Mile 1,582
Wall, SD
Wall Drug and the Badlands
Day four began bright and early at 6:30. After a continental breakfast at the Days Inn, Wall, SD, we trotted on over to the famous Wall drug. What a cool store!
A tourist trap perhaps, yes, but also full of good stuff as well. They really do sell coffee for 5 cents as the signs on I-90 advertised…and not bad coffee either. I bought a XXXX Stetson cowboy hat. Apparently, the more Xs, the higher the quality. It was a great fit, but didn’t quite go with my Keen shoes, hiking pants, and t-shirt.
After Wall drug, we headed south out of town on SD Rt. 240 into Badlands Nat’l Park. This landscape, sacred to the Lakota people, is yet another area of the west eroded away by time. Different layers of sedimentary rock are exposed in stripes on the bluffs, leaving clues to the area’s history. The badlands are also home to numerous fossils, including sea creatures from when the area was underwater, as well as sheep and pig-like animals from shortly thereafter in time.
Mile 1,905
Minnesota
The Endless Highway
After the Badlands, we hopped onto I-90 to experience the Eisenhower Highway System. Oh my God…can you say long, flat, and mildly interesting? We were definitely spoiled from the great views of the past few days and had to fight fatigue and the hypnotic centerline of the highway as we drove due east toward Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The drive was stale, but still interesting since this was all new road for us. We crossed the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and crossed into the Central time zone all in one day. Southern Minnesota is great farm country. There are very calming rolling hills and farms that put you at ease as you drive on by. Not much traffic at all.
We listened to a “book on tape” for most of the drive – Steven Colbert's “I Am America and So Can You.”
Oh, one more thing. Happy Earth Day. Apparently we are terrible, because this is the longest driving day of our six day trip and it will be the largest “carbon footprint” that we will make all week. Oh well.
Photos
Photos Anyone?
There are 22 boring photos on the Day Four photo page.
Route
734 Miles