Through South Dakota, to Iowa and Nebraska

South Dakota has a lot of places to visit, but the most notable are Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug, Devils Tower, and the Mitchell Corn Palace. Mt. Rushmore needs no comment. Not far off the highway and spectacular. Abe Lincoln is still there to talk to and have a photo op if desired. Wall Drug is not as well known unless you know someone who has been there, or if you have. It is an all purpose mall that occupies a full city block including all four corners. It started in 1939 in Wall, SD and almost went under after five years of trying to survive. Then the wife of the owner suggested that since Mt. Rushmore had been finished and folks were still driving past Wall to get there, that they needed something to get them to stop. Her idea was ice water. Air conditioners had not come along yet, and it was hot and dry in the summer. They had ice and lots of water. They placed signs along the highway much like the Burma Shave signs in that day saying that they had free ice water, and ice cream, and cola, etc. The first summer they had all they could handle. The next summer they had to hire 8 girls to help out. Today, Bill the son, has expanded the place even more and they still have free ice water, and 5 cent coffee. It is a tourist trap of the first order which draws up to 2200 visitors a day. All that a mall has, all the souvenirs you could want, and fantastic food, I had a roast beef sandwich which was the best ever, gravy better than on any other I have had. We traveled this road before on a trip out west but Wall Drug is even better than then. On to Devils tower which was the place the space ship landed in the movie, "Close Encounters", and to Mitchell with it's own claim to fame in the Corn Palace. They use real corn cobs to decorate the outside and inside of the place. They grow every variation there is for the palace. Then I drove south on I 29 and past Omaha Nebraska to my present camping spot almost on the line between Iowa and Nebraska. Tomorrow I will try to drive to my oldest daughters house northwest of St. Louis in Wentzville, then to my parents in Cape Girardeau, MO, then home. This will not end this blog though. I have many reflections of problems and ideas for the future trips that are sure to come, and ways to make a living by traveling, etc. I have ignited a desire to see the world in our son David. Julie and Jacki have already traveled a bit , but David was limited the the trip to the Petrified forest, The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and across South Dakota when he was 16. This was a new experience for both of us and we both know that we can travel and make a living if one has a desire to do so. Maybe I have finally found out what I want to do when I grow up, and maybe David too once he finishes all the school he has planned, maybe culminating with becoming a professor at a university.