Richard & Sylvia's RV Adventures

Day 77 Thursday, May 17

Ellsworth AFB, SD to Mitchell, SD via Wall Drug and the Badlands National Park – Miles

Today we started our trip south and east by drive I-90 to Wall SD where were stopped by the famous Wall Drug Store.  Wall Drug was bought by the Husteads in December 1931.  Just after the depression they were trying to make a go of it but it was very difficult.  They came upon a idea several years later to put up signs along the interstate advertising free ice water and since then everything else is history.  Mr. Hustead has said: “Free Ice Water. It brought us Husteads a long way and it taught me my greatest lesson, and that's that there's absolutely no place on God's earth that's Godforsaken. No matter where you live, you can succeed, because wherever you are, you can reach out to other people with something that they need!”

  You can visit their web site at: http://www.walldrug.com

How do you like Sylvia’s new hat?

From Wall Drug we drove the loop through the Badlands National Park.

The Badlands National Park was created to preserve the scenic and scientific value of a portion of the White River Badlands for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.  Here natural processes have uncovered and displayed a concentrated collection of rutted ravines, serrated towers, pinnacles, and precipitous gulches.   The park contains world renowned paleontological features and geological formations of the Eocene and Oligocene epochs with recognized scientific and educational value.   This spectacular setting contains a fine example of a vast mixed grass prairie ecosystem.   The landscape encompasses an 11,000 year legacy of human use and occupancy.  Located in southwestern South Dakota, Badlands National Park consists of nearly 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest, protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. Sixty-four thousand acres are designated official wilderness. Established as Badlands National Monument in 1939, the area was redesignated as a National Park in 1978. Over 11,000 years of human history pales to the eons old paleontological resources. Badlands National Park contains the world's richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 23 to 35 million years old. The evolution of mammal species such as the horse, sheep, rhinoceros and pig can be studied in the Badlands formations.

As we started our drive through the park we notice a few of the “locals” sitting up on the hill watching the tourists drive by…  We could just hear them saying to each other: “Well Myrtle here’s a couple more and they’re taking pictures like the rest.  Check me out, do I have grass in my teeth?  Smile for the tourists!”

Here’s a panoramic photo made up from 10 photos as I panned and took pictures of the barren wasteland.

From the Badlands National Park we drove on to Mitchell, SD where we stopped for the night.  Before bedding down for the night we went to the Cabella’s Sporting Goods store. 

There they had an incredible selection of sporting goods, clothing, etc.  We especially like the live fish in the fish tanks and the stuff animals display.

Here we finally got to see a Moose… but unfortunately he was not alive…. someday we’ll see a live one!!

posted by Richard @ 10:38 PM