Today’s drive is still sunny but getting decidedly more ‘Wild West’ with pickups trucks or lorries everywhere and country and western music on almost all the radio stations – I’ve even seen a couple of people with cowboy hats and boots! The landscape is very flat and mostly quite green, dotted with farms and smaller towns that we are mostly passing by as we’re driving on the I-90 which is a major highway. The road is really quiet though and Brian can basically just leave the car on cruise control all the way to Chamberlain. We made a brief stop at Mitchell to have a look at the Corn Palace, which is basically a big building decorated with maize and corn motifs that are changed every year. Unfortunately they seemed to be right in the middle of refurbing the place so it wasn’t as impressive as it should/may have been!
Chamberlain is another very small town on the banks of the Missouri river and there’s really very little there! We arrived just before 2pm and after checking emails etc (surprisingly fast internet!) we went for a wander along the river, and found a bar called The Busted Nut which is in the local marina. The parking lot was full of pickups and trailers with boats so it looks like the river is well used for fishing and the like. We had a couple of beers in The Busted Nut and the Silver Dollar which were both a bit scary and very local, before heading back to the hotel, just in time to miss a massive hail and thunderstorm. Later on we headed over the road for pizza at Upper Crust Pizza which was quite good, and even some acceptable wine for a reasonable price – pizza for lunch again tomorrow! The pizza place was fairly busy and I realised that people all come out and order large pizzas, then only eat some of it and take the rest home – rather odd I thought, even though that is exactly what I do! For dessert I had a Chimi Cheesecake which turned out to be basically cheesecake in a deep-fried parcel with some caramel and chocolate sauce – now I know what it Chimi Cheesecake is!
Getting back to the hotel the parking lot started filling up with pickup trucks and pickups with boats on trailers and I was woken at 2am by two blokes outside having a blazing row – I really thought it would end in gunshots as it seemed that kind of place, but fortunately it didn’t (or not as far as I’m aware)! Chamberlain is tiny but I like getting a feel for local people and places and the hotel was ok, so we had a nice enough time!
Things I learned today: Apparently EVERYTHING, even cheesecake, can be deep-fried!
Biltong and Burger 