Mirages, Monsters and Dairy Queen

July 6^th

Today we saw Midwestern, small-town America. Leaving our beautiful state park in Bruce, SD, we headed for the small town of De Smet (pronounced Dee Smet –rhymes with bet). Licia will fill you in on the details of the Laura Ingalls Wilder stops and the Native American side trip.

My comments tonight are that we are now 2500 miles into the trip and the last three days have been long straight roads which, like a “connect the dots” puzzle, connect these small towns every 8, 10 or 12 miles. Each town has a grain elevator which sits on railroad tracks which run parallel to the road, and every single town has a Dairy Queen; no Starbucks, no Wendy’s, very few McD’s BUT THEY ALL HAVE A DAIRY QUEEN.  

The roads between the towns are good cement 2-lane roads that occasionally become 4-lane about a half mile prior to the town and stay that way until the same distance out of town.  The record heat we are experiencing causes the largest water mirages, I have ever seen on these straight roads. Sometimes they are a half-mile in length or longer. The other exciting thing about these 2-lane roads is that the monster pieces of farm equipment use them just like the cars do. You can hit a good 60 MPH on these roads and it gets a bit scary when a John Deere 3 stories tall, with tires that would flatten most compact cars comes at you. There is room for us to pass on the road but just barely. (see photo)

Here’s Licia to carry on.

Hi all!  To follow up on Pete’s comments about our drive, I feel like I am in the middle of the song America The Beautiful.  The skies are incredibly spacious, the amber grain does really wave in the breeze (if there is one-not in the heat) and we are coming to the purple mountain majesty.  The land is so flat it meets the skyline and is dotted with the rolls of hay.  After a full day we wonder how lonely the people must be living here with no one else around for miles.  We decided that Pete wouldn’t make it on the plains without being able to have a conversation with someone!

Our last Laura Ingalls Wilder site was the icing on the cake!  There are several houses in De Smet that are the original with artifacts from the Ingalls. (note: photography is not allowed in any of the Ingalls Wilder buildings thus no photos here)  One dresser that Pa Ingalls made has the same hand pulls on it that the dresser from my mother’s dining room has!  We went to the houses with a tour guide that made the family come alive.  I’m ready to read the books again now that I’ve seen some of the places and have a better understanding of their lives.  I do love American history!  Maybe I missed my calling and should have been a history teacher.

 

Our other stop today took a look at the Native American culture.  We went to the Lakota Sioux Culture Center and Museum.  There was a very informative video on the history of the Plains People and their relationship with the buffalo.  Many artifacts to look at as well as life size dioramas.  Hopefully we will see some real buffalo when we go to the Bad Lands National Park tomorrow.

 

Our campsite tonight is in downtown Wall, SD two blocks from the famous Wall Drug Store.  That is on our agenda for tomorrow morning.  We are packed in, one right after another.  This is a big difference from the beautiful site at the State Park last night but Pete and I don’t mind because tonight it is cool.  For the first time in days we will not have to have the air conditioning on all night.