On this day the 8th of my journey, being the 13th of July, I didn’t see much of interest. The pictures you’re (hopefully) about to see may not bear that out, but think of how condensed this will be for you. It will take you maybe five minutes to read and enjoy, while it took me several, nay, many hours to live and drive. So, here we go. I woke up in a super uncomfortable position in the front of my truck at the Wasta, SD eastbound I-90 rest area. It was no good, I tell ya. No good at all. So, not wanting to be there any longer than necessary, I quickly brushed my teeth, quickly filled my water bottles (the giant three or four inch wing-spanned bugs were in the drinking fountain, so I used the nearby spigot—it was more convenient, anyway), and left that desolate place. As the morning wore on, the road went straight ahead with no change in scenery, I grew tired and head-bobbed a couple of times. Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s not a feeling I like, especially when I’m supposedly doing the requisite 75 mph (but still being passed by nearly everyone at ten plus miles per hour...), so I stopped at the next rest area and attempted a nap. Now, as many of you may know, I’m not good at day-time napping. I’m only good at night-time napping, and when it’s for say, six plus hours starting at around 11 o’clock. So this, ‘going to sleep in the front of my truck at 7:30 in the morning (I’m really not sure what time zone that was based off of)’ just wasn’t my cup of tea. I kind of slumped over to the passenger side and gave it my best, but about 20 minutes later, I opened my eyes and was still tired. I decided to trek on. Nothing wakes you up quite like being pulled over, let me tell you. At least in woke me up like nothing else. So here’s the deal: apparently in South Dakota they have this thing called ‘the amber light law,’ which means that any emergency vehicle that is pulled over with any sort of light flashing (or a civilian vehicle, for that matter) is something to be given one lane of space when you pass it. If one lane of space is unavailable, then you are to drop your speed to twenty below the limit, or 20 mph, whichever is faster (the super trooper was kind enough to explain the law more fully. What I did is this: there was road work, and the eastbound highway was down to one lane, the left lane. Once we got out of the roadwork, I knew that I was going to be slower traffic (didn’t want to risk being pulled over for speeding, dontcha know), so I, unlike the tanker truck in front of me, moved to the right (I was confused as to why he didn’t move over). Then I saw the trooper’s SUV and another trooper car pulled over with their amber lights on. I didn’t really think anything of it. Having seen the signs wasn’t really registering with the necessary action, so I just drove slowly by them. Then the SUV trooper pulled into traffic, threw on his lights (I moved over, thinking to give him more road to pursue whatever criminal he was on the hunt for), and got in behind me as I moved off to the side. I was shocked. What had I done? Did I have a taillight out? What? It was because I moved over too soon after coming out of road construction? Anyway, he invited me back to his SUV, gave me some conversational questions, gave me a written warning that I’m not supposed to do anything with, and let me go. I given every car I’ve seen on the side of the road an exceptionally wide berth ever since. Then I saw this road sign: for whatever reason, it felt significant. Did I mention that for most of South Dakota and pretty much all of Minnesota, the most interesting things to see were the road signs? You should see my pictures from those days... It’s road signs and corn. And then there was the occasional hill... the extremely long, slow hill... I did stop at a rest area that Lewis and Clark had stopped at, too. That was interesting. Apparently they’d faced some hard times, until they found that rest area. They had called it Camp Pleasant. It was alright. And it was shortly after I’d crossed the Missouri River for the first time in my life (as far as I know). Here it is: Nothing much caught my eye along the road until I started seeing signs for the ‘Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.’ I thought I’d heard of this before, and thought that it was made entirely out of corn and corn byproducts. I was mistaken, but it was no less awesome because of my mistake. I was still very impressed, but in a different sort of way. I stopped, and saw the building’s exterior. I was cautious, at first, wondering what could have spawned a monstrosity of this nature. Apparently there have been three Corn Palaces, each one bigger and better than the last. The current Corn Palace was built in the late twenties, or early thirties, I believe. Every year they decorate the exterior of the building to celebrate something different. This year it’s the rodeo. This is a picture of the building from 1907, I thought it was interesting how preemptively defensive they were about the ‘Indian Good Luck Symbol.’ You’ve all heard of ‘paint by numbers,’ I presume. They do corn murals that are sort of ‘corn by numbers:’ They draw out a picture, and then decide what color corn should go where to make the picture. As far as I know, they do absolutely no artificial corn coloring. Then they nail the proper corn color into the proper drawing space, and axe off the excess corn. It’s pretty neat. And free to go inside. Although once you’re in, it’s a tourist sinkhole. There’s a basketball court/theater inside that’s currently being used exclusively for ‘Corn Palace’ and ‘South Dakota’ merchandise and memorabilia. Apparently one of the High School teams that plays there is the ‘Kernels.’ Also of note, during the exposition they have a festival and have musical acts come to town. This year they have Eddie Money and LoverBoy. Other acts include Raven Symone and Leann Rimes. That’s all quite a line-up, if you ask me... There were a lot of pictures around the place, of various things. I saw one, and was quite perplexed: I’m just not sure if that’s awesome or creepy. It’s right in that grey area for me... After that, I debated on whether to keep going or stick around Mitchell. I came to the conclusion that I would stop at one motel, and if the rates were less than outrageous, I would stay. The rates were indeed less than outrageous, and I did indeed stay. It took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted to do things (especially when I discovered that their laundry facility closed at midnight). So, I went to the neighboring Kmart and bought me some liquid laundry soap. Then I warshed my clothes and got to do something I had done in over a week: I watched television. I’m really glad I got to see the Colbert Report when he interviewed Rick Larsen, the Democratic Representative of Washington State’s 2nd District. It was a thoroughly enjoyable interview. I wondered what the people on the other side of the wall must have been thinking as I laughed so maniacally. After I got done watching the tele and washing the clothes, I turned the computer on and utilized the wireless internet. I posted three days worth, and felt pretty good about it. Then I slept in only one of the two beds in the room I was issued. I asked for the least expensive room for one night for one person, and they gave me a double. I put my stuff on one bed, and myself on the other. And that was the end of day eight on the road.