South Dakota

Mickey and I made our way from the state of 10,000 (frozen) lakes and headed west towards Sioux Falls. McKayla’s former coworker-and good friend of ours, Skyler Dick, calls this growing city home. He is in the Air National Guard, and life is much greener on the other side for him. We spent a night at his place before making our journey across this great, flat state-with no idea what was in store except for a few national parks. When I say a few, I mean two: The Badlands, and Mount Rushmore. If you’ve ever been to good ol’ SD, you probably know about the one major highway that runs straight through the middle. If you don’t know about said highway, refer to the previous sentence for any confusion.

There is a hidden gem, sorry, a hidden national treasure, in the grand town of Mitchell, SD, that needs to be witnessed by all who step foot on this earth. The Great Corn Palace of South Dakota. That’s right, you read that right, it’s a palace made of nature real gold: CORN. Shucked corn covers this place from toe, to ear (of corn) and it is truly a sight to behold. The interior is a basketball stadium/museum/theatre stage, and the exterior is decorated each year with a new theme, due to the masses of birds that come together to eat these beautiful murals of vegetables. This year’s theme was Military Heroes, and they had a giant kernel art wall for every branch, and they also had one for the Coast Guard (zing!). I mean it when I say, this was a palace of pure royalty. We all wish you were h(ear)! (of corn, get it?)

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Next up on our trip was the Badlands. Mickey and I both found ourselves wondering the same question: What is the Badlands? We had no idea what was in store for us, but everyone who’s been there, says you HAVE to go. Well, to be completely honest, The Badlands became one of many surprises that Lower Dakota had to offer. The Badlands comes completely out of left field, literally. South Dakota is flat, flat, flat, and then bam! You’re in the Badlands. The Badlands is an area of land that has been shaped by winds and water to resemble what I can only summate as a whole ‘nother planet. Beautifully bizarre rock structures jut out violently, surrounding a windy, weathered road. The way in which Mother Nature shaped this incredible land is astounding and breathtaking. I can’t put into words how pleasantly strange this place is. Just go see it, pls. We make our way out of the Badlands and head towards Mount Rushmore. Just outside of the Badlands, however, we drive by and small, closed up hut with a massive prairie dog statue out front. I immediately swerve into the vacant parking lot to see what this is all about.

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PRAIRIE DOG FEEDING CLOSED FOR SEASON

A big red sign covered the dilapidated building with disappointment, so we decided to move on. We turn back to get into our car, and notice something hilariously cute. Behind us, in what we thought was a massive empty parking lot, was hundreds of prairie dog mounds. Every hole, had a Prairie dog sticking his grubby little mug out of the top. The American Meerkats, or glorified gophers really, all had heard us pull into the parking lot. Just because prairie dog feeding was closed for the season, doesn’t mean that prairie dog eating was closed, and these fatties were hungry. We quickly dug into our food supply to grab something to feed them. The only grain we had on us were tortillas. I grabbed a stack of tortillas and cautiously made my way towards the mounds. I say cautiously because I didn’t want to scare away the dogs, not because I was scared. I just wanted to clear that up. Anyways, I walk up to the mounds with a stack of tortillas. The yips of the family(school? Pride? Group of prairie dogs, whatever that is) of dogs echoed throughout the plains as I crept forward towards them. The dogs were cautious, and many came up to me, about a foot or so away to sniff what I had to offer, and then would scurry back to the safety of their hole. That was how they all acted, until one brave, (hungry) fat little porkins went the distance. I mean, he really went the distance. The largest prairie dog in all of the colony (that’s right, colony. I looked it up. A group of prairie dogs is called a cotery. A group of coteries is a ward, and a group of wards is a town or colony. Thanks Wikipedia) came bounding towards me from what I estimate to be about 50 yards away. He plopped right up to my outstretched tortilla offering and snatched it out of my hand before hailing back to other curious dogs to gorge on his triumphant feast together. It was game on after that. I started tossing tortillas like frisbees to these chubby little critters and they ate it up like, well, pretty anyone who tastes a tortilla; they’re delicious! After the family fiesta with the prairie dogs, we headed westward, with Mount Rushmore on the mind.

Now, like I mentioned earlier, our route was to stay on the one major highway of SD for the majority of the trip. On this road, there’s not a lot to it. Its straight, and flat, and there’s barely any traffic. Not too much going for it, to be honest. Well, about every 15 minutes or so, we would pass a billboard-all for the same company.

COME SEE WORLD FAMOUS WALL DRUG

FREE ICE COLD WATER AT WALL DRUG

AS SEEN IN THAILAND, WALL DRUG

5 CENT HOT COFFEE ONLY AT WALL DRUG

We both looked at each after seeing about 50 or so of these ads and wondered aloud: What the Hell is Wall Drug? Well, apparently, it’s a drug store in the town of Wall, SD, that got big after it gave out a bunch of bumper stickers to draftees of the Armed Forces and asked them to take pictures of themselves in foreign and exotic places in order to market. This made them blow up, and their entire town is supported by this tourism mainly. It was a fun, quirky stop with an 80 ft dinosaur proudly erected outside of the entrance what is really a town of gift shops. They give out free coffee to veterans, and they have delicious donuts. Thanks for the stop, Wall Drug, and thanks for the bumper sticker-one free to every family that stops by.

We hit the road again to see the great mount rushmore. We found our way there, finally, and parked to go see the massive monument. Mount Rushmore was quite the engineering feat, and I am glad we stopped to see it. Ol’ George, Lincoln, Teddy and Jeffy look magnificent, and I am glad they have stood the test of time throughout all these years. The walk to the monument has the flag of every state beset each side, along with the year that each state joined the union of the United States. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we could see the faces of all four presidents perfectly. There was a group of Marines there while we were there, for some reason, and besides those people there annoying us, it was a perfect visit. Once we had our fill of this National Parks beautiful views, we headed westward once more.

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Before we ascended north towards, Upper Dakota, we stopped by the Crazy Horse monument. This stop, was a little disheartening for us. The sheer magnitude of this monument is incredible! However, I fear that we may never see it finished in its full glory, and that is truly a tragedy. Nevertheless, the goal is a noble one, and I pray that one day soon it is taken seriously and finished so that generations to come may come and pay their respects and appreciate the sheer awe-striking wonder that this unfinished monument could be.

For Mickey and I, we could not have been more happy with our journey through South Dakota. Wonderful sites, wonderful people, and good weather made this part of our trip very memorable and made us eager to bring our future family there someday. As we headed up north, we prayed that we may meet the same joys and thrills that we had in the Mount Rushmore State.

Cheers,

-Daniel-