Miles driven: 600ish
States: only 3
The next day we headed out bright and early, down through the rest of Montana, Wyoming, and into South Dakota. We thought about hitting Yellowstone, and then remembered it was the holiday weekend…an overcrowed tourist attraction was not where we wanted to be!
We also saw the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn…the monument was nice, and it was so cool to see where it took place. Obviously, we learned about it in school, and in the scheme of history it didn’t happen very long ago at all, but it’s still so easy to feel disconnected from history, and standing there where things actually happened makes it so much more tangible.
In the middle of Wyoming, we started seeing signs.
Wall Drug is a drugstore/tourist trap in the middle of South Dakota. It has signs up all over the world, with sayings like, “Where the heck is Wall Drug?” We looked up some history on it, and the owner once decided to put up a sign offering free ice water to people who stopped. Within an hour, bunches of people had stopped in, and a business model was born! There are now signs everywhere. It worked, because we stopped and camped in Wall, South Dakota for the night. It was one of the most confusing places I’ve ever been. Essentially, take an amusement park. Now take away all the cool rides. And the cotton candy. And anything else that doesn’t annoy you. Then you have Wall Drug, western-themed music and all. And the free ice water that started it all wasn’t even that cold.
We also stopped that day and saw the Devil’s Tower…which is awesome. It just shoots out of the flat surrounding ground and keeps going…no wonder the Native Americans in the area consider it sacred.
I tried to get Ian to buy the coon-skin cap in the gift shop, but it wasn’t his cup of tea.
