Kitschiest Roadside Attractions - Travel + Leisure Magazine

Look for us in these locations...Coming Soon!

Wall Drug Store, Wall, SD

The anticipation starts long before you arrive at Wall Drug, a Western-themed mall/amusement park near Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. Signs posted throughout the world count down the remaining miles to go; there’s even a sign for Wall Drug posted in Antarctica (for the record, only about 9,300 miles away). Wall Drug started as a humble pharmacy that doled out free ice water to weary travelers. Today, 2.2 million people a year pull over to ogle at the animatronic T. Rex and see the animated Chuck Wagon Quartet (one of the figures resembles Ronald Reagan); chuckle at a piano-playing, singing gorilla; and sit atop a giant jackalope statue. And yes, the ice water’s still free.
Mitchell Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD

Established in 1892 and existing at its current location since 1921, this showstopper—the only building of its kind—celebrates the harvest of king corn. The building exterior is redecorated annually with 275,000 ears of colored corn, other grains, and grasses. Themes have included Lewis and Clark; the space age; and historic figures such as Elvis Presley and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive away with your corn memento of choice: popcorn, Corn Palace puzzles, or corn-cob jelly.

 

Yellowstone suggestions?

Does anyone have any suggestions for seeing Yellowstone? It seems a lot of it will still be closed when we visit in early May so we won't be staying inside the park. I'd like to hike, but I'm not too - how do you say - physically fit? I don't want Dave having to call in the National Guard to get me out of a canyon or anything. It doesn't look like any of the trails include beer stops which concerns me.

Also, it looks like the Grand Tetons are pretty close by so we may try to see those as well.

Suggestions welcome... oh, and if anyone knows where we can get some Bear Spray, let me know!

I need to get to Goodwill to see if they have any plaid flannel. Will work for hiking and for Seattle, I hear.

Two More Weeks!

I can't believe we will be leaving in just 2 weeks. I haven't even packed yet :) I have started to accumulate snacks tho...hmm... But I'm waiting until the last minute to have my car serviced since our itinerary is over 5,000 miles. And cleaned. I'm sure Dave will appreciate a freshly shampooed seat plus that New Car Smell. I just hope they can find and vacuum up all the food tidbits from years of eating in my car, I'm sure I have at least a small order of fries under my seats. Not to mention I recently attempted to eat Taco Bell while on a run to the bank. I would file that under Bad Ideas. Now that I think about it, it might be a tad embarrassing to take my car in. I might need to pre-clean like I used to do before the maid would come.

We have also had to change our heading from 14 States to 12 States. We just did not have the time to go as far as we would have liked to. And tho Dave is already talking about Road Trip, Part Deux, I'm waiting for the reviews to be in on The Original Road Trip before committing, or being committed, whatever the head-case may be.

I have also made a new travel friend. Check out their site, http://lifechangingyear.com/ to see their year-long, round-the-world adventure! If only I was that adventurous...or could figure out how to be out of work that long and still eat!

Speaking of that, maybe we should take donations to pay to for this little adventure of ours. Give until it hurts, folks. It's all for a VERY good cause and we'll even throw in a beautiful, hand-selected trip souvenir. Choose from:  Something Probably Stolen from a Truck Stop or Delightful Pre-Moistened, Lemon-Scented Towelettes or perhaps even a Personal-size Jam or Jelly (variety of flavors available but you will probably get strawberry). Limited Time Offer, while supplies last, we can't be held responsible for anything, yadda, yadda....Cash Only, Please!