BYE_BYE DEADWOOD AND THE BLACK HILLS

Oct.10
As we emailed to you all-we woke up to a beautiful snowy winter-wonderland! Mike had quite a job to dig out our "house" and truck-but all was fine and we did finally get on our way. The ride out of town was so pretty-it finally stopped snowing before we hit Rapid City-then for most of the trip it was just really gray and cold. Our stop for the day was the famous "WALL DRUG"-we had been seeing signs for the now famous store for miles and miles-we did not really know what we were going to see when we got there-but we saw signs for huge bunnies,free ice water, and a silver dollar collection-among many many other things. We pulled up in front of the store-it is really a whole block-several tour busses were there-and lots of people! It was a tourist attraction all the way. Inside it was really just a giant gift store-but with a twist. There was a station with fresh coffee and homemade donuts-one for homemade ice-cream(this was not open-too cold!) there was a line for lunch items-so we got a tray and had great open-faced roast beef sandwiches-and of course,the free icewater! We ate,watched the tour bus people line up all over the place-and then we took a tour of all of the shops rooms. Some areas were devoted to displays of lots of items-mostly western theme-but there were lots of cool old photos on all the walls-mostly there were tons of "touristy" stuff for sale. We looked out in the back-took a couple of pics of silly displays out there-then it was time to get on the road. Glad we stopped-but once in a lifetime is way enough!