Evan: This is a twofer blog entry, since there’s not a whole lot in South Dakota or Wyoming worth talking about, the two states we spent the most time traveling through over the past two days. South Dakota was overwhelmingly empty up until maybe 30 or 40 miles outside of Rapid City. There were a few hills, sometimes, but mostly it was flat. And empty. It’s really weird to see a part of the country that is just so overwhelmingly empty, or so I thought. The only civilization we saw was off the exits of I-90, and even then it was sometimes a hike to get to a gas station—we had to go 5 miles off the road to find a little town with a gas station. One of the few cheerful things along the way was a series of signs for Wall Drug, a quirky little tourist trap that I think Sarah will enjoy talking about.
Sarah: Okay, so I’m obviously easily intrigued by roadside signs, because I wanted to stop at almost every attraction, the magic wonder caves, the reptile exhibits, everything. But after seeing almost a hundred (literally) signs for Wall Drug, we had to stop. And what we found was an old west town that was amazing. It was like a full mall inside a drug store. We got a banana milkshake and a free bumper sticker! It was very very successful. Then we drove the rest of the way to Mount Rushmore. When we finally got our first peek of the Mount, I squealed. I guess I never really thought it was real, until I saw it. We paid for parking, took some touristy photos, and then went back to our hotel. We briefly worked out before we went out for some sushi (in South Dakota.. I know). I’ll let Evan tell you about that.
Evan: Mt. Rushmore was, as Sarah said, just a pure tourist experience. But I’m glad we went. Makes me a good American for the trip. The sushi was fantastic, especially for being in the middle of nowhere. The fish was fresh and the rolls were creative and tasty. An added plus was a super-cute baby that Sarah spent the entire dinner obsessing over. He was, in fairness, really cute. We called it a night and started out at 9 the next morning, perked up with a Starbucks breakfast and ready to take on the trip to Denver.
We were off the interstate for about the first half of the trip. I thought I-90 through South Dakota was empty. Taking Route 18 through South Dakota and Wyoming made that look like midtown Manhattan. We passed one city and two gas stations in about 150 miles. It was rainy and, for the most part, the scenery was uninteresting—lots of hills and brush, but no mountains. And lots and lots of cows. After traveling at high speed over lots of open roads, we finally hit I-25 and lunch.
Sarah: So, we stopped in a town called Glendo, Wyoming for lunch. Um… I felt like I was going to get murdered by cowboys, to put it gently. We walked into a dark bar that advertised it had food, but instead the lady bartending told us she didn’t make lunch, but she could heat us up some Tombstone pizzas… which was a little too weird for us so we had her guide us to a real lunch place, Micke’s. It was pretty standard diner food, and then we went on our way. After stopping for gas and bathroom breaks a few times, we finally made it to Denver, and the weather was beautiful! For the first time in our trip, I felt really warm.
Evan: And Denver looks like a really nice city. Unfortunately, all the sights worth seeing, according to the travel advice website TripAdvisor, were brewery tours. And it’s tough to fit those in when we’re driving all over the place. So we settled down, relaxed for a bit in the hotel, and headed out for some Mexican food. It was actually really tasty—tons of food, not expensive, and a fun place to grab a meal. Tomorrow we’re headed to Cortez, which is down by the Four Corners. We’ll keep you posted.
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