Saturday, September 23, 2006
Wall Drug
For what seemed like hundreds of miles before we got to Rapid City, we saw signs along the road advertising Wall Drug. Shoot! When visiting their website you'll find that they have store signs as far away as Moscow and the South Pole!
Needless to say, by the time we arrived we knew it was one place (besides Mt. Rushmore and the badlands) that had to be added to our must-see list. And since Wall Drug was on the way to visit the badlands, it quickly became our first stop.
Wall Drug has been around since the 1930's. It's claim to fame in the early days was that it offered free ice water to travelers who stopped into the store. This may sound hokey now, but I'm sure in the days before air-conditioned vehicles, this was quite a draw after driving through the badlands.
These days Wall Drug has grown into a huge establishment with what seems like dozens of buildings. The decor is early Americana and the store deals in mainly tourist kitsch. Ok, it's just a big, huge tourist mecca! But it WAS fun and I'm glad we went. I even had some of that free ice water!
While I was there I made friends with an old cowboy. He wasn't real talkative, but he seemed happy enough!
Needless to say, by the time we arrived we knew it was one place (besides Mt. Rushmore and the badlands) that had to be added to our must-see list. And since Wall Drug was on the way to visit the badlands, it quickly became our first stop.
Wall Drug has been around since the 1930's. It's claim to fame in the early days was that it offered free ice water to travelers who stopped into the store. This may sound hokey now, but I'm sure in the days before air-conditioned vehicles, this was quite a draw after driving through the badlands.
These days Wall Drug has grown into a huge establishment with what seems like dozens of buildings. The decor is early Americana and the store deals in mainly tourist kitsch. Ok, it's just a big, huge tourist mecca! But it WAS fun and I'm glad we went. I even had some of that free ice water!
While I was there I made friends with an old cowboy. He wasn't real talkative, but he seemed happy enough!
