Wine and Spirits Travel

My final day in South Dakota was filled with some of the nation's most important landmarks. I hadn’t seen any of them since I was a kid and it didn’t take me long to regret not having come back sooner. I knew it was going to be a long day and I fueled up at the Hill City Holiday Inn Express with a yogurt, fruit and oatmeal breakfast before hitting the road. My first stop of the morning was at Mount Rushmore. I was just blown away by this amazing mountain depicting four of our country’s most important presidents. It was even more special after I heard two kids playing “America the Beautiful” in front of the mountain, and then saw the film of how Gutzon Borglum, and his son, Lincoln, sculpted it. I walked around Mount Rushmore National Park for a while before getting back in the car and heading for a short stop in downtown Keystone. It looked like a fun touristy town that I would probably spend more time in some day when I didn’t have such a full schedule.

When I woke up in Wall, I was ready for a very full day two in South Dakota . The rain had not let up all night and it was pouring as I headed into Wall Drug. From the moment I pulled my rental car up I knew this was going to be a place like no other. It seemed to go on for blocks and I soon learned that this was only the front. I met with Rick Hustead, whose grandparents had started Wall Drug in 1931 as just a drugstore. Ted, a pharmacist, and Dorothy were having trouble getting customers until Dorothy had the idea to put up “Free Ice Water” signs along the highway. The ice water turned into .05 coffee and both brought in enough customers for Wall Drug to now be 76,000 square feet and one of the biggest attractions in the country. Rick and I continued to talk in the restaurant over breakfast about Wall Drug and the endless products being sold here. Breakfast certainly satisfied my sweet tooth, though I did at least add a scrambled egg for a bit of healt

As a child, I drove with my parents and my brother cross country almost every year. We would stop along the way, sometimes for a few hours and other times overnight if there was a lot to see. By going different routes we managed to see all of the continental United States. Around the time I was 10, the vacations were by airplane and there were states I would never see again. South Dakota was one of those.  With my new role in charge of the Midwest Travel section for About.com, I had more reason than ever to get to South Dakota so I was excited when the tourism board invited me on a trip. The day started with an early morning flight and included a tight connection, so I was pretty tired and hungry by the time I met Julie Jones-Whitcher of Rapid City Tourism .  We had planned to meet directly at The Journey Museum, but I had called and asked her if we could meet somewhere for a late lunch first. We met in Main Street Square and proceeded to Alternative Fuel s