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Sunday, July 22, 2012 at 11:45 AM Wall, South Dakota. 35ºC

Wall Drug
Wall, South Dakota, Friday, August 31, 2012

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We spent nearly three weeks of July in the United States. We cross into Montana from Alberta travelled down to Havre then made our way to Yellowstone, then to the Black Hills before we hustled across the scorching heat of South Dakota into Minnesota. After a few days in Minnesota we made it over to Grand Forks for a night then into Manitoba. We made the trip in our motorhome with the little Escape tagged on behind, but before I tell you about Wall, South Dakota, the very worst road conditions in the whole trip were in Manitoba. We have some poor Saskatchewan highways but nothing matches the rough stuff on Manitoba's major highway up from the border to Winnipeg and around the city's Perimeter Highway. If you have driven the nasty Trans Canada from Regina to Moose Jaw and back you know what a rough road can be like, well Manitoba is rougher.
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As to travel across South Dakota, the state's scenery is interesting, from wheat fields to badlands, range land to lush corn fields in the south east corner, but on i90 there are signs. Flocks of them. In our first trip across the state in the late sixties they were interspersed with "Burma Shave" signs but now its "Wall Drug" and more "Wall Drug." Oh there are other billboards but the repeaters are all the wonders of Wall Drug.

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On our visit in the late sixties, we were amazed at the huckster nature of the town of Wall. At the time the famous Wall Drug was a few building on the main street. Well since then it has expanded a bit to include one whole block with RV parking near by and on the West side of the street a whole bunch of business that take advantage of the magnetic attraction of those signs as they bring tourists to their little hot town.

There are no shortage of tourists. Yellowstone National Park and the Black Hills bring hundreds of thousands of tourist to the area all year round and each summer in early August, a massive motorcycle rally at Sturgis, in the Black Hills attracts half a million bikers each year. (See Mike Townsend’s pictures from his experience at Sturgis in 2010.)
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When you tour Saskatchewan in the summer you will indeed meet lots of RVs. Motorhomes, fifth wheel units, camper trailers and a few truck campers. But travelling across South Dakota on i90 it looks pretty much like about half and half. One half tourists of one kind or another. Our modest motorhome was just one of tens of thousands and almost all had a towed vehicle along behind.

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We got to Wall before lunch time and it was a sweltering hot day. The headlines about the heat wave and drought in that part of the United States really understate the conditions there. Most of this year's harvest was finished or finishing at the time and those crops still in the field would be pretty much a loss.

We parked on one of two huge RV parking areas and walked over to main street. This was a Sunday morning and the little town seemed crowded. Besides about fifty motorhomes and camper units there were motorcycles parked on the street for that full block.

At a glance you know that this is a tourist trap. But here is the thing, the savvy of the folks who created this marketing miracle, realized that that is exactly what it would look like and they have made a special effort to serve up value and novelty without price gauging. The signs advertise free ice water but I had a free coffee, my ice cream cone was excellent and reasonably priced. The food in the main restaurant was inexpensive and the portions ample. In the shops, the items I looked at seemed reasonably priced and in the case of the artwork, I thought there were some outstanding bargains available, with a truly huge variety to choose from.
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We took our time looked around and thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Wall. We left the place with the air conditioner turned up full with smiles on our faces.

Those of us who visited Wall that Sunday were not all in our own vehicles. There must have been a fair number of tour buses tucked away in another parking lot because in the shops we talked to several people one tours. A man and his wife from London who were on a tour that left New York, on the street we chatted with three ladies from Georgia who were gathering themselves together to get back on the bus.

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I am certain that I can, without reservation, recommend you pull off i90 on your next trip across South Dakota and take an hour or two to visit Wall Drug.

Our three weeks on this trip took us to a lot of towns and cities and more than our fair share of adventures. I will try to share some of these experiences with you here on Ensign. Campgrounds, some interesting history, a boat trip on the Missouri, the dash through Yellowstone, visiting Rushmore, Crazy Horse, rural Minnesota, the Mall of America and a sculpture park in Minneapolis, perhaps more.