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Published: September 18th 2008
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Wall Drug
One of the MANY signs for miles (and countries) around Wall, South Dakota. Wall, South Dakota: gateway to the Badlands. More importantly, home of Wall Drug. To steal a saying from the 1000 Places to See book, "Like ZsaZsa Gabour, Wall Drug is famous for being famous." It all started way back in the Great Depression, when this small town drug store was struggling along with the rest of the country. In order to bring in more people, the owners got the bright idea to advertise along the nearby interstate that they had free ice water. Soon customers were flocking in, more than they could handle. So they expanded. They soon decided that more signs would bring in more customers. American GIs in Europe took signs with them, advertising the distance from wherever they were to Wall Drug. The tradition has continued to grow, leading them to give signs away for free. We are now the proud owners of such a sign, to be displayed whenever we finally land. They also have five cent coffee. Basically anything you can imagine you would need, they've got it. There's a café, a soda fountain, jewelry shop, leather shop, boot shop, home goods shop, gift shop, pharmacy, bookstore…the list could really go on and on. It was
Wall Drug
Wall Drug pretty neat. The only thing we ended up purchasing were a couple of cokes from the Polish and Czech workers at the soda fountain. Then we went to the Badlands a couple miles away.
The Badlands: gateway to Cody's impressions, since Nickey sat in the car the whole time. I had never seen the Badlands before, but had always wanted to come. Nickey had never seen them either, and nothing has changed. 😊 (She did get out at the visitor center, but that comes later, and only slightly counts.) The Badlands were lived in by Indians in the area for a long time. It was not until French-Canadian trappers came through, eh, calling them "Zee Bad Lands" (Nickey would remember, but she wasn't there, and I don't speak French-Canadian). The formations of the Badland cliffs really reminded me of the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon. The only difference, other than color, was that the sides of the Badland cliffs weren't stone so much as clay. They are so fragile that when it rains huge pieces flake off, eroding them at very high rates. The base of the cliffs is formed from a stone material called bentonite, which is a combination
Wall Drug
Here is where it is located so you can all figure out how far YOU are from Wall Drug. of volcanic ash, clay and silt. It is so porous and absorbent that when it rains, it absorbs water and expands up to 80% in size, and becomes incredibly slick. Small pieces of this break off, rolling down the gulleys, picking up more clay as they go, forming what are called "armored boulders." (Kinda like the snowball effect, but with clay, so the clayball effect. Does that mean right before it happens, the umpire yells out, "Clay ball!"?) Next we drove over to the visitor center, where they had a video and all the history of the area. There are many fossils found here, including ancient horse and rhinoceros ancestors. Scientists have also successfully reintroduced four animals once exterminated from the region: big horn sheep, bison, swift fox, and the black-footed ferret, which are found only in the Badlands and a remote spot in Wyoming. Wanting to make it to the corn palace before dark, we continued on our quest.
Corn Palace: gateway to Midwestern farm country. For those of you unaware of the grandeur of the corn palace, it was home to the Corn Belt Exposition of 1892. Which was basically a showcase of agricultural implements and methods.
Wall Drug
Inside Wall Drug's main thoroughfare! Perhaps you could call it the Wall Street! HA! HA! (I crack myself up) Today it is a building decorated with oats, wheat, and, you guessed it, corn. They use all parts of the plant to decorate the building in annual themes, and different colored ears of corn are used to created the murals themselves. While the book (1000 Places) mentioned that early September was the best time to see the newly created murals, this was clearly not the case now, as they were only partially complete. The fun thing about this years theme, though, was that they appeared to be US National Landmarks, which coincided quite nicely with the theme of our trip, which appears to be US National Landmarks. The sun was going down, but we managed to identify Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, St Louis Arch, Golden Gate Bridge, and what we thought could be the Badlands or Grand Canyon. Other than that, we had no clue. The other cool thing is that the colored corn used to create the murals is sitting there in trays at the side of the building. There were only two birds. Apparently there was not enough corn yet to spark the birdies' interest. After dinner at Culvers, and a phone call to Cody's friend Liz to
Wall Drug
Look at how huge it is! The one girl working at the soda fountain is from Poland! make plans for meeting up in Minneapolis, we headed east on I-90. It was about 11:00PM when we stopped at a rest stop for the night, having only about another hour before we reached the Twin Cities. Next time, the Mall of America.
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