Originally Posted September 6, 2004 by Chad
Cassie, Jacklyn, and Megan were the first to welcome us into Rapid City. They didn’t know where Seattle was but they saw that we were thirsty so they sold us some lemonade anyway. I hope they’ve found it on a map by now. Have you girls?
Ben and Shannon were classmates of mine at the University of Washington. They got married in July and are living the American dream in Rapid City. Ben took us all to the Dakota Thunder air show where he is stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base. The Thunderbirds were there but they didn’t perform because of the nasty weather. I still had fun watching the other spectators and admiring the cockpits of enormous bombers. I saw a kid almost fall through a hole in the floor of one plane. Can you imagine the amount of paperwork that would have caused? I saw Elvis there too. He was hiding out by the Honey Buckets, where people are in too much of a hurry to notice him. I didn’t know he was interested in America’s military might.
Our next stop was Badlands National Park, our last national park for a long time. Ben rode with us for 70 miles while Shannon followed behind in a car loaded with watermelon and other goodies. We all endured a windy night of camping in the park that night. The next day we drove the scenic loop through the park and up into the town of Wall, where we stopped at the drug store.
DO NOT GO TO WALL DRUG, unless you like giant gift shops with overpriced knickknacks and overworked employees from Eastern Europe. I was surprised to learn that they actually do employ 2 pharmacists among all that junk, but I never saw the pharmacy. The most amazing thing I saw there was a size 6XL T-shirt. They had a whole rack of these:
It was hard to leave all the excitement of Rapid City behind, but we had to keep moving east. We’re in Winner, SD now and are headed for Sioux City, Iowa tomorrow.
Original Comments: Rapid City, SD
I saw Elvis in Philadelphia on the 24th of August. I wasn't surprised that he would hang out in the "City of Brotherly Love", but I'm shocked that he was in scenic South Dakota a couple weeks later. My recollection is that he did serve in the military. You, of course, are too young to know about that. If you took the time to watch (and suffer through) his movies, you would find he was a "big" fan of military might. Or am I getting him confused with John Wayne?
Now you get to glide through the cornfields of the Midwest. May the wind be at your back.
Doc
Posted by Doc at September 9, 2004 08:04 AM