Well, I’m happy to see that the tantalizing picture from yesterday’s trip to the Spam Museum was such a bit hit with my readers.  So, to fill in for yesterday’s missing post: stop #1 was the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota, and it was awesome! The museum was well-done and chalk full of interesting information, which was way more than I expected from a free museum created for the exclusive purpose of promoting a canned meat product. Of course, they also gave out samples of Spam. Try the bacon variety.  Seriously tasty!

Look ma, there’s genuine history in this here museum! 

Because the Spam Museum took longer than we had anticipated, we got a late start on the road. We didn’t make it quite as far into South Dakota as we had initially planned, but we did end up staying at a comfortable hotel in Chamberlain, SD that had pretty neat hunting lodge feel to it.  This was after we were rejected by the Best Western in town, which was apparently filled up with fans of a hydroplane boat race that had taken place on the Missouri River over the weekend. Oddly, enough, we actually saw the boats from the race being towed on the highway the next day.

Speaking of the highway, we have easily been the slowest moving vehicle on the road the entire trip.  This has been a source of great amusement to Dr. Tsou and I.  Every time the highway narrows down to one lane for road construction, we make a game out of counting the number of cars that we’ve held up along the way. Our record so far has been a total of 15 vehicles racing past us as soon as the road widened.

Look at all those cars lined up behind us! 

Today’s adventure included a visit to the infamous Wall Drug in Wall, SD, which I can only describe as a kind of western/hunting themed Disneyland. No, there aren’t rides (although there is a shooting gallery and an animatronic T-Rex), but there’s kitsch up the wazoo there.  Of course, the entire thing is just a glamorized roadside gift shop, but Wall Drug has done a tremendous job of turning a gift store into a bona fide tourist attraction in and of itself.  I swear, I was *this* close to buying a mounted jackalope head!  

The billboards beckon you for miles to stop at this oasis of kitsch.

 From Wall Drug, we pressed onward to Mt. Rushmore.  The drive up to Mount Rushmore was quite scenic and the carving itself is really impressive.  However, there’s also not much to do except go, see the monument, take some pictures, and leave.   And so that’s what we did.

Can you imagine hanging from this with a jackhammer to carve this?