South Dakota Cheese

We spent most of today driving through South Dakota, which is miles and miles of nothing but highway and flat plains (besides the Badlands in the western end). As boring as this may sound, the ride was made more enjoyable by the oozing American Cheese that spilled out of South Dakota towns and along the sides of Interstate 90.

It all started in a small town named Custer, where we learned that a huge biker festival was taking place just 90 minutes away in a town called Sturgis. The town was filled with motorcycles, Wrangler jeans, mustaches, and hair spray. We all agreed that bikers get a bad rep, probably because we associate bikers with the Hell's Angels. In fact, everyone we met, talked to, or ran into was entirely friendly, and really, we thought, soft like big teddy bears. That said, our encounters with locals or traveling bikers at the Old Pan Saloon (yes it had swinging doors and sawdust on the floor) revealed a streak of weirdness as well as their desire to befriend the locals (and tease Doug, the Aussie we now have traveling with us). A night in Custer is not complete, however, without a visit to the local gas station, which also serves as a casino and bar. [As a postscript to this town I must add that the four of us witnessed the most incredible lightning we had ever seen in our lives. The sky, which is huge out here, was completely streaked by lightning, which criss-crossed and flickered throughout the sky. The first time it happened we actually jumped a little at the sight and could not stop talking about how amazing it was.)

So, today we drove east across the entire state on I-90, starting with a drive-by past the Crazy Horse Memorial and a visit to Mount Rushmore. The carvings of the four presidents are definitely cool and if you park in the monument's park you can see cool exhibits, listen to music, take pictures, etc... From there we headed back to I-90 and kept seeing amusing billboard signs for a place called Wall Drug, in a town called, yes, Wall. Wall Drug exemplifies the kitschiness and cheesiness of the South Dakota tourist industry and we loved it. This place became famous for offering free ice water to passer-bys and also sells 5-cent coffee and pretty much anything you can think of that you might by at any tourist shop. But it's huge - spanning a full block on all four sides. It is decked out with silly statues for people to take pictures with, fake dinosaurs, a number of cafes, free bumper stickers, and on and on.

The road east then took us to the famous Corn Palace in Mitchell. Even cheesier than Wall Drug, the palace is a theater decorated completely with corn on the cobs. It has some corn exhibits, sells corn on the cob, popcorn, and corn paraphanelia, and shows a movie about the history of itself every couple of hours.

We then crossed the border into Minnesota, tired and weary, but satisfied from all the pictures and cheesy charm of the Dakota to the south.