Road Trip Three
After the fiasco that was our 2016 road trip, I was ready to go on a “real” road trip to places more exciting than Wisconsin. I wanted to take the kids to Utah. Joey wanted to tour the SD School of Mines on one of their visit days so we combined the two together!
There’s no way I could fit a whole week of adventures into one post like I did for the first two trips, so this trip report will be a series. Please subscribe so you don’t miss out on any of the adventures!
Day One: Thursday, June 15, 2017
Since we needed to be in Rapid City on Friday for the college visit, I decided we would leave on Thursday and do some South Dakota tourist stops along the way. The first of which was the brand new Dignity statue at the Chamberlain rest area. Dignity of Earth and Sky was installed on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River in the fall of 2016. I love Dignity’s blue star quilt. The blues in the quilt perfectly match our South Dakota skies.
Wall Drug
Of all the South Dakota touristy things to do, Wall Drug has to be one of the most well-advertised. I don’t remember which trip we counted the signs on, but there are something like 400 Wall Drug signs going west across the state and we decided to stop.
If you’ve never been to Wall Drug, or it’s been a while since you were last there, it’s quite the place! Picture multiple little shops under one roof, along with a chapel, and a restaurant, and who knows what else. The best part, though, is the “back yard” where you will find the strange assortment of amusing exhibits and photo ops such as a jackalope. It’s also where you’ll find the famous cold water you’ve been reading about on many, many of those 400-some signs.
The whole place is kitschy and fun, and definitely worth the stop, just to say you’ve been there, but we wanted to visit the South Dakota Air and Space Museum next, so we did not stay long.
South Dakota Air and Space Museum
I had no idea what to expect from the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. For some reason, that free stop was never on the list of places we visited when I was a kid, but Joey loves planes and I like photographing the details of them, so we had to check it out. Turns out, they house a nice collection of planes and some displays about the nearby minuteman missile facilities.
We missed the official tour of the base so we checked out all of the planes and displays that were inside the museum. One of the volunteers said he would show us around outside so we joined him for a tour of the static displays. Our tour guide was a retired veteran pilot who must’ve liked Mickey Mouse because he had Mickey patches stitched all over on his vest. He was a great storyteller and seemed to really enjoy his time retelling stories from when he flew these or similar aircraft. We were just about done with our tour when he just stopped talking and removed his hat as he turned and faced the direction of the Air Force base. Off in the distance, we could hear the faint sounds of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” followed by “Taps.” It was 5pm.
When the last note of “Taps” could no longer be heard, he slipped his hat back on his head and without a word about what we had just witnessed, he continued with his talk about the plane we were standing under. We only had a couple more planes to see on our tour and then it was over. I don’t think I have ever been a part of anything that felt more patriotic than that simple act of our retired pilot/tour guide, simply doing what he very likely had been doing every day at 5pm for his whole life. It’s something I will always remember.
We still had a bit of a drive ahead of us so after another quick walk-through to take Joey’s picture with his favorite planes, we filled up with gas and got back on the road. We grabbed some fast food on our way through Rapid City and ate along the way. I wanted to camp at Horse Thief Lake Campground near Mount Rushmore. When we arrived at around 7pm, the camp hostess gave us a map with all of the open campsites circled and told us to go pick one out, set up our tent, and then come back to pay.
Mount Rushmore
After a couple spins around the loop, we chose site #6, which was an accessible site with what appeared to be the only tent pad in the entire campground. (I found out later that there was a whole walk-in, tent-only campground, but we were not yet “walk-in” campground types at this point.) We quickly set up our tent to claim our site and then paid the hostess before we left to go watch the evening lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore.
We’ve visited Mount Rushmore several times, but never in the evening for the lighting ceremony. I had read recommendations that you “must” go to Mount Rushmore at night so perhaps I was expecting a bit more than we experienced. I wanted to be able to photograph the faces as they were lit up, so we found ourselves a spot along the ledge at the top of the amphitheater and waited for the ceremony to begin.
Soon, a ranger came out and we could barely hear anything they said. Judging by the rustle of the audience, I’m not sure that being closer would’ve helped at all, but they did honor some veterans before getting to the “big moment we had all been waiting for.” The ranger flipped a light switch and the faces were lit. Mostly. Poor Abe didn’t have as much light as the other three. I wanted to be impressed, but it just wasn’t anything like I had imagined. Somehow, I thought there would be more to it. My recommendation would be to go there in the morning. It’s much more impressive with some clear blue skies and white puffy clouds as a backdrop!
Turning the lights on signaled the end of the ranger talk so we lingered a bit to let the crowds clear out and then headed for the parking ramp. I’m not sure what was happening in the ramp, but a bunch of people were hanging out in the outdoor spaces leading to the ramp. We kept walking, thinking it was unusual for all these folks to just be hanging out, until a ranger told us we needed to wait there. We never found out what had happened but eventually, they let us all go to our cars. We returned to our campsite just down the road, tossed all of our stuff inside the tent, and got ready for bed. We had a great day being South Dakota tourists!
Be sure to subscribe to find out what happens on the rest of this road trip as we make our way to Colorado.