The Badlands, Wall Drug and Wounded Knee

On Saturday we drove from Mitchell, SD to Interior, SD which is in the Badlands of South Dakota. Once you look at the scenery here you can understand why someone would call it the Badlands, especially if they were riding horses.  It would be impossible to cross this area on horses without going around the rock formation areas.  We are staying at an rv park that is located just outside the 244,000 acre Badlands National Park.  In addition to the scenery here this area is known for being one of the richest fossil beds in the world.  Where you don't see the rock formations you see prairie grass.  On our way to Wall Drug we saw a group of big horn sheep and several prairie dogs.  We are staying here two nights.  The rv park we are staying in is one of the few areas in the badlands were we have seen trees.  Our site has trees on both sides giving us a little shade.

Wall Drug is said to be America's favorite roadside attraction.  Over one million people stop there each year.  Wall Drug advertises primarily by bill board on route 90 starting some 600 miles away from the store.  They pay around $400,000 per year on bill board advertising.  During the Vietnam War there were 127 Wall Drug signs in South Vietnam.  They give away free ice water and sell coffee for 5 cents. The drug store is 76,000 square feet and has a restaurant that seats 506 people.  It all started in 1931 when Dorothy and Ted Hustead purchased a drug store that originally opened in 1909 in the town of Wall, SD which had a population of 326 people.  During this time the country was in the depression due to the stock market crash of 1929. They told themselves they would give it five years to get the business up and running well.  Toward the end of the five years the business was still going bad when Dorothy told Ted she was going to take a nap since he didn't need her to help him that afternoon in the store.  A few minutes later she came back up front from the apartment and Ted ask why she came back so soon?  She said she couldn't sleep due to all of the racket the cars were making on the highway.  She then told Ted about her idea of putting up signs offering free ice water in an effort to attract customers to their failing store.  Ted put the signs up and from that day forward the business has been thriving.  In 1981 they gave away over 20,000 glasses of ice water in one day. Today, during the busy season of the summer, about 20,000 people visit Wall Drug in a single day. They have annual sales of $5.5 million.

The Wounded Knee massacre occurred on December 29, 1890.  Wounded Knee, SD is located about 60 miles from where we are staying in the Badlands so we drove over to the site today.  The massacre involved the 7th Calvary who were moving the Lakota Indians five miles across the South Dakota prairie.  When they arrived at Wounded Knee they were in the process of disarming the Indians and the story goes one deaf Indian resisted giving up his rifle since he paid a lot for it.  A shot was fired and then the cavalry opened fire with four Hotchkiss Mountain guns that were mounted on the surrounding hills.  When the shooting stopped over 200 Indian men, women, and children were dead as well as 25 of the cavalry soldiers.   The actual burial and battle site were not much to look at in the way most historic landmarks are kept up.  In fact, the Indians here remind you of the panhandlers in Chicago.  As soon as you get out of your car the Indians descend trying to sell you dream catchers or just asking for money.  All of the houses in this vast area which is a part of the reservation are mostly mobile homes and are all junky looking. I found out the police are out in force on the reservation.  I was pulled over for doing 76 in a 65 by an oncoming reservation policeman.  I think he saw that I didn't have a South Dakota license plate on the front of our car but he just gave me a warning which was good. He asked me how fast I was going and I said around 70 or so.  I told him I knew I was going over the speed limit.  Five minutes later we came up on another speed trap where a policeman was waiting.on a stretch of road that had a posted speed limit of 35 mph.   I guess this was because there were two houses on one side of the highway.   Luckily I was going just over the speed limit. This highway was out in the middle of no where.  The only thing you could ever hit is the occasional oncoming car since there was nothing around but prairie grass 99% of the time. I haven't had a ticket of any kind in probably 20 years or more and could of had two in a span of five minutes on the Lakota Reservation..

Below are some pictures from the last couple of days.

These were taken on our trip between Mitchell and the Badlands

This is a field of sorghum that we saw a lot of.  Going through a little rain at this point.

This is a field of sun flowers that we also saw several fields of

The Badlands

Wall Drug in Wall South Dakota

The store takes up three fourths of the block

These are from our Wounded Knee visit

 This is the post office in Wounded Knee.  The ruts in the drive were so bad I thought I was going to tear something up on the bottom of the car.

 This is one of the better houses we saw on the reservation.  I am not sure what these people do to make a living.  You are probably close to 100 miles out in the middle of no where.  The town there consisted of one little grocery store and the post office.  I didn't even see a gas station.

