Stop 19: Elko New Market, MN -- Harms Farms

The drive to Minnesota was looking to be pretty long so we set the alarm early--5:50am. We needed to hit the road so we could roll into our stop at a decent time.

We had every intention of seeing the Badlands on our way through SD but because the drive is so long and it was suggested that we take about 4 hours to see Badlands, we decided to nix it and do two smaller sights instead: Wall Drugs and The Corn Palace instead.

Badlands from afar

Badlands from really afar

Look closely--there's a MAN on top of that windmill. No. Thanks.

First stop was not far from our hotel. We weren't sure what we were getting into with Wall Drugs but it was a cute little town, Wall, SD. It was basically a big, old fashioned shopping mall area. It had lots of quirky things and a little chapel inside. The story is quite unique--as the only drug store in town, and failing at that, it started out in the early 1930's. The wife was kept awake during a nap one day by cars driving by from visiting the plains and after brainstorming that they'd be thirsty after traveling, they began offering free ice water to passersby. This grew their business exponentially and they were a raging success. It's now a practically a whole town! We found some souvenirs (including one to replace the special one I'd purchased at Mt. Rushmore that Andy promptly broke within 5 minutes because he was made that we weren't standing up for a photo) and we were back on the road.

Next was The Corn Palace, in Mitchell, SD. This time coincided with lunch so we grabbed lunch here. And apporpriately, one of the sides you can order with your meal is...corn on the cob. And it was good corn. This place is a unique place originally designed to tout the region's crop-growing abilities to farmers from around the country. Each year the facade of the building, name entirely of corn, is changed to a new artist's rendering to reflect the "theme" of the building. We didn't have time for a tour but we did watch an informative video about the history. It was a cool place to visit--doesn't take long to look around and see it all.

Saving the best for last, our friends, Gretchen and Alex, moved to Minnesota several years ago and grew expanded their family just south of Minneapolis. They return to Ohio regularly and we deeply appreciate that they always make a point to visit us when they are in town. So when we were planning our trip last year and saw that our route was even kinda close to where they lived, we knew we wanted to make a point to get to their house for a change. Their family has grown by two children since they moved away and we miss seeing them. It's crazy how much their children have grown even since we saw them last November.

They were gracious enough to allow our family to sleep at their beautiful home and they made us feel so welcome. Their home is gorgeous and their yard is amazing! After enjoying a delicious dinner of REAL FOOD (it was so nice to eat home-cooked food again!), the kids had a great time playing soccer in the large back yard, making s'mores in the fire, and swinging on the awesome swing set Alex made for their family. I loved spending time catching up with Gretchen and hearing more about their life in MN. Our annual visits are wonderful but it was great to spend this amount of time with them in a relaxed atmosphere.

If there's a Harms around, it won't take long for a soccer game to break out.
In this case, there for 4 Harmses around. It was inevitable.

When the kids went to bed, we adults stayed up well past our own bedtimes chatting about life, health insurance, the kids growing up, and how we haven't aged at all too much since having children. We didn't even go upstairs to bed until around 2am. We had so much fun with their family that we took very few photos. It was unlike us in so many ways but it's a testament to the good time we were having.

They made breakfast for us in the morning and it was such a treat. Andy's first words to me in the morning were, "I smell bacon." He doesn't get such luxuries at home so he was probably ready to leap off that bed, pinched nerve or not, and grab himself a pound of that bacon!

Charlotte and Fred had a great time playing blocks after breakfast.

We chatted for a while longer but eventually needed to make our getaway because we had another 4-hour drive to Wisconsin next, before heading HOME the following day. It was such a wonderful visit that we didn't want to leave but we were thrilled to hear they would be in Dayton within a week for their regular summer visit and we'd hopefully get to see them again. That made the parting much easier. All in all, we left their home fans of Minnesota. The state. We have no opinions of Minnesota over Green Bay as they relate to NFL teams.