Traveling with Laura

Happy Fourth of July! I celebrated Independence Day with an all-American parade in Belle Fourche and ended it at stop #2 of this South Dakota road trip: Badlands National Park.

I didn’t get to bed until midnight last night, but was still up at 5:45 this morning. I started my day at Blackbird Espresso for a peach cream cheese danish and iced mocha before checking out of my hotel and heading to the geographic center of the nation, Belle Fourche, South Dakota. I took a few pictures at the monument and then drove toward downtown Belle Fourche for what is known as the region’s largest Fourth of July parade. When I mentioned planning to see the Spearfish parade to the woman at the visitor’s center the other day, she said I had to go to the one in Belle Fourche instead, as it represents Americana at its finest.

Let me tell you… this was one big parade. There were 225 numbered vehicles/floats plus other farming equipment, horses, marching bands, etc. The parade lasted an hour and a half. I was done after the first half hour but my car was on the opposite side of the parade so I was kind of stuck. The big parts of the parade seemed to be every float rider throwing massive heaps of candy out into the streets for kids to pick up and float riders blasting water guns at the kids while kids ran up to the floats and threw buckets of water on them. It was quite the spectacle.

This afternoon I drove about two hours east to Wall, South Dakota. If you’ve ever heard of Wall Drug, this is the place. I dropped my stuff off at my hotel and then went to check out the main attraction in town and eat dinner. Wall Drug has been in business since 1931 and advertises its free ice water and 5¢ coffee. It is a weird mix of shops, kind of like a small mall, with things like Western wear, a drug store, t-shirt shop, and general store. There is also a cafeteria style restaurant and soda fountain.

I opted to eat across the street at the Badlands Saloon and Grille, which turned out to be a bad idea. My buffalo chicken wrap had so much buffalo sauce that my mouth was on fire and I could barely eat it. The waitress didn’t seem to care when she took away my nearly full plate and I explained the problem. Thankfully, a small cup of soft serve ice cream from Wall Drug filled me up for the night.

I wanted to take in the night sky program at Badlands National Park tonight, but I’m also tired and can’t stay up late tonight and also get up early tomorrow. So I opted for a short trip into the park after dinner. I immediately fell in love with this park. It reminds me a little of Bryce Canyon in that it has lots of interesting pinnacles, buttes, and mounds jutting out of the earth. The layers of sediment can be seen on the rock and are quite colorful. I stopped several times to take pictures and just admire the beauty. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the park tomorrow, but for now, it’s time to call it a night.