a south dakota day
western south dakota was a little more intriguing; once we crossed the missouri river the landscape changed so much! it got hilly right away. the final wall drug billboards were piling up! and then we stopped by the badlands national park, which was shockingly stunning; we had no idea what to expect. for about 30 miles we looped through these awesome rock formations.
right after the badlands we finally got to see what this "wall drug" was all about. for those of you who have never driven through south dakota, the freeway is littered with billboards advertising a mysterious wall drug store, complete with dinosaurs, ice cream, 5-cent coffee, and western art. when we finally pulled into Wall, SD we were sorely disappointed! we didn't even go inside. it was like an anti-climactic ending at the end of a page-turner. just a simple street with a few touristy shops.
fortunately, we crossed into mountain time! but the sun was still lowering quite quickly and we had an hour or so to get to mount rushmore. that last stretch felt like forever, but we got there right as the sky was turning a surreal sort of pink. we were elated to have made our destination. "i'm sure no one here has driven all the way from minneapolis today," josh said.
for dinner, we drove down to keystone, which is the little tourist town 10 miles down the hill from the mount rushmore memorial area. the rubyhouse restaurant was a throwback to the 1800s; sort of like a fancy restaurant from the Little House on the Prairie days, except all the clientele, us included, were wearing sweatshirts, jeans & sneakers. the waitress from the bar wore a sad little floozy outfit, all red satin & black lace. our server was an asian dude - quite unexpected. oh, and can you believe they didn't have ginger ale? our waiter told us that it's hard to find out there in south dakota.
so we still have a ways to go before portland, so josh buckled down for some nighttime driving and we pulled into Gillette, Wyoming at 10:30pm. we're at the national9 inn which is not too shabby really! we've decided to skip yellowstone in the interest of driving less; we are too exhausted to sightsee, and i'm sure montana will have enough sights of its own to offer today.
right after the badlands we finally got to see what this "wall drug" was all about. for those of you who have never driven through south dakota, the freeway is littered with billboards advertising a mysterious wall drug store, complete with dinosaurs, ice cream, 5-cent coffee, and western art. when we finally pulled into Wall, SD we were sorely disappointed! we didn't even go inside. it was like an anti-climactic ending at the end of a page-turner. just a simple street with a few touristy shops.
fortunately, we crossed into mountain time! but the sun was still lowering quite quickly and we had an hour or so to get to mount rushmore. that last stretch felt like forever, but we got there right as the sky was turning a surreal sort of pink. we were elated to have made our destination. "i'm sure no one here has driven all the way from minneapolis today," josh said.
for dinner, we drove down to keystone, which is the little tourist town 10 miles down the hill from the mount rushmore memorial area. the rubyhouse restaurant was a throwback to the 1800s; sort of like a fancy restaurant from the Little House on the Prairie days, except all the clientele, us included, were wearing sweatshirts, jeans & sneakers. the waitress from the bar wore a sad little floozy outfit, all red satin & black lace. our server was an asian dude - quite unexpected. oh, and can you believe they didn't have ginger ale? our waiter told us that it's hard to find out there in south dakota.
so we still have a ways to go before portland, so josh buckled down for some nighttime driving and we pulled into Gillette, Wyoming at 10:30pm. we're at the national9 inn which is not too shabby really! we've decided to skip yellowstone in the interest of driving less; we are too exhausted to sightsee, and i'm sure montana will have enough sights of its own to offer today.
posted by verandah place at 5:46 PM
1 Comments:
Wow. South Dakota just looks amazing.
But since you skipped Yellowstone, maybe we should plan some kind of family get-together when Nat is old enough for that kind of trip.
I know I want to see Yellowstone and the badlands one of these days.
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