Like a Jack Kerouac Novel, But With Less Hitch Hiking

Day One:
Ames to Summerset, SD (and also Deadwood, SD)

Clearly I'm succeeding at using this as a food blog, so for the next few days, I'm turning it into a travel blog.

About a year ago, I experienced my first national park when I took Amtrak to Glacier National Park in Montana for a family wedding. After that amazing experience, I gave myself a new goal: visit at least one national park each year until I finish the list, am no longer able to travel, or Trump turns them all into casinos. Whichever comes first. (I might have just been put on a list...)

 I discovered this really cool thing  called Vacation Races, which runs half marathons in national parks and I was all...running and travel combined? Count. Me. In. In my research, I discovered the Yellowstone Half Marathon. Check! Nine months ago I signed up and planned a vacation around it. Then this fall, we found out that the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Campaign conference was in Denver the following week, so....Double Check! Let's throw in the Grand Tetons and Denver as well. So I booked hotels, started researching a lot, and then..

...my body decided it was going to be a punk. I was told by my sister that my body would not start falling apart until I turned 40, but this spring, my hip decided to punk out on me. I have been on doctor's orders not to run since Easter and I have a hip full of steroids right now to get through the hiking, but, no half marathon. Whatever, vacation is still happening and now I have an extra morning of hiking in Yellowstone.

I love planning vacations almost as much as I love taking vacations, so I do have a binder full of trails, things to see, and rental agreements as well as a guide book, but I'm also a fan of 'that looks weird, we have to stop'.

And so, I give you....

Day One: The Black Hills are gorgeous, dead horse exhibits, poisonous snakes,  shoot-outs, and orange cones

IOWA

Iowa north on I-35 is boring.


MINNESOTA

Minnesota west on I-90 looks like Iowa


SOUTH DAKOTA

1. Orange Cones

So much construction on I-90 in Minnesota and South Dakota. And why the miles of one lane with absolutely no construction happening?

2. 80 mph

This is awesome and Iowa really needs to step it up and change the speed limit to 80.

3. 1880s Cowboy Town (exit 390)

OK, so in my research, I discovered there is this super creepy tourist trap just west of Sioux Falls called the 1880s Cowboy Town. It was built in the 1970s and according to pictures online and other commentators, it hasn't really changed since then. It's full of robot mannequins, some of which still work, that share history of South Dakota. It sounds like the creepy bears at Adventureland only so much better/terrifying and I was SUPER EXCITED to stop there. And I pulled in and it was CLOSED. There were two gas pumps there and another couple were there and also seemed disappointed that it was closed, but probably not in the 'this is going to be so awesome/creepy that I definitely will have weird dreams tonight' way that I was. Also, I was promised live buffalo at this site and I didn't get to see any.

Denied amazingness by the fence

4. Corn Palace (Mitchell)


This was...exactly what they advertise. The world's only corn palace. I don't know why, but I was expecting individual kernels creating mosaics on the exterior walls. I was definitely more excited about the corn sculpture outside than the building. I did buy a super weird shot class with an ear of corn named Cornelius (or it's one of those things that has your name on it and I just picked the wrong one). But it's still in the car so I don't have a picture of it. Corn Palace-can check it off the list.






5. Chamberlain Rest Stop

This came up in my research as a cool Lewis and Clark Museum too, so I stopped here to have lunch and walk around a bit. There is a super cool statue of Sacajawea there and it's on the Missouri River. I believe it's where they camped for awhile, but I didn't read the signs very closely. I did go exploring down a walking trail and did not get eaten by a poisonous snake, so I'm viewing this as a success.

The GOAT 

6. 1880s Town

This was everything I never knew I always wanted. I saw signs for it, and since the first one was a bust, I thought, why not? Then I saw a road sign advertising that it had memorabilia from the movie Dances With Wolves, so...game over. I had to stop. You can see it as you come over a hill, and if I had been on the fence about stopping, seeing it would have sealed the deal. You walk in and pay $10 to a very energetic man wearing a cowboy hat. He asked if I qualified for the teen cost....and I don't know if he was being kind or kind of blind, but I thought hard for a second...but no, I can't pull off 17 anymore. You walk into this building which is basically the holding place for many dead South Dakotan's stuff, I'm pretty sure. There were also super weird/creepy mannequins. Then you go upstairs to the Dances With Wolves exhibit. It includes a ton of pictures from filming, the soddy (or a replica of the soddy) that Kevin Costner lives in before he gets sick and taken in by the Lakota? It's been a really long time since I've seen the movie. It also had a teepee with a creepy mannequin and fake fire, and a dead horse exhibit. Yes. A dead horse exhibit.

Then you go outside to a very adorable/run down 1880s town. It's kind of like the town at Living History Farms if it had absolutely no funding, maintenance staff, and no docents. More creepy mannequins!  I did snap a gorgeous shot out the back of one of the barns though.

Also, they had the theme from Dancing With Wolves playing over the loudspeaker in the town on repeat. It was my favorite stop of the day until I got to Deadwood.

I also think I should clarify that the dead horse exhibit was a plastic horse, not a formerly live horse.

7. Wall Drug


The signs start the minute you hit South Dakota, so of course you have to stop. So I did. I don't get it. It's a mall? I heard a lot of accents and languages being spoken while walking around, so I wasn't the only one who fell for the marketing campaign.

8. Deadwood

I got to my hotel around 4pm, and I had time to do more exploring, so I headed to Deadwood to walk around and see if Timothy Olyphant was walking around (if you don't get that reference, we might not be friends). First: the Black Hills are gorgeous! I drove down 14A and the curves are fierce but the view is amazing. I got to Deadwood and just parked in a public lot and walked up to Main Street. First thing I spotted was a wine tasting, so of course I stopped. Guess what? South Dakota wine is about as good as Iowa wine, but I got four tastes for $5 and I'd been driving all day.

I walked up the street and a bunch of people were sitting on the curb and there were costumed performers milling about and rule number one of life is if you see costumed performers, you have to stop because it will probably be awesome. I was in time for the 6pm shoot-out! The guns were loud, the acting was exactly what you'd expect, and I loved it all!

Belle Joli, which I feel was also the name of a whorehouse on Deadwood. Classic.

Dinner on a rooftop, and a leisurely walk back to my car equaled a nice way to end Day One.

Day Two will be the Black Hills, Custer State Park, Mt. Rushmore and whatever I run into between here and Wyoming.