Reporting from South Wall, ND
LAT 43.59 N LON 102.14 W
Writing this a bit late, due to a) we’re now in Mountain Time and b) I had to use my phone as a hot-spot since the hotel WiFi is out.
We drove into South Dakota and made our way to Vermillion, which is the home of the University of SD, and fortunately had an away game today. We visited the W.H. Over Museum, which is a melange of archaeological, historical, and anthropological exhibits, seemingly placed at random. Very interesting though.
There was also what must have been a local’s collection of camera equipment—probably the best exhibit they had.
A retoucher unit—analog Photoshop.
In the same town, we read about a sandwich shop inside a hardware store.
It turned out great—the bread is recommended by Oprah of all people. Fantastic sammiches!
Sandwich of the Month - The Kent.
3D Melt.
We drove onto Mitchell and the Corn Palace—but first a giant jackalope.
The Corn Palace consists of the local auditorium with a corn mosaic glued to it (they change it annually). Far less impressive in person.
At this point, we “called an audible” for the rest of the day. We were planning to go up to Pierre and see another state capitol, but when we read there were no decent hotels or restaurants, we chose to skip it and move on. As it turned out, our final destination of the day wasn’t much better.
Anyway, we got on I90, which I quickly learned had an 80 mph speed limit (whee!). At one point, we took some panoramas at a scenic outlook.
Then a stop to see wildlife, both fake and real. The latter had a whole colony next to a convenience store—you could feed them if you wanted.
Our final stop for the day was the fabled Wall Drug. For those who haven’t heard of it, Wall Drug is the original tourist trap. An offer of free ice water in the 30’s pulled in the crowds. Today, it’s a warren of gift shops and snack bars. It was underwhelming, but we did get a few photo ops.
After an equally underwhelming dinner (if someone put a real restaurant in Wall, they would make a bundle), we shuffled over to the best hotel in town (in that the room doors didn’t open directly to the outside—which would make it a Motel IMHO). That’s when we found out the wi-fi was down (the manager said it was that way all over town, which I am doubtful of). So after some Googling and swearing, I hooked up the internet equivalent of two cups and a string—and here we are.
Tomorrow—assuming all goes well, Mt. Rushmore. I’m going to bed. #gowestboomers