Trekin' with the Cartwrights: Wall, Chamberlain, and Mitchell, SD

We took the Badlands National Park Loop Road to Wall, SD to visit Wall Drug Store. There are a couple of very large parking lots (one gravel, one asphalt) that are available to park big rigs like Miss Doozie.

The front of Wall Drug Store

Replicas of signs that used to dot the highways on the way in to Wall.

The dinosaur at the end of the hall woke up to "eat" every 12 minutes - with alarms going off and roaring and growling from the dinosaur. The little boy on the right side had been closer to the dinosaur and his mom (?) was squatted down taking a video of his experience - he decided that being closer to the danger than mom was not wise, and came over and squatted next to her! If she was sqatting, then he would be too!

The walls of Wall Drug Store are covered with newspaper articles, magazine articles, letters, pictures - all sorts of things about the store and its owners. I found this one to be interesting:

1951 - Rea and Wall Drug

After visiting Wall for a couple of hours on Thursday, we headed east on I-90. When we crossed the Missouri, there was a large rest area / travel information center on I-90 near Chamberlain, SD where we stopped to look around. The wind had been picking up as we were driving, and up on the bluff where the rest area was, the wind was whipping really strongly!

Neat bus in the parking lot

"Dignity" statue

A huge piece of farm equipment was making its way west on the interstate

It continued across the Missouri River

A view of the Missouri toward the north (across the town of Chamberlain)

I'm sporting a wind-blown look!

There were signboards and information about the Lewis and Clark expedition which went through this area both on its way west and when they returned east. There was a replica of their boat that made a balcony outside the tourist information center.

I found this list of supplies for a long trip as written by Clark to be interesting.

We continued east from Chamberlain, planning to stop in Mitchell, SD for the night.

GasBuddy had indicated that there were good diesel prices in Mitchell, and I had checked the satellite view and found that this station had a separate fueling area for big rigs. We were surprised to be presented with multiple options for what diesel we wanted to put into Miss Doozie. ARGH!

We've run into off-road diesel before - the fuel works fine in highway vehicles, but doesn't have the taxes applied on it, and has a red dye applied to it - commercial trucks can have their fuel checked by inspectors and if there is any sign of red in the fuel, they can be fined. And we're not supposed to use it either... But, all of these indicated they were for highway use - which to get? More expensive is better, right? A quick google search found https://www.dummies.com/home-garden/car-repair/diesel-engines/understanding-diesel-fuels/

Standard diesel fuel (sometimes called diesel oil) comes in two grades: Diesel #1 (or 1-D) and Diesel #2 (or 2-D). The higher the cetane number, the more volatile the fuel. Most diesel vehicles use fuel with a rating of 40 to 55. You won’t have to worry about which type to use because all diesel automakers specify Diesel #2 for normal driving conditions. Truckers use Diesel #2 to carry heavy loads for long distances at sustained speeds because it’s less volatile than Diesel #1 and provides greater fuel economy.

Diesel fuel also is measured by its viscosity. Like any oil, diesel fuel gets thicker and cloudier at lower temperatures. Under extreme conditions, it can become a gel and refuse to flow at all. Diesel #1 flows more easily than Diesel #2, so it’s more efficient at lower temperatures. The two types of oil can be blended, and most service stations offer diesel fuel blended for local weather conditions.

So, #1 diesel can be better in very cold weather (potentially needed in the winter in South Dakota, but not now), otherwise, #2 sounded like the best bet... and it was $2.949/gallon - a good price compared to what we had been paying further west.

After filling up both the Jeep and Miss Doozie, we headed to the Walmart and got Miss Doozie parked for the night. Then we took the Jeep into town to visit the Corn Palace. Back in 2009 when we drove our Honda Pilot passenger vehicle to South Dakota to visit the Black Hills, we happened to stop for the night in Mitchell, not knowing anything about the Corn Palace. We read about it when we were checking into the hotel, and went over to visit before we left the next day. A return visit was in our plans:

The mosaics on the exterior of the building are changed every year..

The decorations are made of corn and various grass and straw.

This year's mosaics are nearly finished.

Inside the Corn Palace the columns look like ears of Indian corn.

The inside of the building contains an arena - with the ability to host basketball/volleyball games, concerts, other events, and has meeting rooms for convention type activities too.

There was a sign with information about the decorations on the Corn Palace: