Heading back

Trip Start Jun 10, 2006
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Trip End Jun 18, 2006


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Flag of United States  , South Dakota,
Sunday, June 18, 2006

We started the two-day trek home today. We're taking two days to save us from a single-day twelve or thirteen hour drive home, but it also let us check out a couple of other things along the way.

First stop was Wall, SD. This town is known for its drug store, appropriately named Wall Drug. It has been there since 1931 and made a name for itself by offering free water to travelers beginning back in 1936. Since then it has expanded to be nearly mall-like-and they still give out free ice water. The place was very busy.

Next we headed south of Wall to the Badlands National Park. The Badlands are a combination of the Painted Desert and grasslands. We saw lots of interesting sandstone formations and examples of some fossils from the area, but unfortunately we didn't see any wildlife other than some birds and prairie dogs Badlands National Park
Badlands National Park
 . It was, at least, a nice drive.

After that we had a long drive across South Dakota ahead of us. Not much other than straight roads, grassland, and some rain. We did, on the advice of three people, stop in Mitchell to see the Corn Palace. This is a building that gets decorated with corn every year. Never really thought of corn as an artistic medium, but it actually worked here. Two sides of this large building have murals of corn.

Nothing much else of interest for the rest of the day, just more driving. We're staying in Dakota Dunes, SD tonight. This town is right on the border with Iowa and Nebraska. We actually ate dinner in Sioux City, IA (just 3 miles down the road) and then headed over the Missouri River to South Sioux City, NE, where we spent about 10 minutes driving around. Now Emily can add Nebraska to her list of states visited.
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