These were taken at an Indian dance ceremony we attended at the rv park

Mitchell, South Dakota

Mitchell, South Dakota is the home of the one and only Corn Palace which is a popular site on route 90 heading west.  You can see the entire place in about five minutes.  Last year they changed the building that used to be entirely covered in ears of corn, from what I remember, to now only having murals made of corn.  The major lost his job over the renovation according to the locals,

We read reviews of a great Chinese restaurant in Mitchell so we gave it a try last night.  It sucked, should have known you couldn't get good Chinese food in the middle of South Dakota.

On Friday we went to the South Dakota State Fair which is located in Huron, SD about 60 miles north of Mitchell. We had a good time at the fair saw all of the animals being displayed by the 4h'rs and ate some awesome fair food.  I haven't had a corn dog in a long time until today.  This part of South Dakota looks a lot like Indiana.  You see plenty of corn fields and soy beans but they don't seem to be as high as what is grown in Indiana.  The land is mainly flat and very sparsely populated and very few roads.  I got off the main highway coming south from Huron on our way back to Mitchell and went 12 miles before coming to another paved intersecting road.

We did this trip when the boys were young but I don't have many pictures of that trip,  Here is one I found in front of Mt Rushmore where we will be in a few days.  I think they were around 10 and 12 years old here but I am not positive.

Here are some pictures of our visit this year to Mitchell and the SD State Fair.

 The corn palace has hosted many entertainers in this gym over the years

 

The state fair in SD is so big that all of the schools let kids out of school on Friday and Monday the week of the fair and some even include Thursday.  I guess because so many participate in 4H.

We need one of these holding contraptions so we can do our dogs. Yea right.  I don't think were going there again,

On sale for $189,000

 What we really came for

The bugs which I believe were grass hoppers are thick around here.  This happened going to Huron and back

Rochester, Minnesota Home of the Mayo Clinic

We have been here since yesterday afternoon and probably didn't need to spend two nights here.  As my friend Jim told me there is not much to see in Rochester, MN.

Rochester has a population of 106,000 people and pretty much everything you see around town has the Mayo Clinic name on it which is what Rochester is known for worldwide.  In fact,  you see the diversity of people in the town just by visiting the local grocery store or Walmart.  You see a lot of people wearing their Arab apparel etc.  In speaking to our neighbors at the rv park, who are here from Tulsa, OK so the wife can be treated at Mayo, the husband said you meet people from all over the world when at the hospital.  Today while visiting the Plummer house and gardens, which was built by one of the original founders of the Mayo clinic, along with the two Mayo brothers and others, the caretaker told us one of the largest hotel/condos downtown was built by people from Dubai.

Today we went to three places that were listed on the things to see in Rochester that were in addition to the Mayo Clinic.  One place was one of the Mayo brothers mansion but we couldn't actually see it because it is closed to the public unless you have an appointment.  The next place was the Plummer house who was one of the original founders of the Mayo Clinic.  Dr Plummer is known for integrating medical records by the patients name in a central location rather than each doctor keeping their own patient records. The last place we visited was Assisi Heights which is a convent for the Sisters of Saint Francis.  Like I said not much to see in Rochester.

Mayo Clinic facts.

Founded September 30, 1889

The Mayo clinic was born out of a tornado in 1883 that destroyed much of Rochester at the urging of the sisters of Saint Francis, The convent we visited this morning called Assisi Heights was originally built for the sisters of Saint Francis .  The Mayo brothers started St Mary's hospital after the sisters of Saint Francis raised the money.  Later they opened the Mayo Clinic after seven other individuals joined them..

It is in the nonprofit community health system category

1.3 Million people annually visit the clinic for treatment from all 50 states and 143 countries.

Staff physicians and scientists 4,200
Residents, Fellows, and others 2,400
Allied health staff 52,900 I believe these people are all over the world but not sure.
Total staff 59,500

Total patients 1,317,900
Hospital Admissions 128,000
Hospital days of patient care 612,000

Assets 6.974 billion (2010)
Revenue 3.137 billion (2010)

Every building you see downtown is either a Mayo Clinic building or a hotel for people visiting the Mayo Clinic.

