Our Trip Home
Day 16 – Wednesday
Mt. Rushmore to Mitchell, SD
This picture gives you a perspective of how close our motel was to Mt. Rushmore – less than a mile. The presidents are on the other side of the rocks on the upper left.
This welcoming fellow was in the motel parking lot.
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It was one of the more leisurely days of this trip, as we don’t have to be in Wisconsin until Friday. We slept late, and felt refreshed when we left the motel at 10:00 a.m.
Catching up on sleep will help our bodies adjust to traveling in so many time zones in the past two weeks – Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific – then back again. We were in Central time by the end of today.
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Scenery as we traveled eastward in South Dakota.
Highway that goes as far as the eye can see.
A forest of dead trees.
A forsaken building that probably has many stories it could tell. Sometimes these buildings were all that we saw – except pretty landscape – for miles.
I wonder…
This sign will make more sense after I tell you the story about Wall Drug.
Since this was our vacation day, we decided to stop and see why there were so many road signs encouraging us to stop at Wall Drug.
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I love this story!
It was December 1931 when Ted Husted and his wife, Dorothy, bought the only drug store in Wall, SD. Business was slow and things didn’t look very encouraging for the first four-and-a-half years. Then one hot summer day Dorothy had an idea on how to get people to come to their store from Route 16A.
She suggested that they put signs out along the road offering free ice water. Ted liked the idea, and made several signs. People began stopping – even before he had all the signs up!
Today there are 20,000 visitors a day to Wall Drug during the height of tourist season. (Another reason I was glad to be at a tourist stop during the off season.)
Me and Annie Oakley
Cerwin and Wyatt Earp
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If you want to read the entire story of Wall Drug, go to www.walldrug.com. Then click on history. It is a worthwhile read.
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Cerwin was more concerned about the next stop – a D.O.T. check. Truckers are always apprehensive about these. The officer looked at the signs on our door and asked if we were just traveling through. When Cerwin said, “Yes.” He said, “Have a good day.” 
We traveled on the fringes of the Badlands in the middle of the day.
Hezekiah, this one is for you.
H
Some pretty South Dakota farmland.
More abandoned buildings. I wonder…
And the highway goes on and on…
Missouri River
A pretty sky.
We saw lots of farmers working the fields in eastern South Dakota. Some were there a little too soon, because their equipment had gotten stuck in the mud.
It was a beautiful evening in Mitchell, South Dakota – perfect for taking pictures at the Corn Palace.
The original palace was built in 1892. This is the third. The interior is a sports arena.
Early settlers displayed the fruits of their labor on the exterior of the building to show that South Dakota soil was fertile.
A different theme and murals are used each year.
The artists use thousands of bushels of corn, grain, grasses, wild oats, brome grass, blue grass, rye, straw, and wheat each year.
Just after parking in the Palace parking lot, a vehicle drove toward us. The lady, rolled down her window and said she noticed our truck in town and just wanted to tell us she appreciated the lettering, and especially the cross on the front.
Since we could only find one restaurant open last night (a pizza and sub place), Cerwin hadn’t gotten the steak meal he had hoped for on his birthday. He asked if there were any steakhouses in town.
She recommended Steak “N” More. That was one of the best steaks we have ever eaten – and the ice cream cheese cake was fabulous. THANKS for the great recommendation.
www.xanga.com/schweschwe I thought of you when we were eating supper, because the name of the store across the mall from us was Schweser’s.
Guess where we stopped for the night? The same truck stop where we were snowed-in the other week!
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