I Can See for Miles and Miles

Day 15:

There was the buzz of anticipation that accompanies the start of any journey. Even my kids were all business as I loaded the van, helping out by collecting the stuffed animals and random toys that had seemed to blow into every corner of the cabin. We were so efficient that we even managed to find an extra charger left by a previous visitor.

We got out at 8am as planned and headed into New London for one last trip to both the coffee and pastry shops. Karen maintains that we will arrive at our destination around 5pm. She might even be right this time as the stops we need to make will be partially balanced by the westward crossing of a timezone boundary. I've always thought timezones were a cool idea. Sorta like Superman flying around the globe backwards so he can travel back in time.

It was 93 degress when we drove through Rapid City. Temperatures in the 90s are highly correlated with me not liking a place. You should take this into account as you read any comments on South Dakota. While I felt compelled to see it because of it's place in Americana, the Wall Drug Store wasn't a big hit with me. It was hot, and after our last two weeks through more sparsely populatd areas, really crowded. It was also the my first glimpse into how South Dakota views the tourist trade.

The entire drive through South Dakota was like a big tourist trap. Billboard after billboard, mile after mile we were bombarded by adds for sites hundres of miles from the billboard trying to latch onto the tourist trade to Mount Rushmore. When we got to the Black Hills area, it only got worse. It seemed like every little resort and tourist destination had it's series of huge billboards in the last thousand feet approaching the actual site. The shops themselves had the normal smattering of local wares, but what really struck me were the number of trinkets that you could find in your local Sav-On but would never actualy buy. In some cases, they even bothered to stamp the name of the location on the item. I understand that some amount of this goes on at every tourist destination. How many of us really need a shot glass that says FDNY? But this was so over the top that I found it distasteful.

I was surprised to find that Rapid City very much resembled some of the towns around the Bay Area. There were malls, office complexes, familiar chain stores and restaurants and even tract housing. I hate to come off sounding like a California bigot, but we had not yet found anything like this except for the Twin Cities in Minnesota.

In a long driving day full of nothing, I leave you with the one good thing about the trip: the grass. It was very Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music: wave after wave, blowing in the strong wind making rippling patterns in the green sea. When I brought this up after our stop, all the drivers mentioned was the effort it took to keep the car on the road.

Highlights:
1. Waves in a blowing sea of grass, and the fact that I was not in the driver's seat as we went through these areas.
2. A heard of mountain goats crossing the road in front of us

Quirks:
1. I've come to realize that food just comes quickly in California. It seems that everywhere we go, it takes forever to get served.
2. The Corn Palace. It's claim to fame is it's large murals made of different colored corn.