Advertisement
Published: July 30th 2016
Majestic Rushmore
Don't mind the bandaid on Jefferson's face. In the lobby of the Ramada.We woke up Mon morning to see what a find the hotel was! Not only was it cheap with an even cheaper military rate, but they had free great breakfast, nice indoor pool with 2 hot tubs and a kiddie pool, indoor mini golf, and even a realistic statue of Rushmore (minus the bandaid on Jefferson's face). And thanks to a Plugshare tip we found the sweet touchless carwash that put a nice dent in the carpet of bugs on the front of the car (so many that the sensors were occasionally having issues).
With a full charge we were ready to go. But wait! Mitchell, SD is the home of the world's only corn palace! We couldn't miss that, so we headed into town. While I was picturing a building that could've been built by one of the 3 little pigs, it was actually a regular building that just had a mural of corn stuck to it. Still very cool!
They change the outside mural every year, which is a crazy process (local artist designs it, then there's a corn-by-number to create it). It costs $130K every year. Many acres of corn! The inside murals remain the same
'Murica sandwich
...is what I call this. Waffle, eggs, sausage and some syrup. O. M. G. Pretty decent breakfast for a super cheap super convenient hotel! but the corn is replaced every 7-10yrs when the kernels start to fall off (or are hit by too many basketballs). The inside doubles as a basketball court for the high school and a concert hall when bands are in town. This town loves their corn! It's no "world's largest ball of yarn" but a cool stop if you have time with a move little video and cute little tour.
Then back on the road. Out in the flat areas here, the speed limit was often 80mph. 10 over is our norm, and felt pretty comfortable out there. But the charge drained fast at that speed. We had to start charging to a predicted 30+% at our next stop, just to watch it start doing as we were driving. Since Rochester, we never had to stop at a slower charger because we couldn't make it, but we did have to stop at more super chargers. I suppose we could've just slowed down, but where's the fun in that 😊
We didn't have a solid plan when we started out, but just drove until we were tired each day and planned meals sound charging stops. This worked out very
Wedding venue?
This Ramada had a huge indoor pool and mini golf! A little outdated, but what potential! well, except for when we felt fine to keep driving in the wee hours of morning, but realized we were forced to stop because you can't check in at 5am to a hotel to sleep. They should really change that convention, and I'm surprised they haven't yet. I know hourly motels exist, but I'm not checking in there with my cousin haha. But seriously-- in today's day and age, why the heck aren't they more flexible?? They need to have some rooms with check in in morning and check out in evening instead. How many times have you had to inconvenience your plans because you wanted to check in in the morning, or check out in the afternoon? Really really silly. Just call it 20 hours from whenever you check in instead of this horrible antiquated convention.
Our goal for Monday was to make it to Rushmore (it was actually our goal for Sun, but see the paragraph above about why we stopped in Mitchell). We did make a quick stop at Wall Drug in Wall, SD.
Up front, apologies to anyone who suggested it. But ho-ly crap. What a horrendous excuse for a tourist trap. I'm still
The Corn Palace!
The mural in the background is currently "Rock of Ages". They pick a new theme and replace all the corn every year!! wondering if everyone else went somewhere we didn't. We started seeing signs for it 100 miles earlier, and with nothing else between the corn palace and rushmore we figured we'd check it out. The town is on the map because of this old drug store that was started eons ago. I can't tell you much more because instead of being 5 cent coffee and old-timey things at old-timey prices like they implied, it was like a Cracker Barrel threw up on an Old Country Buffett, with the tourism and capitalism of Disneyworld. I can't believe how busy it was for the crap that was there. We skipped the awful looking restaurant too. Overall huge bust.
We did learn an important lesson though. Some people were standing around the car when we got back to it in the noon sun (which felt like you were standing on the sun) and very concerned about the cat in the closed up car. Thing is we have an app and can keep the air to whatever temp and monitor the inside temp, so she was actually chilly in there (we kept joking she was probably hoping we'd turn it off just for a
Corn murals
These murals stay. They're all "settlers meet Native Americans" themed. Made up by individual ears of corn. bit). That led to this very important sign we had to make (see photo). It also led to Tesla tip #3. If you or your car don't have good cell reception, you can't keep the ac on for your cat. This would become incredibly important the next day in yellowstone.
Very short detour at a very regrettable tourist trap and we were off to Rushmore. We had to plan this stop carefully because it's 40 min off the highway with no charger. We charged in Rapid City, grabbed food, and headed down. We decided we could make it there then charge on the other side to get back to 90.
