Wall Drug

When I was driving across the country this past summer, one of my favorite parts of the trip was coming across the most random sites and towns along the way. I had planned out all of the major things I wanted to see, but it was the unexpected stops along the way that really made the drive so special. When I started driving through South Dakota with my best friend, our expectations were pretty low...what was there in South Dakota? It did not take long before all of these billboards started appearing. They were all billboards for "Wall Drug" yet each billboard was advertising a completely different product from the others--not to mention all of the billboards looked incredibly out of date. One billboard would be for dinosaur figurines, another would be for fine china, and then another would be for bakery goods. These billboards were everywhere along I-90! And they were all only a few miles apart.
Seeing the billboards became incredibly entertaining. With each billboard offering a new product, we became filled with anticipation just wondering what Wall Drug actually was. I assumed it was some sort of chain throughout South Dakota that was some sort of general store (hence the great assortment). I was surprised, however, once we arrived to find that Wall Drug was not a chain, it was one store in Wall, SD. As we entered the town, a huge sign read "Welcome to Wall. Home of Wall Drug." This store essentially was the town. It is a huge store comprise of several different categories or stores with all sorts of goodies. It looks like it is out of a western with all of the cowboy gear and swinging doors.
It turns out, the founders of the store had opened the store simply as a pharmacy, but when business was slow, they decided to cater to all those driving by, by offering them what they may have wanted...cold water in the hot summer! Their business started growing and they began incorporating more aspects to the store to make Wall Drug a fun stop across South Dakota.
Even though I was only there for about an hour, it was really neat to experience Wall Drug. One definitely gets the sense of pride in this town for their Drug Store.

The Corn Palace

Have you ever wondered what kind of things you would come across if you were set out on a road trip across the country? When I started driving across the country with my dad, one of the things I was most excited about was getting to see all the small towns and what they had to offer. One of the fun discoveries along the road was in Mitchell, South Dakota: The Corn Palace. Yes, it is what it sounds like, a “palace” made out of corn. I don’t know how excited I would have been to come across such a wonder had it been any ordinary day. But something about being in the car for hours on end makes things like The Corn Palace absolutely fabulous. I guess that is one of the beauties of a road trip: appreciating the [smaller and not nearly as well known] wonders of the world.

Originally known as “The Corn Belt Exposition,” The Corn Palace was established in 1892. It served as a place for inhabitants of South Dakota to display their harvesting food and demonstrate the fertility South Dakota soil.