Day 28: I Earned My Tourist Badge Today!

Although we didn't do very well in the sightseeing department yesterday, we sure made up for it today.
We left Sioux Falls at 6:30am in order to see everything we wanted to see today (and allow for some extra sights as well). Our first discovery was in Mitchell SD: the Corn Palace. This slice of Americana is a Moorish auditorium built in 1921. Every year, local artists use more than 3000 bushels of corn and grasses to create murals on the front of the building. It was strangely appealing.
The southeastern side of South Dakota is very flat and not very interesting. The most interesting things are the road signs. There are signs for Wall Drug every mile or so but there are also many other signs for places like Bear Country, Reptile Gardens, Al's Oasis, Doo-Wah Dottie's Diner, Frosty King, Happy Campers Campground, The Flintstones Theme Park and Whoa and Go.
About halfway across the state the terrain becomes more hilly and much more interesting.
We went to Badlands National Forest which was absolutely amazing! I can't describe how beautiful this place is. It looks like an artists sculpted the formations and they go on and on. This was one of the highlights of our trip! We drove the loop throught the park and it ends at Wall SD--home of Wall Drug. Wall Drug has been a highway staple since the 1930's and anyone who has traveled a midwestern highway has seen their signs. It's basically a big tourist trap and we fell right in it. We had lunch there, took silly photos and enjoyed it thoroughly.
Then it was on to Mount Rushmore. The most amazing thing about Mount Rushmore is that it was done at all. It is such an amazing feat when you see how difficult it must have been. It is very interesting to see. From there we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial which is another sculpture carved in mountain rock. It is still a work in progress after many, many years and is the world's largest sculpture. Again, it was amazing to see how any of this got done.
We are staying in Deadwood SD which Forbes listed as one of the prettiest towns in America. The downtown is really nice to look at but then you realize behind all the cute facades are nothing but casinos. Virtually every place here is a casino. Our hotel lobby is one as is the lobby of every other hotel. The restaurants are mostly located behind casinos. We managed to have dinner in a fairly nice place that is not in a casino. It's called the Deadwood Social Club and is upstairs from Saloon 10. This is the saloon where Wild Bill Hickock was killed but the original burned in 1920 (as did everything else in town) and the current place is a recreation.
We had a great day today. Our timing worked perfectly for everything and the weather was nice and sunny albeit a bit chilly. The highlight of the day for me was seeing Badlands.