Day 3 - I *heart* South Dakota

Day 3 stats:
Miles: 400-ish
Tolls: 0
Highway Patrol: 2 in action 2 empty cars

I LOVE SOUTH DAKOTA. Did you hear me I LOVE SOUTH DAKOTA!! This place has more cool stuff in that any place I've been to yet on this trip.

1. The Corn Palace. Yes it is "corny" but it is doing what it was originally intended to do 100+ years ago...bring tourists in to show that corn can be grown in South Dakota. I saw signs for this in Wisconsin, and I have to say it wasn't on par with the Taj Mahal, but the fact that every year a new corn mural design is done is pretty awesome.





2. The Badlands. It is like a desert in the middle of the prairie. Gorgeous example of erosion caused by the White River cutting into layers of volcanic ash. I flew over it in a helicopter -- just me and the pilot -- which was super cool. Then I drove through it with 1970s Bruce Springsteen playing incluidng "Badlands" :)

3. Wall Drug. The actual store is about 1 city block long, and it is full of a bunch of crap, but the signs to the store are EVERYWHERE, betwen Wisconsin and South Dakota. I'd say they are probably every 4-5 miles (at least). They even sell "jackalope" heads...rather disturbing...but then again, most of the store is.

4. The landscape. Since Minnesota destroyed their portion of the prairie it was nice to see South Dakota kept some of it, though there sure are a lot of billboard signs up along the way (most for Wall Drug). It was an amazing transition from farm land to grass land to forest. Plus the Missouri River; it may not be as big as "Big Muddy" but it ain't too shabby.

I'll be here for a couple more days, still need to see Mt Rushmore, Deadwood and who knows what else!!


(Me in the helicopter)