Ramos Tribe Adventures: Part 7: Nothing But Grass and Corn

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Part 7: Nothing But Grass and Corn

Along our trip while we were driving the same places that the first pioneers did along the Oregon Trail, it was interesting to try to put myself in their shoes and in their wagons. Crossing major rivers, climbing huge mountains, crossing rocky dry areas. I could kind of imagine what that kind of life would be. Hard, tough and dangerous! No wonder many died on the trail. It must have been incredibly hard and I am so glad there are now highways to drive that are not nearly as dangerous to cross. But I must say it was not the mountains and the rivers that got the most groans out of me. It was the FLAT GRASS PRAIRIE that got me to thinking the most about their travels. From the Black hills of South Dakota, you leave the mountains and get on a flat prairie that goes on for DAYS AND DAYS!!! We drove for 2 days and the scenery didn't change. You would take a nap and 1 hour later the scenery was the same as when you went to sleep. It looked like this, it never changed!!!!:

For 2 days! Never changed! Can you imagine being a pioneer on a wagon with 10 kids and every 5 minutes one of your kids asks " Are we there yet?" Yes this is where my imagination made me giggle of all the things parents would hear or say in response! Can you imagine? "Hey Jonny, you can't talk until we see a tree!" "Elizabeth, You can't ask that question again till we cross the next hill!" Yes this would be an interesting wagon ride! We were driving 70 mph and my kids asked that way to many times. We were also dodging tornadoes and wicked thunderstorms. Sure would not want to be a cow, deer or buffalo out on the prairie during a lightning storm! In my mind I kept saying "get flat" "think small" as if that could help you avoid being struck. You are the highest thing out there! But in defense for cows, this would be heaven if you were a cow! Look at all that green grass!

We did stop for the night to rest and get out of bad weather. As I said their were tornadoes jumping all over the countryside. While we stopped, we saw the famous Mitchell Corn Palace.... Yep that's right a palace where the walls are made out of corn. They change it every year. The building is a place where they hold different shows and events. The walls were amazing! They were still building it for this year but you can see what they have done and ALL of it was from corn!