Minnesota to Western South Dakota, Day 6, July 11

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Worthington, MN to Rapid City, SD

What's hot: Badlands National Park

Also hot: South Dakota Speed Limit: 75 mph

The road: Clear, hot, dry, windy, windy, windy. 440 miles today, 2100 miles since July 6. Over half way to San Francisco.

What's not: Travel cooties

Travel lesson of the day: Moderation in all things, including travel distances.

from Kathy:

South Dakota: Land where high test gasoline costs less than regular, the legal speed is 75 mph, where temperatures go from 97 degrees at 2 p.m. to 56 degrees at 10 p.m. And did I mention the endless miles of wheat, oats, and wild grasses waving in the wind so continuously they remind us of the surface motion of Long Island Sound? Cornfields with rows so regular you could set your clock by the distances in between. Gatherings of cattle in small groups all over the landscape, wild horses on the bluffs, dense, helter-skelter patches of sunflowers in full bloom, horizons ten times bigger than we’re used to.

Hardly a person to be seen in the countryside.

We were in the “world famous” Wall Drug (not to be confused in any way with Wallmart), a 70,000 square foot kitsch store on steroids that began life as a real pharmacy in 1931. It still has a real pharmacy but here’s a conversation we overheard on Friday evening:

Customer: We need to get a prescription filled. Where is the pharmacy?
Wall Drug attendant: I’m sorry, it closed at 3.
Customer: When do they open in the morning?
Wall Drug attendant: I’m sorry, but it won’t open ‘til Monday morning. We can’t get enough pharmacists in South Dakota so she’s working on the other side of the state for the weekend.
Customer: Where can I find a drug store that’s open?
Wall Drug attendant: I think there’s one in Rapid City, 58 miles away.

The entire state population is less than 1 million.

Despite the dramatic, attention-grabbing contrast of the environs, we fell prey to an invasion of travel cooties. You know the signs of this pest: My back hurts, I’m bored, Will you please stop that? Cars where the travelers are gluttonous about their travel range are highly susceptible to travel cooties. Enough said.

The Badlands

I won’t try to describe them. Just check out the pictures. Scott was so taken by them, he declared he would be moving here immediately and planned to live a survivalist life in a loin cloth. We wondered how that would work with his skateboarding. Alternatively, he decided he would be returning here with his desert-loving Uncle Felix next year (Felix, are you listening?).

He begged JJ to climb up one of the mountains.

JJ replied: “Scott, I’ve climbed many a mountain in my day. I’m all mountained out.”

“I want to stand on that pinnacle,” says Scott.

“What’s a pinnacle?” asks JJ.

Later, as we drive to a site called the “Pig Dig,” where an ancient pig fossil had been excavated, JJ said, “What’s the big deal about an antique pig?”

Travel cooties. You gotta’ watch out for them.

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Photos

Scott Feeds a Prairie Dog
Peanuts are a big hit with these very tame ground squirrels that live in burrows and get their water from the stalks of plants.

Floonia Claims the Badlands
King of Floonia on expansionary mission.

Comments

[shawn]

blackhillstravelblog.com
Prairie dogs are so cute! I read that since they're hard to breed in captivity, pet salesmen would suck them out of the ground with a large vacuum.

[Connolly US Road Trip]

Prairie Dogs
Please feel free to enter the Name the Prairie Dog Contest (complete with some flaky prizes!). We have been enjoying our trip mascot.