The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Things We do in South Dakota, part 1

Sock Monkey was so impressed with Dignity

Wow! Two months since I last wrote. I've been thinking about needing to do another post soon, but you know how it goes. One thing after another after another, and next a whole season is gone.

Part of what I did in the fall was to travel, and that's what I plan to write about. I have several posts in my my mind, but let's start with this one which involves two different trips, with stop-offs in places well known in South Dakota.

CROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI AT CHAMBERLAIN

You can find Lead in the middle on the far left side 

You've probably seen a map of SoDak. It's a rather large rectangle with a big river dividing it in two on the diagonal. That's the Missouri River, the largets tributary to the Mississippi, made famous by Lewis and Clark and all that followed. Now the upper Missouri is all dammed with a series of reservoir lakes that control flooding (most years .. didn't work so well in 2011), provide drinking & irrigation water and recreation. Up here there is no commercial barge traffic, but I think there may be some on the lower river as it approaches the confluence with the Mississippi in Missouri near St. Louis. 

Missouri River overlook at the east side visitors center

The Missouri divides SoDak into what we call "East River" and "West River." I live west river. Sioux Falls, our largest city, is far east river. Rapid City, the second largest city near me, is far west river. You can easily tel the difference in the land as your cross the river at Chamberlain.

East River is characterized as being flat, flat, flat , flat. They grow corn and soybeans out there and keep dairy cows. The land looks a heck of a lot like its neighbors Iowa and Minnesota. Their teams come from the Twin Cities, the Vikings, the Twins, the Timberwolves and the Wild (what? well, you know hockey people are a bit strange.) . 

Lots of trees in the Black Hills, but not so many the rest of west river

West River looks more like Wyoming. IT"S NOT FLAT!!!!! We have the Badlands and the Black Hills out here, and the land is full of rolling hills with other features like buttes and mesas and even canyons. But it's dry. Almost a true desert. The High Plains, they call it. Here we have beef cattle and bison and use irrigation to grow hay, sunflowers, a little corn, rapeseed, and winter wheat. "Spreads" or homesteads or ranches or "places" are large because they need to be with so little water. Here our teams come from Denver - The Broncos, the Rockies, the Nuggets, the Avalanche. 

It's 400 miles  & a bit west-east in I-90. The Missouri crossing is around halfway from either direction, and so a lot of people stop there for a rest, food, gas. The town of Chamberlain is on the east side, but a lot of people just call the general area Chamberlain. 

Chamberlain houses the South Dakota Hall of Fame, the Akta Lakota Museum, and has a lot of visitors who like to relax and use Lake Francis Case for boating, fishing, etc. But these things are not why we all stop here on our cross state travels. 

Light shines through the star quilt that Dignity wears

No, we go to see the new Dignity statue at the highway visitors center on the east bank. It's outside the excellent Lewis and Clark educational center, and it's fabulous. I have wanted to visit the statue since it was dedicated last year. It's worth a trip just to see it. 

And once we have had our fill of art and culture we (or before, depending on your direction of travel) we decamp to the west side of the river, technically not Chamberlain but Oacoma, to eat, drink, get gas and shop at Al's Oasis.

You can see the sign for miles

Everybody eats at Al's Oasis. They have a sit down restaurant with table service, not fast food. I'm going to call it "midwestern food" with a daily special and PIE. They make their own PIE. Several kinds. When you go there you must save room for PIE. And maybe take a piece with you. 

And then if you want you can visit the stores. Now, Al's is a bit unusual because one of their stores is actually the full service grocery store used by the locals for their ordinary food shopping. Technically it's not part of Al's operation, but it's right there under the same roof. So if you need some provisions (and you might if you are staying overnight at one of the lake resorts) or just want some snacks for the road, you can stock up. 

Al's has a very nice gift shop with the usual stuff, western style things, jewelry, typical souvenir stuff, housewares gifts, toys and kid stuff. Their stock is all pretty high quality and worth browsing. But they also have a clothing store that has really good quality things for ordinary people. Well, not all people. You won't find the latest throw away fashion there, and women's clothing predominates. The women's clothing appeals to what I will call midwestern women of a certain age. It's what the local ladies buy. What my mom used to buy. What I buy now. I was happy browsing there. 

WALL DRUG IN WALL 

And 5 cents coffee too. But know that it's midwestern cafe coffee,
the kind you can drink by the gallon and not hardly notice.

Wall SD is at I-90 mile marker 109-10 (with 0 being the western border with Wyoming.) It's not quite an hour away from Rapid City. Oacoma is at mile marker 260, so once you have eaten lunch at Al's, when you get to Wall, it's time to get out of the car again. Or if you are heading east, it's time to get out of the car at Wall as you supply yourself and your car for the long way ahead. Wall is the home of the (in)famous Wall Drug.

The origin legend is about putting up signs on the highway offering travelers "free ice water". You can read all about that all over the place, and still get that free ice water, as much as you want (in little yellow paper cups ....would be hard to fill up a big water carrier of some kind.) 

They are also famous for giving out free bumper stickers and signs, and they encourage people to put up their signs all over the world. The signs all say "____ miles to Wall Drug." You're supposed to fill in the number of miles at wherever you put up the sign. I saw one outside Anchorage Alaska once. Maybe you have seen one somewhere near where you live. 

And Wall Drug itself puts up highway billboards in all kinds of crazy places, many quite far away in other states. When you see the signs you tend to say "What????" but the point is that you remember seeing the signs, and then when you are driving cross country of I-90, well, what do you know? There it is! Let's stop and check it out.

It was and still is a drug store. They have an operating pharmacy in one of their shops and general over the counter drug store stuff in another. But over the years the place has morphed to so much more.

Wal Drug has a large western art collection throughout the large dining rooms.

A lot of people think Wall Drug is just one big tourist trap. And it certainly is that in spades.  Let me tell you a little secret. Local SoDak people stop, shop and eat at Wall Drug just as much as tourists and tourist buses do. I last ate there at noon on a Sunday, and it was clear to me that the other diners were mostly local families or groups of elder folk having their Sunday dinner there too. 

Sock Monkey enjoys a hearty midwestern Sunday dinner as much as anyone.

The daily special was ham and scalloped potato casserole with green beans, a roll and fruit. Hard to get more midwestern than that. Coffee is just 5 cents a cup, but it's free for people like veterans. I took advantage of my veterans benefit. I also got my free donut which I took home and had for breakfast the next day. And I saved room for PIE for desert.

Wal Drug is large enough so that a map can be needed.

In the summer, a large section is open in back that takes up a whole city block. It's for mostly children's entertainment. That's where you will find an huge anamatron T-Rex that comes to life with red glowing eyes as it makes a lot of roaring noise and blows smoke all over the place. I didn't get to see that this time because it was closed for the season, but, as you can tell, I have visited it before.

There stil is a drug store at Wall Drug. You can get your prescriptions filled here.

Wall Drug also has good quality small shops. Their western bookshop is excellent as is the Black Hills jewelry store. They have local art, a good western boot shop and a small shop with western wear of various kinds. And of course, all the tourist whatever you will ever want. 

The food is much, much better at Al's Oasis. The shopping and entertainment is more varied at Wall Drug. Go ahead and stop at both. It's what we who live here do. And always get your PIE.