Vince's Trans-continental Trip
19 May 2005 - Thursday (Continued)
298 Miles - Arrived South Dakota
In Mitchell, South Dakota, we stopped to see the famous
Corn Palace.
The locals have been decorating this building
with corn products for over 100 years. The designs on the outside
are made with various colors of Indian corn (excepting the turrets).
You can go inside for free. Usually there are more exhibits, but they
were set up for a high school graduation.
Soon we were back on the road. We crossed the Missouri River
(note the bug splatters on the windshield... my poor car):
After many more hours of driving we arrived in the
Badlands of South Dakota. All the while there
were steadily increasing amounts of billboards to make up for the lack
of scenery, most of them for Wall Drug (more on that later).
We drove through
Buffalo Gap National Grassland
and then we arrived at
Badlands National Park. We bought
a National Park Pass
which saved us lots of money down the road.
At first glace, the Badlands look a lot like the
Painted
Desert. Here is a view of the trail to the Window Formation. In
theory you could see the White River below, but we couldn't. This
particular path reminded me a lot of the scenery from one of the
Myst video games.
Here is another view. Very beautiful, and very easy to get turned around
and lost in. It was impressive that settlers managed to get past this "wall"
and to the greener valleys on the other side.
Lest you forget, poor Susie was along for all of this. Here she is, not
looking particularly enthusiastic about being in South Dakota:
Kristina wanted to take a winding gravel road to see some more sights, but
I talked her out of it after it became uncertain whether my poor car would
make the trip. So we headed back to civilization.
We stayed in Wall, South Dakota, home of the famous
Wall Drug. Famous for its billboards, free ice-water, and
other tourist-trap type accommodations, unfortunately most of the fun parts
of it apparently closed at 5PM. So we grabbed some ice water but left a bit
disappointed.
One note, I enjoyed staying in a place that was a
UNIX command.
629 Miles - Arrived Wall, South Dakota
Day 2 - 629 Miles Traveled, 2027 Miles Total
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