The Princess And The Frog: Aug 12th-Leave Mitchell, SD drove to Mt. Rushmore KOA in South Dakota

After another wet night, we had a new pile of wet laundry. When I went to take my shower, Fred was awesome! He did the laundry so we could start our 300 mile journey with all dry clothes.

As we were driving I was getting hit with something. I assumed it was rocks from cars. NO! When we stopped for gas in a town that had a population of 26!! Yes, I wrote that correctly, 26 people. The next town has 700, although the gas station owner told me his thinks that's incorrect, there are LESS people in that town. I asked him what was hitting me and he said it is grasshoppers. They are tough little creatures. They hurt when they act like Japanese Kamakazie Pilots when they dive bomb at you at 75mph!

He also informed me that the storm that "tipped" my bike over also blew over three semi's and a few campers. He said the winds were over 80mph. I asked him if this was normal and his response was "yeah, pretty much"

Here they are on Fred's windshield. The one on the left was still alive. Fred picked him off in an attempt to save his life. Awwwww

This has been our view for the last 2 days

Hay fields. I actually saw a tractor rolling the hay bales. That was cool! I had been wondering how it was accomplished and now I know.

More Farms

Cattle in the back

The 98th sign we saw for Wall Drug Store

Next we stopped at Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. They had signs starting at least 300 miles away like the signs leading to South of the Border. We kept seeing them offering "Free Ice Water"

When we finally arrived in Wall, SD we had to stop.

It's not just a small drugstore anymore!

It's a whole strip of tourist attractions

They even have the windows decorated like Macy's does, but this is out west

they have cowboys with Jackalope's. Do you know what a jackalope is?
And the easiest way to catch one?

This first guy to discover a jackalope was deemed crazy. The legend says: When the cowboys would sit around the campfire singing songs, the jackalopes would frequently be heard mimicking them.
The easiest way to catch a jackalope is to put out a flask of whiskey at night. The jackalpe will drink it and be easy to catch because it will be drunk.
Jackalope season is June 31st from midnight to 2am and the only way to get a hunting license to catch them is to have an IQ lower than 72!
I might qualify after this trip AND you might as well after reading this blog.
LOL

The story behind this place was a couple bought a pharmacy in this small town in the middle of nowhere. To attract customers, they put up billboards offering "Free Ice Water" It was so funny to passerby's that it actually worked!

Here is a menu from 1931. Look at the prices!

They had a T-Rex that got hungry every 12 minutes.

CUTE!

We stopped in and got a cup of "Free Ice Water"

This is a picture of Fred before he drank it.

The water was disgusting and not very icy! LOL

This is inside the pharmacy, Fred got a cup of coffee for $0.05 and one of their famous doughnuts

I opted for ice cream

Fred's doughnut, my pumpkin spice ice cream and i couldn't resist the homemade chocolate toffee cookie

I bought a bag of popcorn kernels grown from the fertile, sandy loam long the Missouri River

Here I am with all my goodies: popcorn kernels, a popcorn cobb, buffaloberry jelly, huckelberry coffe and I'm holding an already half eaten bag of Badlands Huckelberry Chocolate Popcorn. That bag was eaten before we continued on our journey for the day.

We turned down this road to get to the campground and this cow was in the middle of the road. We couldn't go left or right, we had to wait until he decided to move.