South Dakota Was Great!

Simplifying our lives does not mean sinking into idleness, but on the contrary, getting rid of the most subtle aspect of laziness: the one which makes us take on thousands of less important activities.

- Matthieu Ricard

I'm anxious to be on the road again but I must get some thoughts down or they'll fly away. First and foremost: I really like South Dakota, a pleasant surprise (reminds me of moving to Texas and finding that it wasn't all cactus and rattlesnakes like in the old westerns). Of course, it's spring and that helps because that green is everywhere. Such beauty, mile after mile. I have nearly run off the road many times while trying to take pictures through the windshield. This is one of the earliest, somewhere around Sioux Falls, where it's still pretty flat. Okay, very flat but not as topographically challenged as Iowa.

And then there was the Corn Palace and Wall Drug, both run specifically with tourists in mind. But Wall Drug was more. Have you seen the bumper stickers for Wall Drug? It's located in Wall, SD, and, to make a long story short, after it opened in December, 1931, and barely got by for about five years, the pharmacist/owner's wife suggested that they start giving away free ice water to motorists crossing the great plains on the nearby highway. So they made up some rhymes, put up some signs (a la Burma Shave) and the rest is history. They still give away ice water and sell coffee for five cents, along with every other thing you could possibly want, from hamburgers and ice cream to original western art--and the first bumper sticker is free (after that they're ten cents). I don't know if he was a good pharmacist, but Ted Hustead was a marketing genius (the signs are everywhere), and the company is still in the family.

Next stop, Pierre (pronounced like pier, for the uninitiated) and a quick visit to the capitol for a souvenir postcard. It's a lovely building and the woman at the gift shop told me it looks the same as the Montana capitol because those frugal SD folks bought the Montana plans for $15. Montana had theirs first, even though it was farther west, because the South Dakotans had a hard time making up their minds what city should host the seat of government. They chose a lovely spot, centrally located, on the Missouri River. When I asked why Pierre was so much smaller than Sioux Falls and Rapid City, I was told that the military bases in the other two cities caused the increase in population. Geography lesson over for today, class.

I won't bore you with my Mt. Rushmore photos. If you've seen them once, you've seen them a hundred times. So I'll share this instead: George Washington taking a bite out of my Buffalo Burger.

And some pretty scenery.

I love how South Dakota makes it so easy for you to give them your money.

Okay, that's about all. Oh yeah, saw some buffalo...

on a mound (stupid mound)...

and on a plain... Sorry, this is a Wells Family joke, or if you were a die-hard Dick Van Dyke Show fan, you might get the reference, from the episode where Buddy and Sally were helping Rob and Laura sort through some old nickels they found in Rob's grandfather's desk (or was it Uncle Hezekiah's, I forget).

I'm off to the great State of Wyoming in a few minutes, location of Jackson County, which I am told by a camper from Cheyenne is the richest county in the nation. Who knew?