Yesterday was errand day! We had a nice breakfast out, got new slippers for Susan, new sheets for the bed and some groceries. We spent the afternoon relaxing with Sophie while the clouds gathered, the lightning started and later the rain...wind...and more rain! The gusts of wind were really strong when we went to bed with a steady rainfall.
This morning we collected our mail from the mail service and then headed to the Badlands. They are about 40 miles from where we are staying. After about 5 miles we caught up to the rain which got harder and harder. We decided to stop at the famous "Wall Drugs" to see if the rain let up.
What makes Wall Drug famous you ask? Ted Hustead and his wife Dorothy came to the town of Wall in 1931 and purchased the only drug store in town. He had graduated from pharmacy school and worked for other druggists and decided he wanted to open his own shop. They found this town with the shop for sale in the middle of nowhere! But Wall had a catholic church and the people they met were nice so they bought it. After five years their business had not grown at all and Ted was thinking about what to do. Dorothy went out to put the children down for a nap, it was hot and she was amazed at all the traffic on the road and came up with an idea for free ice water. She even had little slogans made up like the old Burma Shave commercials. They made the signs and put them up. Before Ted could get up all the signs, people were coming in for the free ice water and bought other things including ice cream! By the next summer they had to hire eight employees and Wall Drug was on the map! On a good summer day, Wall Drug draws up to twenty thousand people and estimate giving away 5,000 glasses of ice water per day all summer!
Ted and I looked around Wall Drug which is a city block long and deep. They have clothing, boots, books, jewelry, a cafe and lots of tourist stuff! We had lunch and the rain had still not let up so we headed back to the campground, saving Badlands for another time!
In our mail today, see who got their own mail:
Sophie was sitting with Dad the other morning! She was wearing her halo and wasn't being the "snapping turtle"!
Tomorrow morning we are going to DMV to get our drivers licenses address updated and then we will get on the road. Next stop is Salina, Kansas for a few days!
Sophie and her "traveling companions"..."Ain't Life Grand!"
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