Today we're leaving the home of the Corn Palace and heading further west. Level farm and ranch land opened up for the Missouri River before returning.
Wall Drug signs dot the highway for hundreds of miles before we finally get there. We like the place and are stopping for lunch so don't bug us already.
We stopped here a few years ago and found the place unique and planned our trip to have time to stop again. The drug store started to gain prominence when, in the depression, they started to put signs along the highway inviting travelers to stop for free iced water. People stopped and the store grew from there.
The drug store is a small part of the operation now. All kinds of specialty shops cover a full city block. It's all rustic and western themed. Grammie's filling out a few postcards before we have lunch and get our free water. They also have coffee for 5 cents. I had a few cups.
You may have heard of the brutal winter storm that went thru here about 3 weeks ago. 2 days of freezing rain, then winds of up to 80 miles an hour then 44 inches of snow. Over 5 thousand cattle carcasses have been found and thousands more are expected to be found in the gullies still full of up to 20' of snow. We saw dozens of dead animals along the interstate as we got nearer to Rapid City, the epicenter of the storm.
We were a little concerned about whether our campground was open for business after the storm damage but everything's fine. Hooked up and raring to go.
One of my favourite drives is the Custer State Park so with time to kill, lets do it again. The welcome committee just proved this was the place to be.
The scenery was incredible and the winding roads provided new vistas at every turn. All lakes in the park are man made. I read that in the brochure; just proves I CAN read.
We did this drive in 2010 and you can check that blog for more in depth info; we're just skimming this time. One of the perks of the park drive is that you get to see Mt. Rushmore, maybe a bit in the distance, but still cool. And you save the exorbitant fee at the Mt. Rushmore viewing area. Hey, we're retired and poor.
The park is one of the greatest places we've been to to see such great scenery and geological marvels.
The other part of the park, after the mountain drive is the plains where all the animal viewing occurs. Buffalo as far as you can see kind of reminds you of what the plains must have looked like hundreds of years ago.
Pronghorn Antelope also make the park home and seem unconcerned with our prying photography. We spent most of the day driving thru the park, seeing hundreds of animals and enjoying the drive. This is one of the few places we've seen where we were excited to return. We try to travel to new areas so we don't repeat our travels but this year we came back and loved it!
Oh, by the way, we saw Mt Rushmore again. Bonus!
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