One of the pieces of advice that we got from the couple at dinner the previous night was that we should have the pie at “Al’s Oasis”. I grew up calling my parents by their first names, and my dad is (also) an “Albert” though he and his father went by “Al”, so when an opportunity presents itself to stop at his “oasis” and have “the best pie”, well, we just had to do it. If “Al” is my dad’s preferred name, then “Ace” is at least on of my nicknames, so the experience was made even better when we discovered that inside Al’s Oasis was “Ace’s Casino”. I guess our South Dakota doppelgangers are doing OK for themselves!
At Al’s Oasis, we were “served” by a “gunslinging robot”. Which is to say, there’s an “autonomous indoor vehicle” which could be loaded and sent to specific tables carrying trays of food that the server would accompany and then take from the vehicle and place in front of the patrons. Definitely an interesting novelty, and the server said he appreciated not having to carry all of that stuff from the kitchen, so yay?
We did end up getting pie even though we were there for breakfast. All three of us split a single piece of chocolate silk pie. It was good, though I wouldn’t have called it transformational.
In addition to the casino, and a gift shop in Al’s Oasis, there was also a grocery store, where we picked up some travel snacks. And, of course, if you come across a taxidermied bison in a grocery store, you have to take a picture with it!
We started the day with a slight back-track to the previous rest area along I-90, where we went to see the Dignity of Earth and Sky sculpture. It’s a dramatic, majestic sculpture, but Carolyn felt a little sad for “Dignity” as she’s facing the rest area instead of the plains, and river of her people.
One of the unexpected, but retrospectively unsurprising themes of this trip was “Lewis and Clark”. In that same rest area was a substantial, and quite engaging, Lewis and Clark exhibit with a large number of artifacts from the explorers. This became a theme as we traveled. I think of Charlottesville (due to Thomas Jefferson and the birthplace of Meriweatehr Lewis) and St. Louis (due to being the starting point of the expedition) as being the centers for the Lewis and Clark expedition. In retrospect, given the extent to which we followed parts of their journey, it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
Having left Dignity behind at the rest stop, we continued west on 90 to Murdo, SD for a recharge, then west again to the “Big Badlands overlook”. The Badlands are such a strange experience. I expect mountains to stick up out of the ground, but as you drive west into the Badlands, you arrive at the height of the “peaks” of the mountains. It’s not hard to see why the Lakota people called them “Mako Sica”, literally “bad lands”. There’s a stark beauty that I can appreciate because I don’t need to try to live there without the comforts of modernity.
It wasn’t long after first catching glimpse of the Badlands before we found our way to Badlands National Park. The stark beauty was on full display as we climbed out of Rosie and went for a hike along the “moderate to strenuous” Notch Trail. The trail itself wasn’t strenuous, at least in the weather of the day, though the sun was fierce and there was a somewhat awkward “ladder” that proved a bottleneck for the hike.
After our hike, while still in the Badlands diversion from 90, we swung by Roberts Prairie Dog Town. Our first experience with prairie dogs, we thought them cute and rare. As we continued to explore the area, we started to understand why local farmers thought them neither. But to our East Coast eyes, they did remain cute for the whole trip at least. And they were remarkably difficult to photograph. It was hard to get close enough, relative to their size, to get a good picture with the phone.
We subsequently headed north up to Wall, SD where we stopped in the famous Wall Drug Store. I guess it was technically still a drug store, but it was more souvenir shop than anything else. At this point, it feels like a Kardashian of stores; Famous for being famous (and advertising a lot).
It was always going to be impossible to see all of the things that we wanted to see on this trip, but we knew we wanted to see Mt. Rushmore. We’d watched North by Northwest in preparation for this trip. But how to do that without fighting crowds the whole way? So, we decided to push on and see Mt. Rushmore tonight. Mt. Rushmore didn’t close until 11:00 PM and we’d already become night owls as we pushed westward. Seeing it at night was perfect for us. We shared the park with only a few other people. It did make the photography a challenge, though it’s obviously powerfully lit. Sam took great delight in our view of Jefferson over Washington’s shoulder. She imagined him sneaking up behind him and whispering things in his ear!
We rolled into our hotel, the Best Western Golden Spike Inn & Suites shortly after midnight.