South Dakota: The Americana Extravaganza

As many of you know, I like to take trips that are a bit more "off the beaten path". Don't get me wrong - I love traveling so I will happily travel just about anywhere... but my favorite trips to-date have primarily been to those locations which people respond with a look of "Why did you decide to go THERE?".

While I have many goals in life, one major goal of mine is to visit all 50 states by the time I turn 50 years old. I actually think I'll be able to accomplish this before I turn 50, but there are definitely some states that will be visited solely for the intent and purpose of fulfilling this goal- nothing more, nothing less. I mean, please. Who would willingly go to North Dakota or Idaho (to list just a couple)? 

South Dakota started out as one of those states that I figured would be just like that - I mean, what is there REALLY to see in this state aside from Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands? 

Ah, welcome to my thoughts circa... well, just a few months ago.

Some of you may remember my trip to Maine last Fall - that was the advent of this whole "D List State Vacation List" that some friends and I had conjured up. Well, Maine totally took us by surprise, soaring itself from D List to straight up A List in the course of a single, lovely weekend. In fact, it's so A list (in my book), that I now have a new goal to purchase a Fall vacation home there at some point in my life.

But I digress.

In any event, after that highly successful trip, we decided to see what other gems the good ol' U.S. of A. had to offer.

And that, my friends, is how South Dakota was born. Initially, we were thinking that we'd actually be a little bored if we went for a long weekend - I mean, like I said before, what is there REALLY to do aside from Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands? But the more and more we discussed this with other people... the more and more input people surprisingly had to provide! Who knew so many people had visited this STATE??

Before we knew it, we had an overpacked agenda and were actually nixing things from the list because we didn't think we'd have time to cover it all.*

We had so much to cover, in fact, I had to divide this post up to make it easier on the eyes! So, without further ado... I present to you: South Dakota, The Americana Extravaganza:

Americana Extravaganza - Day One (Badlands, Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore)
Americana Extravaganza - Day Two (Rough Lock Falls, Deadwood and SASKATCHEWAN!!)
Americana Extravaganza - Day Three (Buffalo and the Wild West Saloon)

*I'm saying "we" as though I were actively involved in the planning process - please. Special thanks to Purvi and Rina, yet again, for planning this entire trip... and incorporating recommended activities / content that I would just merely forward along with a "Just a friendly FYI..." disclaimer. :)

Americana Extravaganza - Day One (Badlands, Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore)

My friends and I decided we would all fly out to Rapid City, South Dakota on Thursday night and fly back on Monday morning. Because we were all coming from various locations (San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago and Yosemite-ish), we figured it was just going to be easier to meet at the airport.

Easier said than done. I think Purvi's flight from San Francisco was the only one that was remotely on time (landing around 9:30 PM). The girls flying in from Chicago ended up being delayed and arrived only around midnight / 1 AM. And my flight from St. Louis was straight up cancelled. I think there were some weather issues going on but still - what kind of start to the trip WAS this?

Oh well, some of us aren't seasoned travelers for naught. I mean, traveling can be a nightmare but a snafu here and there really isn't the end of the world - it actually just adds to the adventure, no? (Okay, I may be stretching the optimism / positivity a bit here.)

In any event, after approximately four hours of sleep on Thursday night (at this hotel that the airline put me up at), I was back up and at 'em at the Houston airport (I had had to connect from St. Louis through Houston to get me to Rapid City)... ready and waiting to fly through Dallas to connect to Rapid City. (Who knew I would be getting such a tour of the grand state of Texas through all this?)

Ah well - nothing a nice cup of (iced!!) coffee can't cure

After the craziness of Thursday night, Friday's flight(s) were fairly uneventful. My friends were ready and waiting to pick me up in the rental car (and by rental car, I mean the beast of a Suburban that Purvi had been able to swing with Hertz) at the airport so that we could head straight for our first planned adventure - the Badlands.

Oh, let me back up quickly to explain who all was on this trip. It was basically the Maine crew minus one plus two - yeah, I'm sure that made no sense. To spell it out... this trip was comprised of myself, Rina, Purvi and Trang (we all went to Maine together), Joyce (another friend from Chicago who is just crazy and added some real razzle dazzle to the group, let's be honest here) and Mark (another friend from Chicago who decided to make South Dakota a pit stop after a two-week backpacking adventure in the wilderness). 

Our trip started off as a bit of a reunion - some of us hadn't seen each other for AGES! So you can only imagine what ensued... lots of this...

And this...

Aaaand... finally, we got it just right...

(Poor Mark - I think he questioned joining us on the trip from this moment onwards.)

In any event, we continued along our merry way, hiking through the Badlands. I think "hiking" is a loosely used term in this situation - more... a gentle walk along pebbly ground, one would say. 

I mean, don't get me wrong. There WAS room for confusion at various points in time... 

But thankfully, Trang took the initiative to sign us up at various points along the trail in case of emergency situations... 

Can never be too prepared, I guess... ;) 

Overall, though, the Badlands turned out to be pretty picturesque:

I would argue that it's not necessarily worthy of a solid 3.5 hours of hiking gently strolling through pebbly terrain, but to each their own.

After the Badlands, we drove back to Rapid City with a stop at Wall Drug - this ridiculously touristy place, filled with all KINDS of tschotchky items. I couldn't BELIEVE how HUGE this place was - it was like a little playground, if you will.

Once we'd gotten our fill of Wall Drug, we piled back into that beast of a Suburban and headed straight for... where else? Mt. Rushmore.

I was so, so, so excited for Mt. Rushmore. I mean, it's an historical American LANDMARK!! I love history! I love America! How could one NOT be excited for this 20th century masterpiece?? We got to Mt. Rushmore close to dusk, as we were strongly encouraged to visit Mt. Rushmore for its spectacular night light show (or something like that). Check it out in all its daytime glory...

It gets even better at night!!

Okay, to be perfectly honest - Mt. Rushmore was nice to visit and all, but it's definitely just one of those "check things off a list" kind of things. I have no desire / need to visit Mt. Rushmore again... I mean, it's cool and all but... well, it's a lot SMALLER than I was expecting it to be. God, Mt. Rushmore is to South Dakota what the Panama Canal is to Panama... kind of a giant buzzkill.

Sooo, in a nutshell, that was Day One of this Americana extravaganza. You ready for Day Two?

*Special thanks to Purvi and Mark for allowing me to straight up steal borrow their pictures from this trip.