Vermillion, South Dakota: Town of Wonders

I love it when I am wrong.

Sometimes.  NOT that it happens much, mind you.....but I digress.  One of life's most wonderful things is when you have a fixed preconception or expectation for something only to discover how you have underestimated it.  This can happen in any situation--people, places things, you name it.   For me, today, it was the township of Vermillion, SD.

So, we got to Vermillion, and had MEGA time to kill.  The New Yorker in me was like: Yawn.  I mean, what could there POSSIBLY do for two full hours in this place?  Like, they don't even have a Starbucks.  And I was jonesing for some Starbucks.  Big time.  

Jacob, our fearless leader had a suggestion. 

 He had done some homework and saw that the National Music Museum was located in Vermillion.  It was all I could do not to laugh.  I mean....PLEASE! 

But, luckily I kept my trap shut, and--what else were we going to do?  SURE.  Let's try the National Music Museum.  

It was AMAZING.  The most comprehensive collection of musical instruments you could imagine--from every age, and from all over the world.

There was an audio guide:

And I was able to both see and hear all of these instruments and THEN some.

It looks like a cannon, but it's a humongous Thai drum!

A bona fide Nickelodeon!  Inside this thing is a snare drum, cymbal, and bells. For realsies.


The nickel goes in here:

  

 

Let the Brass Geekery begin! 

This could easily have made its way onto the wall at a Chili's restaurant, but luckily it found its way here.  And very conveniently, this statement applies to any of the instruments in ALL of these photos!

 

Something tells me that it's for the best that the big thing in the middle no longer has a place in modern ensembles.  But maybe that's just me underestimating things again.  Who knows....

Clearly, the thing on the right is a piano.  Not as evident, however, is the fact that the thing on the left is ALSO a keyboard!  It looks like a writing desk, but it's not.  The soundboard is vertical, and the keyboard is hidden by the desktop thing!  Very cool.

I would please be liking this as a wedding gift.  Thank you.  The end.

 Lots of stringed instruments, too.  Many of them Stradavari.  The instrument above is an amazing one--used primarily as a vocal accompanist, the additional strings on the left are drones, and the ones on the right are used more conventionally.  The detail work and the wood were both remarkable.  Unfortunately, the picture does not even come close to doing it any justice.  Oh well, it will have to do.  

  I love the Lute, so there are lots of pictures of them.  Above is a piccolo lute--made by Stradivarius.  The bottom is a beautifully elaborate one--lots of these pictures are a bummer because of the pesky glass cases.  You can't get close enough.  Bitch, moan, bitch, moan.

Cue the orchestra:

   Anyone can guess why I liked this section.  Well, it was pretty fascinating on its own even without the Broadway Show reference.  Bloody Mary would have been psyched.  Bali Hai!  More drums and flutes from the South Pacific are below:

Welcome to Tibet

The third horn down (#11) is made from a human leg bone.  COOL!  And #13 is an instrument made by putting two human skullcaps together!  I wonder what they did in a past life to deserve that! Who knows, though--maybe it's an honor to be reincarnated as a ceremonial instrument.


A Hurdy Gurdy!  

Way cool.  Just crank it up and enjoy!

Good times.  And I learned a thing or two.  Okey doke:  back in the car!

Scott!  On his phone.

John! On his phone.  

Brian! Holding his phone.

All we did was talk on our phones!  At one point, Scott actually said "Maybe we could just talk to each other in the van instead of communicating through our hand held devices!"  A novel idea.  We had lots of fun in the car, though--making fun of each other and playing hangman and eating beef jerky at 8am.  You know, road trip stuff.

☺