Go West, Boomers! Day 5

Reporting from Alliance, NE
LAT 42.5 N LON 102.53 W

Now in our fifth state of the trip, with three of them new for me. But let’s rewind to this morning, when we left Wall, ND and ventured into the middle of nowhere, which is where you would place a Minuteman missile. Duck and cover, kids!

We move from the morose to the wacky—ladies and germs, the world’s largest Quarter Pounder with Cheese!

Hey, don’t tell me what to do!

We found another contrast in a Rapid City ND park—a giant rock you can spin, and a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Near Checkpoint Charlie.

As we made our way to Mt. Rushmore, we ran into Keystone. If you’ve been to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, you would find it very familiar. This also means tourist attractions like the Cosmos Mystery Area—one of those places that use optical illusions to convince you gravity has run wild. Photos don’t do it justice.

We also found a place where, for an enormous fee, you could get chainsaw sculptures.

And then it was Mt. Rushmore itself. You see it from quite a distance away, but it’s still impressive, mostly in terms of the amount of labor involved. It’s a national monument AND a tourist trap! It was $10 to park, but we got the senior discount, plus we charged up our hybrid car.

Had to get a shot of this—what’s the only state with a pennant flag?

Still haven’t gotten the knack of selfies.

If you’re going to protest, you must do so in this pre-defined area!

George, can we get a shot from the side? Great!

The guy that made it happen. Plus a great Scrabble move.

We finally found a place to eat in Custer, ND (we’re in the “off season”, and it’s a Sunday). Pretty decent Mexican food.

The final image for today is from Hot Springs, ND. There’s a archeological site there where Mammoths were found. It was expensive to take a tour, plus they were 20 minutes from closing, so we chose to take a shot of the fellow in the front hall.

It’s a living.

That’ll do it for now. Tomorrow includes another state capitol and (maybe) the Mile High City. #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 4

Reporting from South Wall, ND
LAT 43.59 N LON 102.14 W

Writing this a bit late, due to a) we’re now in Mountain Time and b) I had to use my phone as a hot-spot since the hotel WiFi is out.

We drove into South Dakota and made our way to Vermillion, which is the home of the University of SD, and fortunately had an away game today. We visited the W.H. Over Museum, which is a melange of archaeological, historical, and anthropological exhibits, seemingly placed at random. Very interesting though.

There was also what must have been a local’s collection of camera equipment—probably the best exhibit they had.

A retoucher unit—analog Photoshop.

In the same town, we read about a sandwich shop inside a hardware store.

It turned out great—the bread is recommended by Oprah of all people. Fantastic sammiches!

Sandwich of the Month - The Kent.

3D Melt.

We drove onto Mitchell and the Corn Palace—but first a giant jackalope.

The Corn Palace consists of the local auditorium with a corn mosaic glued to it (they change it annually). Far less impressive in person.

At this point, we “called an audible” for the rest of the day. We were planning to go up to Pierre and see another state capitol, but when we read there were no decent hotels or restaurants, we chose to skip it and move on. As it turned out, our final destination of the day wasn’t much better.

Anyway, we got on I90, which I quickly learned had an 80 mph speed limit (whee!). At one point, we took some panoramas at a scenic outlook.

Then a stop to see wildlife, both fake and real. The latter had a whole colony next to a convenience store—you could feed them if you wanted.

Our final stop for the day was the fabled Wall Drug. For those who haven’t heard of it, Wall Drug is the original tourist trap. An offer of free ice water in the 30’s pulled in the crowds. Today, it’s a warren of gift shops and snack bars. It was underwhelming, but we did get a few photo ops.

After an equally underwhelming dinner (if someone put a real restaurant in Wall, they would make a bundle), we shuffled over to the best hotel in town (in that the room doors didn’t open directly to the outside—which would make it a Motel IMHO). That’s when we found out the wi-fi was down (the manager said it was that way all over town, which I am doubtful of). So after some Googling and swearing, I hooked up the internet equivalent of two cups and a string—and here we are.

Tomorrow—assuming all goes well, Mt. Rushmore. I’m going to bed. #gowestboomers