't look at all like what you would remember.

The town does feature a nice museum that give you a history of the town. Most of the museum seems to focus everything about pioneer life, not just the Ingalls family. But there are plenty of artifacts from the family's short 7 year stay in the town. The Ingalls moved frequently and so finding landmarks of the family can be tough. There are houses in Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Missouri.

I spent some time at the museum and found the most interesting pieces to be the artifacts from the show. There were autographed pictures of some of the stars. Apparently Melissa Gilbert and Michael Landon never visited, or they just didn't sign anything. But the cast members that played Mrs. Olssen, Almanzo Wilder, Nelly Olssen, Doc Baker, Caroline Ingalls and Mary Ingalls all had left their mark.

There were pictures of the real family. Let me tell you, Charles had an out of control beard.

Marker for Plum Creek (Walnut Grove, MN)

I soon departed the museum and drove to the stone marker that marks Plum Creek. The spot where the house was can be reached but the family that owns the property will ask you for a donation.

I returned to my car and headed for other spots I had heard of in the stories - Sleepy Eye and Mankato but then I quickly grew tired of Minnesota. I contemplated driving to the Mall of America, but being in Minneapolis on Friday afternoon at 5 held no appeal.

As I headed south to I-90, I checked out where my next hotel was. It was in Clear Lake, Iowa. The hotel guide said I would be only four miles from where Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens met their demise in a plane crash. That would be my last stop of the day.

Iowa

I followed storms all the way across Minnesota and into Iowa. As I closed in on my exit, a rainbow finally appeared in a dark gray cloud. I paused at a rest area and tried to capture it. I wasn't overly impressive, but you can see the rainbow slightly.

When I arrived at the motel, I asked how to get to the Buddy Holly memorial. The desk clerk gave me a map and said the attraction wasn't marked.

She was right. To get to the memorial, you drive down some back roads and onto a couple of dirt roads. Then you find a fence line and walk a half a mile between two farms through dark rich dirt and corn to get to your destination. After 10 minutes walking on this fence line I was sure someone was going to come at me with a shotgun. There were no markers and I could be in the wrong spot for all I knew.

The Day The Music Died (Clear Lake, IA)

When I finally reached a crossing of fence lines, I saw the monument. It was a silver guitar with the names of the crash victims engraved on it, and three records with the names of each artists biggest hit. To my dismay, I also found a littering of trash amongst the memorial. It was a total disgrace that people would do that.

It was cool, until I began to be attacked by gnats. Then I hightailed it back to the car. When I left the field, my shoes were caked in dark soil. There was no way I could put my feet in the car, I couldn't even begin to get the dirt loose. I got a plastic bag from the trunk and removed my shoes. When I returned to the hotel, I took my shoes in and had to give them a good scrub down. I also had to clean the hotel bathtub out quite a bit afterwards. It wasn't a fun experience, but I am alive to tell the tale, so no worse for wear.

And so ended my day. Only three other places on my agenda and then home. Oh, sweet time, where to you go?

> Day 16 & 17