Here are some pictures of Rochester

Madison, Wisconsin and the three C's

Today we visited Madison, Wisconsin for a while in the afternoon.  We needed to get a new water filter for the motorhome and pick up a few groceries so we thought we would see some of Madison while picking these items up.  In looking on the internet to see what sites Madison has that are interesting it seemed the answers centered around the Wisconsin Badger football field called Camp Randall Stadium, Cheese Curds, and the Capitol Building.  Camp Randall is the home of the of the  Wisconsin Badgers football team and was built originally in 1895 and as a complete stadium in 1917.  The stadium today holds over 80,000 fans.  The thing I find very nice about Wisconsin University is the fact that it is located in downtown Madison.  This seems to make the entire city more vibrant since you see young people walking and biking everywhere carrying books and back packs.  In the very heart of downtown is the next place we wanted to see and that was the Wisconsin State Capital building. It resembles the capital building in Washington, DC.  These first two sites we just drove around them and didn't feel like taking any kind of tours,  The last thing we wanted to find in Madison were some good cheese curds.  Madison is known for it's great pub food and cheese curds is one of those foods that are served in Wisconsin restaurants, pubs, taverns, and bars. I did a little research before going into town since we only had so much time and found that one of the best places to go for cheese curds, and many other things, was Mickey's Tavern.  In a recent contest they recently were voted to have the best sandwich and the best Bloody Mary.  We started out with a Bloody Mary and an order of cheese curds.  In my opinion, cheese curds are just like mozzarella sticks but only in a different shape. These cheese curds were about the size of green olives and were breaded and deep fried.  The flavor was just like mozzarella sticks.  The Bloody Mary was awesome and came with a beer chaser.  In addition to the beer chaser the garnishes on the Bloody Mary included a pickled brussel sprout, a small pickled onion, a dill pickle, an olive, and a hot pepper.  It was like you were eating a salad with your drink but I can understand why this drink won the contest.  It was the best I have ever had just barely beating out the Bloody Mary at the Harley Davidson Museum which isn't that far from here.

Tomorrow we are off to Rochester, MN to see where the famous Mayo Clinic is located.  It will be a very easy day since it is only around three hours from Madison.

Below are a few pictures taken today.  The downtown sites were hard to get since things are so confined but here you go.

The blog is not letting any pictures to be downloaded.  I will try again tomorrow.

What do you know I loaded Google Chrome and the Blogger lets me upload pictures where it wouldn't let me do that with Internet Explorer.  Might be that the Blogger is a Google product.

This is our bartender/waitress and her 23 years worth of tats.  Those aren't pants those are all tattoos except for the short skirt she has on.











$67 worth of tolls and two hours of bumper to bumper traffic and were through Chicago

We left Warsaw today at around 8:00 am thinking if it worked going through Atlanta on Sunday it should work going through Chicago. Wrong, it didn't work.   I have never gone through Chicago when we didn't get stuck in traffic.  I used to go there for work to visit suppliers riding with others who have driven through Chicago many many times and the traffic always sucked.   I feel if you pay $67 in tolls to get across Chicago it should be on highways where you aren't moving at a snails pace and the roads aren't so bumpy they rattle your back fillings for hours.  Oh well were through it now and I bet that will be the worst traffic we experience in our entire trip.  Couldn't get much worse.  I didn't take any pictures today but just imagine lines and lines of cars five or six lanes across for miles and miles. The GPS had us stay on 90 going through downtown but personally I don't think it matters what road you take.  What I would like to know is what do they do with all of the tolls they collect in this town.  I know there is corruption in Chicago but some of the money should be going into improving road conditions so this doesn't happen.


We pulled into DeForest, WI at around 2:30 in the afternoon and that was after taking an hour nap at a rest stop in southern Wisconsin.  DeForest is just north of Madison, WI.  This was TJ's first experience of traveling in the motorhome and he did great.  The rv park we are staying at is very nice and we plan on seeing some of Madison tomorrow.  I will start taking some pictures to spice up the blog a little since I understand the pictures make it much more interesting.

Heading West for a month long trip

This Sunday we are planning to start our trip west.  Our first night we plan on staying in Madison, WI.  Our plan is to take it slow and just have a nice relaxing trip.  We'll stay at each stop as long as  that location has things to do and see that appeal to us. We would like to make it to Vancouver, BC but who knows with all the wild fires going on out west.  We took this trip pulling a pop up camper with the boys when they were young.  We have seen most of the major sites along route 90 like Wall Drugs, The Badlands, The Corn Palace, Devils Tower, Mount Rushmore, and Yellowstone National Park.  We will visit most of these again but don't have any set itinerary. 
  






One challenge we will be faced with on this trip is traveling with little TJ who will be about three and one half months old when we leave.  At this point he is around 50% potty trained so he wears piddle pants that we had from our other dogs when they were young.  Since we won't be able to pull over as often as we would like I see diaper changing in our future.  Speaking of TJ, Huli saw some pictures of some Pekingese puppies on the Internet that looked just like TJ.  We think maybe the Amish got some Pekingese mixed in with their Shih Tzu's during the breeding process.  Having pedigree doesn't matter to us other than his papers say his mother and father are both Shih Tzu's. Oh well we think he'll be a great dog once we get him trained and he gets to be a little older. For now though it's him trying to just wear us down.