Whew! What an outstanding first night/day! I was more than a little worried after running errands all day, and not having packed, I ended up only getting about an hour nap before departure. That was on top of the 45 minute “rest” I took the night before. And, I was still so unorganized, the car was nearly full before I picked up Dave at 11 p.m. But we got it all loaded up, case of Girl Scout cookies included, and took off through the rainstorm.
I drove to MN and then Dave drove through MN while I got a couple more hours sleep. We arrived at the Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD, (http://cornpalace.org/) an hour BEFORE we anticipated, right at their 8 a.m.opening time (I wonder how fast Dave was going while my eyes were closed!) After a short visit and some photo ops, we pushed on.
Speaking of photo ops, Dave has brought a “flat Stanley” of Saffy and I brought my Packer gnome for a little whimsy. Look for those special moments as soon as I figure out how to post pix!
A big Thank You to AAA (www.aaa.com)! Without their guidance and TripTik service, we would have driven right past the best (well, one of the best) parts of our first day - The Badlands drive (http://www.nps.gov/badl/index.htm). Oh, so “far-out”, man! As one hippie said to us on our way out onto one of the outcropping of rocks. Tho Dave got a little tired of me pulling over into the ‘scenic viewpoints’, I just thought they were awe-inspiring.
Thank goodness we didn’t see any rattlesnakes, but we did see one prairie dog (besides the “6-ton” fake one on the roadside) and -hold onto your hats!- we saw a wolf pooping! Yup! Ah, nature.
Oh, and we are not done yet folks! We were so far ahead of schedule, it was like we went through a time warp. We then stopped at the fabled Wall Drug in Wall, SD (www.walldrug.com) for a buffalo hot dog and some kitschy photos and shopping.
After checking into our hotel, we went downtown Rapid City for dinner and some well-deserved cold adult beverages. The Firehouse Brewing (www.firehousebrewing.com) provided both as well as some nice scenery for these road-weary travelers (read: cute bartender!). Downtown also has bronze statues of all the presidents (http://www.visitrapidcity.com/whattodo/thecityofpresidents/), so after dinner, we took a nice stroll to see them. Well, half of them. At that point, I did hit ‘the wall’. I had about 4 hours sleep in 60, so off to beddie-bye we went...
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