BEING TOURISTS IN WALL, SOUTH DAKOTA

Before I go into detail about the title, let me catch you up on where and what we have been doing the last couple of days. After our night in Greycliff, Mt we headed towards out next fuel stop in Rapid City, South Dakota. When we arrived we saw that Harley was there also fueling up. His original dispatch had been cancelled too and he wanted to know if we would want his assignment......a trip to Newfoundland! If we didn't have commitments in CA, I think we just might have switched.
We stayed the night in Chamberlain, SD. This has got to be one of the nicest and most scenic rest areas we have stayed at. It sits on a hill overlooking the Missouri River. That is the Lewis & Clark Bridge on the left. Most rest areas in South Dakota have these tepee structures on them. I do have to say that the weather turned cold and windy while we were there. It got down to 17 degrees in the morning when we left.

As we got closer to Minnesota we could see a large amount of cloud cover in the sky. When we took the off ramp to head to the boat plant, it was as if a deep freeze had set over the area. The area of Pipestone had been hit hard by snow. In fact, there was so much snow that they had closed down the plant the week before. When we arrived at the plant there were two other trucks ahead of us waiting to get loaded. After Craig checked in he found out they were down two employees who were out sick. Craig was more than happy to put on his hard hat and give a helping hand loading the other two trucks and ours. It didn't take long before we had our four boats loaded and we were happily on our way.

So now we come to the reason for the title of the blog entry. All along Interstate 90 through South Dakota you will see signs for Wall Drug offering everything from free ice water, 5 cent coffee, homemade donuts and ice cream. We had made a decision to stop on our way back through South Dakota. If you don't know, Wall Drug was bought in 1931 by Ted Hustead. He gave himself 5 years to make a go of it in what he called this "town in the middle of nowhere". Nearing the end of his 5 year plan, and still not making any money, his wife had the idea to post signs along the highway offering free ice water to travelers. That was the start of what Wall Drug has become. A mecca for tourist, especially in the summertime where up to twenty thousand people visit this quaint little town and the drug store that put them on the map.

Here we are doing the tourist thing. It was fun walking around and seeing all that they had to offer. They had everything from food, to clothes, boots, furniture,
and of course...................
SOUVENIRS! (Notice the bag in my left hand)
After all, as they say...... been there, done that.....bought the T-shirt.