THURSDAY
Busy, busy day. We got up early again and headed to Mt. Rushmore, going through some really neat old towns. Mt. Rushmore is a national park-type place, but we couldn't use the annual pass that Lacey got because the $11 fee was for parking, not park admission, and apparently, that's a separate kind of thing that they're allowed to get away with. We sighed and paid it, trying to convince ourselves that vacation money is not the same as real money.
The carvings on the mountain were impressive. You can even see the difference in the eyes & expressions of the presidents. There was a rather extensive exhibit inside that explained how the sculptor wanted to capture different things about each president to display on the sculptures. (I will admit that I only quickly skimmed them.) The also had videos where some of the workers talked about their experience. It was hard, grueling work, and they had to walk 700 stairs to the top -- on their own time and before 7:00 am!
After Mt. Rushmore, we went to the Wind Cave national park. Again, the annual pass did us no good; there wasn't admission to the area, but there was a fee to go on the cave tour. So far, we're not impressed by having the annual pass.
However, the caves were really cool. Having absolutely no confidence in my physical abilities, I was a bit nervous about it, as they described it as moderately strenuous. It actually wasn't too bad, although some of the steps were steep & uneven. I was very glad for handrails, as they'd made a point of telling us not to touch the walls of the cave.
This was the first cave I've been in, but apparently it's different from most; Lacey's been to caves before and said that they're usually rather damp, but this one had almost no moisture at all, except in one area. I've since forgotten the reason for that.
We were both rather amused that, at no point during the tour, did I ever have to duck. It was one of the very few and far between times when being short worked to my advantage.
After we left the cave, we realized that we really needed to put some effort into actually travelling. So, we got on the road and decided to take the long, scenic route through the Badlands. There was almost nobody out there (we probably passed less than a dozen cars!) but the scenery was beautiful. And at one point, I commented that the road we turned onto looked like a Microsoft Windows wallpaper scene, with just the perfect background and colors. We got out a couple times just to take pictures and admire the incredibly amazing area that we were in.
Lacey wanted to go to a town called Wall, SD. She said that "everyone" has heard of it & was surprised that I hadn't. http://walldrug.com/ Wall Drug's claim to fame is that a young couple, Ted & Dorothy moved to the desolate little town & bought a drug store in December, 1931. They got very little business. One hot summer day, Dorothy got the idea to give free ice water to travelers who were passing through the Badlands & their store. She got Ted to post signs on the road -- Burma Shave style, with little sayings and so forth on each one -- about the free ice water, and the number of miles it was to the store. Word spread about that, and it became the place to stop. Eventually, business in their tiny store started to boom, and people started placing signs of their own saying how far it was from random places to Wall Drug. These signs are apparently all over the world, as soldiers had them overseas!
Because of Wall Drug, Wall has become a rather tacky tourist area, but fun. As we overheard a man say as we walked in, "This is kitsch hell!" And, it kind is. There are all kinds of different shops that sell all kinds of junk -- mostly souvenirs and so forth, but there is also a sizeable drug store. We were commenting that we couldn't imagine how any of the stores across the street stay in business, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're all owned by the same people.
FRIDAY
Once again, we got up very early. It took me a very, very long time to wake up & I wasn't paying much attention to where we were going. Lacey had a plan but she said it was a surprise. Well, she took me to the corn palace! http://cornpalace.org/ It really is an amazing place; every year, they plant different varieties of corn and use it to make mosaic murals on the outside of the building. Birds can and do come by to eat it. Inside, there are more murals and pictures of of previous murals. I think my favorite one was the replica of Mt. Rushmore -- mostly because we'd just seen the real thing.
After that, we decided that we really just needed to make some time, so we spent the day driving through the rest of South Dakota, through a bit of Minnesota and into Wisconsin. The plan for tomorrow is to go to the Wisconsin Dells & spend some time at a water park before heading to northern Michigan.
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