Our Bucket List Trip
We hit the road about a week ago — yes, once again interrupting our summer-long stay in Ames to make a side trip — this time, to the West.
We rented a car and took off toward South Dakota.
We’d never been there, and we knew there were a few things we needed to see — or, at least, a few things we wanted to be able to say that we’d seen.
Our first stop was at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. If you’ve never heard of it — well, it’s quite a deal. It’s a building with its exterior walls covered with corn. Trust me — it’s a tourist attraction, and if you’re ever on I-90 and near Mitchell, just stop, take a picture, and leave. Then you, too, can say you’ve seen the Corn Palace. (We went inside — but there’s not much to report about it.)
After an overnight in Mitchell, we kept heading straight west on the 90 — arriving in Wall, South Dakota, just in time for lunch. And, of course, if you’re in Wall, you must — must, I say — stop at Wall Drug because — well, just because.
Wall Drug is a remarkable family story. It’s been around since the 1930’s and first started making its name by giving free ice water to weary travelers who needed it during those days of lousy roads and long driving times. Now, it’s billed as the world’s biggest drug store, and about two million people like us stop by each year.
That’s right. Two million. To see a drug store. But it’s worth the stop. We had lunch there, walked through the building (which was jammed with tourists) and even picked up a free bumper sticker that asks, “Where the Heck is Wall Drug?”
It’s in Wall, of course.
Then it was on to the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore. We had never been to Rushmore, and it was one of those things that, yes, we “had to do.” And, indeed, it was worth it to stand in front of the giant rock sculptures of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt — decades after having first seen them in our junior high history books.
We overnighted in Deadwood, South Dakota — a truly wild West, lawless town founded in 1876 after gold was discovered nearby. When I-90 bypassed it in the 1960’s, it declined dramatically — and deteriorated even more in the 1980’s when the town’s last three brothels were shut down.
But never fear! South Dakota’s state legislature legalized gambling in Deadwood, and that’s what the town is now — a gambling mecca. We even had to go through a casino in order to enter our hotel. And we’re not gamblers.
The next day found us still on the 90. After a fine lunch at an excellent old-fashioned, cattle-country restaurant in Sheridan, Wyoming, we made our way into Montana and to the Little Bighorn Battlefield.
Yes, Custer met his maker at this very spot — and you can see the exact place where he was mortally wounded on that day in 1876 when he tried to roust bands of Native Americans — and lost.
This is a well-done memorial site that includes a Native American monument and a nicely laid-out museum that shows and tells what happened there.
Okay, this travelogue is just about running out of steam — and, perhaps, interest on your part. So we’ll keep it short.
We spent three days with our former Paso Robles neighbors who had moved to Montana — to Three Forks, to be exact — to be near their son and daughter-in-law and their grandchildren. Paul and Sharon Finlayson were wonderful tour guides. They took us all around — one day to the town of West Yellowstone and its Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center — then to Big Sky, the development created by Chet Huntley (yes, the same Mr. Huntley who co-anchored NBC-TV’s nightly newscast along with a Mr. Brinkley). A Mr. Tom Brady of considerable NFL fame and his wife have a place at Big Sky, but apparently they had not received word that we were coming, for they were nowhere to be seen.
Another day saw Paul and Sharon take us to the lovely town of Ennis and to lunch at the very fine Gravel Bar restaurant. Then we tooled down to the ghost town of Virginia City (yes, in Montana) — where we stopped at an old-fashioned candy store, and where the Finlaysons bought what must have been several pounds of old-time sweets. We somehow got past the temptation to buy our own bag of sweet things — but the ice cream shop a few doors down was impossible to resist. Oh, yes. The town also had numerous fine old buildings that provided an excellent look at life in the 1890’s.
This past Monday, we headed back East — toward Iowa. It took us three days to get home to Ames. We stopped our first night in Gillette, Wyoming — another old place with “history” and a fine downtown and an excellent ice cream shop (you get the picture here?) The next day, we headed toward Rapid City, South Dakota, and discovered — no, not another ice cream place — but a delightful “we could have lived here” small town right alongside the 90. Spearfish looked gorgeous, and the trees and mountains alongside played their part as well.
Our lunch on that Tuesday came at Sickies Garage Burgers and Brews just outside Rapid City. It’s a sports bar with a motorcycle motif that just happens to also have some excellent food. It’s worth the stop.
Then it was on to Sioux Falls at the eastern edge of South Dakota. We’d never been there, either — and we were delighted to visit Falls Park at sunset. Sioux Falls residents are proud of that park, and they should be. Yes, there are some impressive falls there — and we took plenty of photos. The park surrounding it is quite extensive — and many tourists and residents had come out to enjoy the scenery and the delightful evening. And, yes, there’s an excellent ice cream parlor operating out of one of the historic old power buildings in the park. We couldn’t say “no” to that ice cream.
We got back to Ames yesterday — after eight days and more than 2,400 miles on the road. We were tired, but that was okay because the trip was a winner. We knocked off some items on our bucket list — Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug, the Corn Palace — and put some new ones on the list that we could immediately cross off, such as the Little Bighorn Battlefield, Spearfish and, yes, that motorcycle restaurant.
Now, we’ll stick around here until we find out when our home that’s now under construction Way Out West will be ready for us. That means we could be here a few more weeks or perhaps longer. No matter — we’re still “living the dream” here in Iowa — though we do worry that the coronavirus is making a comeback around these parts. But we’re vaccinated, and that’s as good as we can be at this point.