We felt major confliction for the first time as we packed up our camping gear and readied for the long drive to Minneapolis. The realization had set in that we were leaving the Great Parks of the West and wouldn’t be coming back until who knows when. We agreed that if given the chance again we would take the entire time in just the parks. But with fall closing in, it was now or never to head east.
The drive thru the rolling plains of South Dakota and into Minnesota was long but beautiful. We both enjoyed some time for reflection on everything that we had just seen and a chance to reset and ready our expectations for the new adventure ahead. As we got closer to the Minnesota border, strange and luring signs started to appear. At first every half hour or so and then growing in frequency to the point where there was one every mile, probably 100 or more in total. They were full of claims pronouncing that they had everything you would ever need in this life or the next. (a 6-foot rabbit, new T-Rex, a shooting gallery, free ice water, home-made doughnuts and pies free for vets and honeymooners, and a ton more I can‘t think of right now.)
This Shangri-La, this Mecca, we couldn’t believe that we had been kept in the dark about such a place. It’s name; WallDrug…We couldn’t control our excitement, we imagined a monstrous golden building unlike anything we had ever seen. What we found was a little hokey street with third-rate tourist T-shirts, stickers, and restaurants. It was very disappointing considering the hype machine that was laid out before us. So we let Ophie out and she did her business on a patch of grass. We smiled feeling even with WallDrug, and off for Minnesota we went!
—Patrick
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