Right now I am sitting in a Super 8 in Rapid City, South Dakota, seeing through on a childhood dream to visit Mount Rushmore. Hooray! In a couple of hours, my best buddy Ted Fioraliso will be flying in with his parents and brother, Nick, to start a cross country trip that will take them all the way to Salt Lake City. I decided to crash their family vacation by driving a rental car down here from Michigan and spending 2 days with them, seeing the sites. The ride was pretty bananas. I left Thursday night at 7pm and arrived Friday at 9pm, gaining 2 hours as I switched time zones. So that means that I drove about a thousand miles over the course of a day. I'm pretty exhausted. During one nap break, I fell asleep in the back seat and woke up to find that I had left the lights on and drained the car battery. Luckily a gentleman at the rest stop called AAA for me. And though it's liberating and relaxing to travel for a long stretch by yourself, it would have been nice to share the experience with friends and family. One neat thing that surprised me was the seemingly endless amount of windfarms in Missouri. They come up every few miles on the highway, and there seem to be hundreds of windmills at each site, stretching out deep into the prairie. It was really inspirational to see.
Over five hundred miles of my drive down here were spent on route 90, and if I wasn't itching to get to Rapid City, I would have visited the ghost town, sculpture park, corn palace, and tons of other roadside attractions that I saw along the way. I did allow myself the pleasure of stopping at a little store where you can feed peanuts to prairie dogs. It was awesome! This dude came right up to my hand and ate out of it. So cute.
And I checked out the famous Wall Drug Store, which advertises for hundreds of miles on the highway that you can get coffee for 5 cents, and free ice water. It wasn't all that exciting, just a bunch of stores where you can buy souvenirs, play video games etc. A tourist trap. And the ice water wasn't even that good! The highlight of my drive, by far, were the badlands. Originally French trappers coined the term "bad lands" because the area lacks water and is difficult to traverse. But this natural rock formation, caused by erosion and the accumulation of volcanic ash, is one of the most stunning things I have ever seen. My photos definitely don't do it justice, and unfortunately my camera died halfway through the national park, so I couldn't even photograph some of the more beautiful scenes.
And I checked out the famous Wall Drug Store, which advertises for hundreds of miles on the highway that you can get coffee for 5 cents, and free ice water. It wasn't all that exciting, just a bunch of stores where you can buy souvenirs, play video games etc. A tourist trap. And the ice water wasn't even that good! The highlight of my drive, by far, were the badlands. Originally French trappers coined the term "bad lands" because the area lacks water and is difficult to traverse. But this natural rock formation, caused by erosion and the accumulation of volcanic ash, is one of the most stunning things I have ever seen. My photos definitely don't do it justice, and unfortunately my camera died halfway through the national park, so I couldn't even photograph some of the more beautiful scenes.
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