South Dakota: Day Two

 

Wall Drug

Before we headed to the Badlands on Saturday, we woke up and headed to Wall Drug – another tourist attraction you see billboards for almost 300 miles away.  

 

Badlands

Heading into the Badlands, I was a little worried after seeing a sign that said “Beware: Prairie Dogs Have Plague.”   Terrific!  What better time to catch a medieval disease while unemployed with no health insurance.  Ayk told me I wouldn’t have to worry unless I started playing with them.  Dammit, I really wanted one as a pet, too.

I got over that fear pretty quickly after being awestruck with the most spectacular view we had seen so far.  We both agreed it looked like Cappedocia, Turkey.  He's Turkish and has visited multiple times, and I visited once when I was 18.  His Turkish heritage is just one of the many reasons why he's so awesome.

Like I said, I wouldn’t have ever thought to come here during the winter, but seeing the landscape sprinkled with snow was breathtaking.

Mt. Rushmore

It might be a national treasure, but I still say it’s kitsch.  Don’t get me wrong – I get it.  It’s a timeless honor of our nation’s four of the greatest presidents.  It’s still rather gaudy.

Repping Maryland Pride

 Studying the maps intensely

The dumb chick who took this picture cut off George Washington's head, so here's a close up of him below:

Mt. Rushmore may not be the highlight of this trip, but it at least gives us some patriotic photos.

South Dakota: Day One

South Dakota: Home to corn based buildings, plague-ridden prairie dogs and mountains that smile right back.

South Dakota is rarely the first place people consider traveling in the winter – let alone summer – but man, are they missing out.  To tell the truth we thought South Dakota was going to be the dullest part of our drive.  We drove through there on Friday after leaving frigid Minnesota.

I was pretty skeptical, considering their biggest tourist attraction appeared to the Corn Palace.  They had puntastic billboards for the Corn Palace more than a hundred miles before the exit, so we figured we should check it out.  It’s quirky, but I dig it.

The corn mosaics on the facade are changed every year.

Shucks, they really love their corn.

We took back our cynical remarks once we passed the Missouri River.  It was absolutely stunning.  I had no idea South Dakota could be so beautiful.

We stayed the night in Wall, which is really close to Badlands and Mt. Rushmore.  I didn’t bother to take pictures of the restaurant we ate at, because our food was overpriced and bland.  It costs almost as the hotel room that night, which was a steal.  At least we saved money somewhere.