The Big Move: Day Five

Rapid City, SD to Sioux City, IA


Well I never thought I'd say this: I'm spending the night in Iowa. For years I have heard about my moms trips to Iowa to see the family farm. Well, I'm here now.

This morning I woke up early to see Mount Rushmore. The park gates open at 8am so naturally we were there at 8:10am.

Best idea ever.

Starbucks in hand. Me, my mom, and like a handful of people walked into the pavilion. There was nobody there. I have to say that this is the highlight of the trip. I may have mentioned this, or maybe I give off that vibe, but I really love NOT being around crowds. So going into today I was worried. Mount Rushmore? Wall Drug? This is my tourism nightmare. But instead it was pleasant. We spent two hours just strolling around, taking photos, buying souveniers, watching films, and viewing exhibits with no waiting or pushing or stinky vacationer B.O.

I had to catch myself. Is it really possibly that I am sitting in a quiet, serene, empty amphitheatre in front of a national treasure? Just thinking my thoughts?

As the busloads started to pour in we headed out to our parking space right in front of the gate and left the black hills. Destination: Wall, SD. Home of free ice water at Wall Drug.

I liked Wall Drug. It was so American and so fun. We were there for about an hour to lunch, gas up, buy crap, and take photos. My favourite photo, out of a stream of tacky poses, was one of the "travelers chapel". I thought originally that it was cheesy place to get married, Vegas style, but no. It's actually a chapel for road travelers to sit in and pray. Like Mount Rushmore in the morning, it was empty. I think it says everything about tourist America that there are swarms of people around a jackalope sculpture or jammed into a leather clothing store while a church lies empty. Not that Americans are uninterested in religion. To me it just showed that "The Great American Road Trip" is all chaos, all hurry, all self-involvement. I think it's pretty incredible that in the middle of all that "Famil-E-Fun Timez" there's a little side room that is totally peaceful and totally available to pray.


The original plan today, post-Wall, was to have no plan and pull over whenever. So I jumped behind the wheel, totally recovered from my ticket the day before, and threw the hammer down on I-90. We decided that our goal of Omaha might be a little bit of a push. We left Wall at 1pm and still had a long way to go. So we set a course for Sioux City, IA. Because I had heard of it.

A ways out I had another "first". I booked my first hotel room. And it's a good one too. It's big, off the ground floor, and a local pizza place delivered to the room. Too bad travel agent is a dying career, because I'd ROCK at it.

"Big Soo" in Sioux City, IA

The big moment of today was crossing the Missouri River. From now on I'm living East of it. We head south and follow it down to Missouri. Tomorrow, for the first time, I'll see my new school.