Day 3: South Dakota

Miles traveled: 367 miles (total 547)
States traversed: South Dakota
 
In Sioux Falls, we got on the road around 9:30 and headed west. We initially talked about stopping to see the Corn Palace, but were behind on time, so we had to skip it. Too bad, I kind of wanted to check it out. From what I understand, they change the organic material exterior each year. Oh well, according to a postcard I received from my friend Kristen in sixth grade, it is dumb. Haha. (I still have the postcard; though she uses some other choice word to describe it).

Driving across the prairie, I had the Little House on the Prairie theme song stuck in my head for at least half the state. I kept looking for the wildflower-covered hill that the Ingalls ran down in the opening of that show. I never found it, so instead I imagined Pa leading a covered wagon over the unfriendly terrain. As we got closer to the Black Hills, my mind switched to the Beatles’ Rocky Raccoon. Later, I told Desi, “This is where Rocky Raccoon lives!” and he responded, “Yeah, there’s his grandfather clock! And look, he has a grandmother clock!” and on and on he went…

We stopped at a major tourist trap called Wall Drug. It’s the sort of place you see advertised every ten miles for two hundred miles. It was a huge complex that contained gift shops, ice cream parlor, candy shops, game rooms, a shooting gallery, and several animatronics scenes. If nothing else, it was a good place to get out and stretch our legs and have some ice cream. For some reason, Desmond threw up just as we were ordering ice cream. It came out of nowhere, but the workers were understanding and he seemed fine afterwards. Not sure if it was the excitement or what, but I ate most of the cherry cheesecake ice cream we were sharing, just in case. 

We continued on the road to Mount Rushmore and I was able to cross one of my top ten bucket list locations (next stop: Machu Picchu!). The weather was chilly, but the wind had finally died down in the Black Mountains, so Dad was happier. Desmond was excited to see “the people on the mountain” and we took pictures, gazed at the monument with some binoculars, and got back in the RV. We found a campsite a few miles away and settled in for the night. Although we were in a really nice campground (another KOA), which you could tell is a really fun place during the summer, we had no wi-fi or cell service, so we had a low-tech evening. Dad grilled some brats and we enjoyed some Fat Tire beer before going to bed.