Badlands, SD

Never made it to Mt Rushmore. There was plenty of driving though. Or at least it felt like it. I was getting sick of the signs for Wall Drug. They were all over the place, for miles and miles. And the ridiculous amount of hay bails. They were everywhere too. I was dying to stop anywhere. And anywhere showed up. It came in the form of Corn Palace. Now usually, you’d see advertisements for “the largest” or “the greatest” or even “the first”. But this one was unique, very unique indeed. It was the ONLY corn palace in the world. I couldn’t cheat myself out of this one. Figured it would be a quick stop, and it was. It was just an older building that had murals made of corn on the outside. Free admission, so why not go in for a few? I learned how it was made and the history and what-not. Pretty interesting, but I couldn’t help but wonder why a city would spend over $130,000 per year and over 100 acres of corn to do this. Maybe back in the day where festivals were grand and a big deal, but nowadays… maybe 

Moving along, I found another stop. 1880’s Town. I figured I’d at least stretch my legs. I was hesitant to go in through the town considering I had just been at an 1800’s museum the previous day. The lady talked me into it. First went upstairs to see all the props from Dances With Wolves. Then I realized that I don’t remember anything about that movie, so I continued on to the rest of the town. Building by building, I was awestruck. These were original buildings, set up like an old western town. Jails, doctor’s office, bank, school, churches, fire house, saloons, and probably other buildings that don’t come to mind at this point. And yes, the saloons had swinging doors. And yes, I went in there walking like a cowboy and stated “I’m looking for the man that shot my pa” in an old country accent. I like to amuse myself. Going around this town almost made me feel like that I was actually living there. It almost satisfied my curiosity of what it would be like to live back then. I don’t want to. It would still be interesting to experience it for a week or two. But I decided I like my modern conveniences such as running water. What was supposed to be a few minutes break turned into a couple of hours of pretending I was in 1880. No complaints, just moved towards Mt Rushmore.

Ok, Rushmore, for real now. Nope. Ran across the Badlands. They are bad. They crumbled quite easily. It wouldn’t surprise me if their image changed every year. Looking out at them, it reminded me of a portrait that was printed on an inkjet printer with the cartridge running out. It was still beautiful. It reminded me of the Grand Canyon in ways. I tried to take endless pictures to capture what it was that I saw and felt. But it didn’t work. It never does. And if I can’t do it with pictures, I certainly can’t do it with words. However, driving through, I had become numb to them, or perhaps just numb to the newness of them. Maybe I was just upset knowing I had to leave and that I would never be able to convey those moments and do it justice. I attempted climbing these fragile structures, only to look down on the other side and be reminded that I was afraid of heights. At least they were beautiful scary heights.

It was getting dark and Mt Rushmore was still two hours away. I decided it was best to camp close by and get an early start tomorrow. A shower sounded nice too. Luckily, the camp nearby had running water. And fortunately enough, it was a few blocks away from Wall Drug. I won’t lie, I was extremely curious why this place was so “famous”. Googled it. It was interesting enough for me to stop by and check it out tomorrow. They claim they have free ice water and five cent coffee. We’ll see about that.

07/26/11