You can’t get there from here.

I am beginning to think that is true when it comes to traveling from Tulsa to Mitchell, South Dakota.

I know that seems like an odd destination but are several reasons why I wish to travel to Mitchell.

1. I have never been there. The closest I have been was Sioux Falls, South Dakota (about 70 miles away).

2. I want to see the Corn Palace. If you ask anyone about Mitchell and they have been there, they will mention the Corn Palace. It is the only Corn Palace in the world and (no joking) it is quite a museum.

3. My daughter, son-in-law and only grandchild – my granddaughter Reyma – live in Mitchell. My son-in-law is a music minister in a church there.

I would like to visit. It’s just hard to get there.

Driving is one option.

According to Mapquest, it is 633 miles from Tulsa to Mitchell and it would take 10 hours and 27 minutes with one suggested routes.

That route goes straight up Highway 75 and eventually through Omaha, Nebraska, Sioux City, Iowa and Sioux Falls.

A second route is 642 miles and takes an estimated 11 hours and 14 minutes.

Google maps have a route that is 682 miles long that skirts around Kansas City for 10 hours and 20 minutes. It is quicker because it is all four-lane highway.

Another route would mean driving west to I-35 and taking that north to Mitchell and not going through Sioux Falls.

Here’s the problem with driving. Susan and I only get one week a year off because we have to publish 51 issues of the Tulsa Beacon each year. So, if we drove to Mitchell on a Thursday, we would get to spend Friday and Saturday there but then have to head home on Sunday. That’s not much time to visit and that’s a lot of driving in one four-day period.

What about flying to Mitchell?

Mitchell has an airport but it is only for private aircraft. The nearest commercial airport is in Sioux Falls, 70 miles away. Delta, United, American, Allegiant and Frontier fly out of Sioux Falls but none have direct flights to Tulsa.

It’s complicated. To get to Sioux Falls, you need to fly first to Denver or Dallas or Minneapolis or Chicago. We have checked flight after flight and the quickest route would mean 10 to 12 hours from start to finish – not including the drive from Sioux Falls to Mitchell.

Before Susan’s folks moved to Tulsa in 2018, she used to fly direct from Tulsa to Sanford, Florida (they lived in Winter Park/Orlando) for a couple of hundred bucks. It was a nonstop flight which left her about 20 miles from their house.

Allegiant flies from Mitchell – but only to Las Vegas and Orlando. I guess we could fly from Tulsa to Vegas to Mitchell or from Tulsa to Sanford to Mitchell except those flights only happen a couple of times a week and they don’t match up. Plus, I’m not sure I want to fly to Florida or Nevada and back to Mitchell, going and coming. That’s a lot of miles covered.

And because Sioux Falls is so isolated, you really can’t get cheap airfare.

If we were retired and had an open schedule, it wouldn’t be such a problem.

I checked into flying in to Omaha (250 miles from Mitchell) or Kansas City (about 400 miles from Mitchell) and renting a car and driving the rest of the way. Again, this gets very expensive and time consuming. Flying from Dallas to Omaha and then driving five hours twice in four days is a load.

Jeff Brucculeri, who writes sports for the Tulsa Beacon, went to Sioux Falls with ORU for the Summit League Basketball Tournament. I asked him what flight he took. He laughed and said he was on the pep band’s bus (Jeff plays in the band).

So, I looked up the Greyhound Bus website to see if there was a direct bus from Tulsa to Mitchell. Not hardly. Each way costs $76 dollars but it is about 25 hours each way.

The nearest Amtrak service is through Omaha but apparently, to get to Omaha we would have to drive to Oklahoma City and take the train to Fort Worth, Little Rock, St. Louis, Chicago and Omaha.

That might be a neat trip but it would take at least two days, I reckon.

Our daughter is in a wedding around Easter and she and our grandbaby are flying in for a week. It is worth the trouble of multiple airports and added expense if you can spend a week on a visit.

We talk to them almost every day and communicate via the Internet but we desperately want to see them (and our son-in-law, too).

And Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, we will find a way to Mitchell so we can see that granddaughter sometime soon.