Fernanda & Karl - Road Trip, Day 4 -- Website by Now Interactive Solutions

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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Road Trip, Day 4

Climbing in the Badlands
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South Dakota, Tourist Traps, Badlands, to Keystone (bleargh!)

Today was a lot of stopping and going, and all within one state. We left the Hotel Ortman at 9, bought ice for the cooler, and headed off into the open space of South Dakota. We stayed off the interstate for a while, just to see what it's like; lots of farms growing corn. Speaking of corn, we almost immediately came to the first of today's major tourist traps, the Corn Palace of Mitchell, SD. Mitchell is one of the bigger towns. The Corn Palace is this building now serving as an auditorium decorated with murals made out of corn cobs. Apparently the first one was built in 1890 something, all out of corn, and looking really like a fanciful palace. From the pictures, it looked kind of cool. But it was too big a fire hazard, so they built second one, and it looked more byzantine. Then for some reason they took that down and built a third one, the one still up today, a rather boring square building adorned with really fake looking domes, and murals made of corn decorating the outside walls. What else is there to do in South Dakota?

I'd seen this thing back in the early 80s when I was here, but my memory was of this place out in the middle of nowhere with a big parking lot. These memories are inaccurate, because it is in fact on Main St. of your typical small town, with the town hall directly abutting it. It also doesn't look nearly as impressive as I recall (not that I recall it looking all that impressive to begin with). The biggest disappointment about the whole thing was that Weird Al Yankovic will be playing there this Saturday -- no way am I hanging around South Dakota for four days just for Al, but man! I missed it by four days!

Anyway, we did some shopping in Mitchell, and headed out onto the open highway once again. We both drove today. There were many stops, and we switched off. Mileage today went down to almost 34 mpg, I guess because of speeding and intermittent air-conditioner use. The speed limit is 75; when the road narrows and there is construction, they slow you down -- to 65.

Where the flat farmland suddenly ends to become scrubby hills at Chamberlain we stopped and had lunch. Chamberlain is on the shores of what sure looks like a river on the maps, but seems to be a lake. We had what turned out to be "comfort" food -- it was enticingly called "goulash and salad", but was macaroni and ground beef topped with probably Velveeta and Dole packaged salad. Filling, anyway. And this place had a wine list! ("Fruity bouquet, essence of toast, goes great with our burgers.")

Speaking of filling, we filled the car three times today, basically topping it off whenever we got the chance. Not taking any chances!

We crossed into Mountain Time Zone, which gave us back an hour, so we arrived at the Badlands around 1:30. The first use of our "America the Beautiful" National Park Pass! Fernanda was very impressed at her first sight of the eroded hills of the Badlands. They are very impressive. And also hot and arid. We drove the loop, and already by our third scenic outlook stop, we realized we were getting jaded. We weren't planning on doing any major hiking, so we decided to scrap the plan of camping here (mainly because, despite our preparations, we really, really don't really want to camp -- our last experience 6 or 7 years ago still dissuades us, stiff, sore, tired, and infested with chiggers), and just drive through the loop and take in the scenic stops, and then push on to the Black Hills and stop at some motel along the way, preferably before the major tourist center. Ah, the best laid plans...

We had a nice leisurely drive around the Badlands, saw prairie dogs and mountain rams, then exited and found ourselves in Wall, home of the infamous Wall Drugs we'd been reading about for the last 355 miles on billboards. So we stopped in and it's an even bigger tourist trap than I remember. And it just goes on and on, rooms and rooms essentially selling the same tourist trinkets and toys. And cowboy boots and hats for mucho dinero. Overwhelmed and tired, we left Wall, thinking it was too touristy to stay overnight in, and also too close to the Badlands and not close enough to the Black Hills. So we ventured off to put some more miles behind us, but somehow missed the right road in Rapid City, and there were no motels except the ones they kept promising down the road, down the road, so we kept on, getting closer and closer to Mt. Rushmore, and nothing, and nothing, till finally, around 7, we got to Keystone at the foot of (ptui!) Mt. Rushmore.

I make the spitting sound not because of the monument carved into the mountain, which I can take or leave, but because of the terrible tourist industry it attracts. Keystone is a hole of a place, crawling with ugly americans of all nationalities, and idiot motorcyclists with purposely defective mufflers, and pandering in flashing lights to the basest and least noble our species has to offer.

So, basically now we are stuck here because it is too late to get anywhere else. The hotels are expensive. And mostly filled. We had resolved that today, not camping at the Badlands, we would instead get a motel that a) was no more expensive than the most expensive hotel we've stayed at so far, b) had free wifi internet, and c) had ice for our cooler. In the end, we got a) only. There is a fridge in the room, so that makes up for c), but as for b), life sucks. And it figures that in little Canistota I was able to pick up an open wifi net, here in crappy Keystone, filled to the brim with competing expensive hotels, there is not a single network I can pick up. So I will have to post this sometime later, when I will again have access to the internet. This motel does however have a so-called "heated" swimming pool, so we made use of it, to make up for some of the missing above letters, even if it was already 8:00 when we checked in and not very hot and the pool not very heated. But water sure felt nice after a hot day in the desert-like sun.

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Previous Entries

:-(
06/19/21

Açores
08/29/18

Our New Bathroom Saga
11/17/16

Europe 2015
03/16/15

The Berkshires
10/18/14

Road Trip South
03/23/13

Greece!
07/26/12

Our Trip to Ireland
08/09/09

Google Map of our Trip
09/17/07