Wednesday Aug 20, 2025 Milton WI to Mitchell SD

Today was a “work day”, getting some miles in. We emptied everything and filled everything at the KOA dump station and then muffins at Mickey D’s. It’s I-90 all day today. The landscape is still green with some rock formations here and there. At Wisconcin Dells we took the 2 laner through town since it has been flaunting itself as the water park capital of the world and we didn’t count or measure anything, but it certainly probably is. Amazing number of water slides and pools and hotels and casinos. Every kid’s dream.

After the Dells, which seem to be sandstone carved by water, the rock outcroppings disappear and it is rolling trees and fields filled with corn. The towns get further in between and smaller and the amenities get more sparse. 

We saw an old billboard advertising a SPAM museum in Austin, MN so naturally we had to go find it, thinking “free”, so probably in some guy’s basement. Turns out Austin is the home of Hormel and it is a nice town with a well groomed downtown and a very nice and free SPAM museum. The young lady there said Hormel is still in town and treats the town very generously. She gets paid to work there but in exchange for volunteer work she does she gets free tuition at the local community college. Wow, home town pround!

Back on the highway and Deb now discovers that up ahead in Blue Earth is a 55 foot tall Jolly Green Giant. Who would drive by that?!?!

Sure enough a very tidy, and big, Jolly Green Giant was a mile off the highway. Green Giant is the company that grows and distributes corn and peas and who knows what else. I watched their ads on TV when I was a kid. We ran into a young couple in their camper van who were going from California to Vermont. Nice kids.

Deb found a campsite run by the city of Mitchell so we set our sights on there. The temperature was in the 90’s by the time we arrived at a Subway for dinner and we played with the idea of a nice cool motel room but Deb said the prices were astronomical. Turns out the town is flooded with people this week with Dakotafest, first week of school and Corn Palace days, whatever that is. So off to the campground where Tom met us in his golf cart and took us to a nice campsite overlooking Lake Mitchell. Deb took a walk down to the lake (no swimming) and then back to the camper.

It’s been a long day so right to bed with the fans running.