The car has a trip planner which tells you how to get where you want to go with what stops (and for how long). Problem is it has some serious limitations: can't factor in variables like speed which affect your predicted battery usage - we think it uses posted posted limits; can only route from where you are- can't plan ahead that well; can't choose to skip one charger or add one in; Also can't add waypoints.
Many many limitations, though it does use Google maps and
This place was hopping!
Pretty decent video followed by a nice and short tour. Those chairs were almost full for a video they put on every 15 min! has locations of all super chargers (supposedly updated with any outages) as well as hotels with tesla chargers (not many of them and waaaay slower than superchargers, though twice as fast (or more) as standard dryer outlet. I was actually very worried that a supercharger might be down for maintenance when we arrived and we'd be hosed. I checked the plugshare app diligently as we were going to make sure the upcoming chargers were operational (also to look for any good finds at the stops). It was never an issue though
As we were approaching Rushmore, we were reading reviews about what to do there, and also reading about the history. After becoming online experts, we decided to skip the audio tour in favor of time. Firstly, we were slapped with an $11 parking charge. No discount for military because it's privately owned (and apparently they're more interested in making a buck than discounting for anyone or anything). FYI national parks are typically free for military (saving us some cash at yellowstone!)
Did you know that Rushmore was basically created for jobs and tourism? And now it exists solely for tourism. Don't get me wrong, I love America
Corn Market
The Corn Palace gift shop. On a basketball court. Small town America. and our economic system, but I prefer my Capitalism coated with a little more camouflage. This was just blatant and in your face (though not as bad as Wall Drug). It was the gift shop that pushed it over the edge for me. Also privately run, and sells ice cream that is supposedly from Thomas Jefferson's recipe (you can buy the stupid card for $1. We think that's normal, but I think it's trying to make a buck wherever they can). But we were there and read so much about the ice cream that we stood in line and got it. Meh. It was good but not that impressive. I've made better ice cream (no, really). The fudge on the sundae was the highlight. Oh and I don't think anyone working there was American, which is odd for a national treasure (not bad, just an observation). I think they were all college kids on some kind of summer program (I think Scandinavian, but hard to tell).
The weather wasn't great but we walked a little closer and snapped some pics. We could've walked even closer and gone to see the artist's studio, but we bailed to save more time
Corn by number
How they build the murals for yellowstone (and at this point weren't too impressed). It was cool, but for me I wish we had just seen it from the road on the way by (really, would've been the same experience). We actually read some bad reviews on trip advisor, and I hate to say it, but I get it now. They were cool to see and learn about, but not the highlight of my trip.
We took one of the scenic highways out (slight detour but mostly on our way). Of note, if we wanted to do ALL the scenic roads, it would've been challenging on the Tesla. Though we were going slow, which makes a HUGE difference (optimal speed is 25mph), we would've probably run out of charge with no where to charge. Tesla limitation. It will get better as more chargers are installed, but can be an added challenge depending on where you are.
The Needle highway was gorgeous and I'm glad we went. Tight hairpin turns with amazing sights. And snow!! In a heat wave in July! I guess we were high up. Would be cool if the Tesla had an altimeter 😊 This is also where we had the
Corny corn corn
They love their corn here. I was disappointed the manhole covers weren't corn themed. (Ref. my Scandinavian blog from a few years ago) first casualty-- Nick's favorite pants (I hope the climb was worth it). No injuries though and we were on our way. We made it out by night fall and slept on the other side on the way to Yellowstone.
It was during this final afternoon/evening drive that my moving truck driver called and said his schedule changed and he'd actually be there 1 day later. Sigh of relief! Took off some pressure, and we were feeling better about our detour to Yellowstone (because you can't pass within 40 min and not stop...)
So we again drove until we were tired, then stopped at a hotel near a charger in Sheridan, WY. The Hampton Inn only had really expensive rooms left, so we hit the Motel 6 across the street for cheap (and nice!) accommodations, and still used the Hampton Inn charger! (at the suggestion of the front desk guy). Bonus- pets are free! Nice perk. Apparently that's for all Motel 6s. Good to know. (Glad it worked out because when I checked in and she asked if I had a pet, I sheepishly said yes because I can't lie to her face... Expecting her to slap on a
Halfway there!
After our very cool Corn Palace experience (which was free), we were back on the road! Slight delay, but worth it. pet fee, she said it was free! No sneaking this time). Maui settled into yet another hotel room (I think thrilled to be out of the car), and we were down for the count.
Day 3: 514 miles (detour to Rushmore not included), no tolls or charging fees.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 14; qc: 29; dbt: 0.048s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
