Day 4: Driving Across South Dakota

Day 4: Well, we got off to a bit of a late start, but that’s okay, we’re on vacation. Today was filled with a vast array of scenery. The beginning of our trip was flat farm fields, field after field of flatness…. It was a bit hilly as we crossed the Missouri river… and absolutely gorgeous. We stopped at Porter to look at the sculpture garden, but decided with the rain it wasn’t really worth the admission to get out and walk around, so we saw the few that were free out and about prior to reaching the actual site… which, by the way was in the middle of a cow pasture. I’m not quite sure how the cows were kept inside, as our van was able to drive right in to the field.. I’m surprised they aren’t missing cows! Anyway, our next stop was Mitchell… home of the world’s only corn palace… and for a “corny” tourist attraction, it’s truly a must see. The signs leading up to it were ridiculous… “corn-sider visiting” It’s “a-maize-ing” etc…. The murals at this place are redone EVERY year… and are completely made out of corn! As Lewis Black would say.. they have it down, they built a Great Big F…ng thing, and people come to see it.

After Mitchell we were on the road for a few hours, before turning off onto the Badlands loop… Truly incredible.. but also insanely hot! Allan saw a few rabbits the size of small sheep… and we saw some birds flying up above. The visitors center was cool and we learned about all of the prehistoric mammals that have been found in the region, and also why there have been no dinosaurs found (the place had been covered in water at that time.) Our loop around the Badlands took much longer than we had expected, but it was worth every minute.

We continued our trip with a stop at WALL DRUG. A huge touristy place, but again, a must see. There are signs for it all around the world, including one in Kenya, Africa! Dane had a ton of fun riding a “Jackalope” and attempting to avoid the geysers in their water play area. The story has a neat history as it was able to survive during the great depression by offering free ice water to those who were passing through, and has grown from a drug store to a HUGE tourist attraction (in addition to still being a drug store).

It was getting late and we moved towards Custer State Park, trying to find our way to the cabin in the dark was well.. an experience. We saw an elk on the side of the winding roads, and a buffalo was so close to the side of the road of the van, if the window had been down, I could have touched it. We became very frustrated as we thought our cabin had be inhabited by someone else.. but came to find out that there are 2 sections of cabins with the same numbering system… and found ours very late in the dark… So we crashed quite quickly!

Today's Photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=akapl9mx.apjz1dn9&x=0&y=-hgff4n&localeid=en_US