Hi girlies...I missed you:) I am not fibbing a bit when I say that YOU are what I miss when I'm gone. My phone, email, texts all come to a complete stop and it's weird! It feels like a month ago that we packed up the car and headed West. But I guess that's a good thing. We had so much fun...got to see so many things. It's always a little overwhelming trying to decide how to organize it all to share, so I guess I'll start with day one...the Badlands:)
We'd never been to South Dakota before this trip. There is a lot of nothing and then boom...beauty everywhere.
The day we took off just happened to be very very HOT!!!
I knew nothing about this place before we came. My friend Missy grew up here and she told me it was a must see. She was right of course. It's kind of like the Grand Canyon, but in dirt!
The Wikipedia says that the Badlands is 244,000 acres of eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires. Apparently the Native Americans used it for hunting. Perfect hiding spots gave them advantage over their enemies. In the 60's the Air Force took possession of the land and used it for a gunnery range and demolition bombing. It's no longer used for that purpose, but the grounds are still littered with discarded bullet shells.
See all the cracks in the dirt. HOT!!
I wanted to get to the top of that next section, but I had flipflops on. It was really gravely and a little too dangerous...bummer:) Honey of course kept his distance from the edge.
You can't drive through the southern portion of South Dakota and not know what Wall Drug is. There were probably 5,000 billboards advertising it for hundreds of miles. So of course we had to go check it out.
Did I mention it was HOT? We couldn't leave Fergie in the car, so we put her in a tote bag and brought her in:) Doesn't she look happy about that...ha!
In the town of Wall, South Dakota sits this now famous "drug store". Back in the 30's a young couple bought a drug store out in the middle of nowhere. They felt it was God's will to go to Wall. The town had 326 people and they were all poor farmers. Business was bad and the store wasn't doing good. The wife said, "I don't mind being poor. But I wonder if we can use our talent to the fullest here in Wall....We'll give it 5 years." This was before Mount Rushmore was finished.
One day as they were listening to traffic on a nearby highway they had the idea to advertise for free ice water. Best idea ever! Soon tired weary travelers were swarming the little store. Changed history for that town. Their son took over after the couple died and now the expansive Wall Drug made 10 million last year. It's quite a story.
The store had a restaurant. While we were ordering our food the cashier noticed Fergie. She quickly informed us that dog's were not allowed and that we'd have to take her outside. Well a teenage kid working behind her said that she must be a seeing eye dog. He was joking of course...why would we have a seeing eye dog in a little purse?? But the cashier believed him and apologized embarrassed and said she didn't notice! Well if it wasn't so HOT outside I would have corrected her right away, but we were tired and hungry etc...
So Fergie, "the seeing eye dog" sat right at our feet and we wolfed our food down quick before we got thrown out of the place:)
Finally made it to our hotel and enjoyed Wall Drug's homemade donuts. Long day, lots of memories...made sweet with some sugar right before bed. Gotta love a road trip:)
Have a blessed day.
BTW...my daughter's favorite teacher has a beautiful photography blog and she is hosting a give-away with one of my necklaces:) Go check it out!! It ends Monday morning.
