After leaving Kansas City we headed northwest en route to Mount Rushmore. When my husband and I compiled our “must see” lists before deciding on our itinerary for the trip, Mount Rushmore came out on top.
We made an overnight stop on our way to Rapid City, South Dakota (our base for visiting Mt Rushmore). It was here that we encountered our only negative accomodation experience of the trip (which was all prebooked, due to there being six of us travelling in peak season). Suffice to say, I stayed awake a lot of the night trying not to touch the doona cover when I rolled over or to think about the grime encrusted, once waterlogged carpet, all the hair in the bathroom and the chicken nuggets mashed into the air conditioner!
There’s a few unusual attractions out in the middle of America which puzzled me when reading up on the area before leaving for the trip. Really, what is a corn palace and what on earth could be something called Wall Drug?
Turns out the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota is really fascinating. 300,000 ears of corn are used each year to create the murals on the outside of the building pictured above. It all began in the late nineteenth century when several cities on the Great Plains constructed crop or grain palaces to promote themselves and their products. The original corn palace in Mitchell was built in 1892 and the one you see today was rebuilt in 1921. It’s currently used as a multi purpose space hosting exhibits, proms, stage shows and basketball games.
Just as we were leaving Mitchell for Rapid City, I looked down and discovered my engagement ring wasn’t on my finger! We immediately turned the car around and I started praying I would find it. I certainly didn’t want to travel halfway around the world, only to leave a very significant item of my personal history in the Corn Palace in Mitchell! God gave me a real peace I would find it. I felt led back to the bathroom where I upended the unemptied paper towel bin to find my ring at the bottom. Half a million people visit here each year and it was well over an hour since I had been in the bathroom. God is so good!
The next place of interest along our route was the Badlands National Park. We didn’t have enough time to stop here, so just took the detour off the highway on the Badlands Loop Road. It’s a really interesting, alien looking landscape which could be the set of a Western movie. We were hoping to see some of the bison that roam the park, but they proved elusive on the day we were visiting.
The very cute and humorous prairie dogs were a big hit with the kids. They can be seen in abundance and there are even places where you can stop and feed them peanuts.
Our last stop for the day was Wall Drug. When I first heard the name, I was really puzzled. What was this place – somewhere you could see drugs stashed in a wall, as some kind of peculiar and offbeat tourist attraction? It turns out that Wall is the name of the town and Drug is short for drug store (what we would call a chemist in Australia). Who would have known? Anyway, Wall Drug came well recommended by the guide books and did not disappoint. It was actually one of my husband’s favourite places on the whole trip. It’s a bizarre collection of outlandish and somewhat tacky, larger than life entertainment as well as a large shopping mall with a western theme. Somehow, it all works to create an enjoyable and fascinating experience. It’s also a good place to buy cowboy boots and other souvenirs.
The story behind Wall Drug is really interesting. It was established in 1931 by a young couple who struggled to get enough business, until they thought of offering free iced water to travellers on their way to the newly opened Mount Rushmore monument. Their business took off from there and is still in the same family today. You can still get free iced water and the coffee is only 5 cents. Billboards advertising Wall Drug have become a bit of an attraction in themselves, as they stretch for at least 1,000 kilometres along the highway leading up to Wall. They can even be found throughout the world, announcing the miles to Wall Drug from famous locations.
Have you come across any unusual tourist attractions in your travels?
Since arriving back home my kids have been inspired to read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. Did you grow up reading the Little House books? Who was your favourite character?
Boy this place was amazing! NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) really got under our skin and we could have parked up and stayed a while. We travelled here from Miami via the swamps and sink holes of Tallahassee (a place which has a pace the Lonely Planet calls “slower than syrup”). We were a little confused and thought this was the place Bobbie Gentry sang about in the famous “Ode to Billie Joe”, but that was actually the Tallahatchie Bridge which we crossed later in our trip through Mississippi.
Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando, Florida – is it really the happiest place on earth? I guess it all depends on your perspective. It’s certainly an enchanting place to be, and one where you can leave behind life’s cares and enter into a magical world of make-believe. People generally seem to either love or hate theme parks! As a family, we are definitely in the camp of theme park lovers. There’s something cathartic about parking all the worries of the world for a day and abandoning yourself to the thrills and spills of theme park rides and entertainment.
While we were in Orlando visiting Disneyworld and the Kennedy Space Centre we stayed at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. This added to the experience and was a lot of fun for the kids. Each section of the Resort was themed from a different Disney movie. The section we stayed in was Nemo themed (as was the pool complete with underwater speakers). The Cars themed area was also amazing.
The next stop on our trip was an Airbnb house on the outskirts of Gatlinburg, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. We spent our time here visiting Cades Cove, a valley containing the remnants of a 19th century settlement. It’s a fascinating place to poke around old churches and farmhouses on hiking trails. It’s part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (America’s most visited national park), which was established in 1934. The park is free, due to a proviso written in its original charter.
More excitement to come – next stop – Disney World!
Our next stop was the beautiful Mast Farm Inn in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. We chose to visit here as it had a great write up in the Lonely Planet Guide and was tucked away in the mountains, off the beaten track. We met some Americans holidaying here, and they were quite amazed that we had managed to travel halfway across the world and to stumble on such a cosy bolthole!
The countryside is spectacular and surprisingly for us West Aussies, very hot and humid in the forest. Back home I spoke to a Canadian who said she really misses the humidity when hiking in Australia – not me, give me dry heat anyday! Flowers which can often be found in our gardens (rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias), grow wild, making for a particularly beautiful hike when they are blooming.
Once in the cafe the dolls get their very own mini teacup and saucer (which you can take home with you) as well as to sit at the table with the “grownups” on their very own highchair. The whole experience really did live up to our expectations!
My personal favourite! The doll holders in the toilet where you place your dolls while you go to the toilet and wash your hands.