Desired Future South Dakota visits - August 26th - Revised

[If future circumstances allow ...]

Wall Drug Store was one of the sites we had to pass up this time.  Our "must return home by August 31 deadline" had started to "loom large" in importance.  While we were gone from home, my sister-in-law had been there taking care of her 91-year-old Mom (which is what my wife and I usually do).  [My wife-to-be advised me of this responsibility when we became serious about our dating in 2017.] 

Between her jobs on the West Coast, while returning home, her sister is looking for her next job.  Sometimes a positive response from a prospective employer forces a change in personal schedules, so we needed to return home a day earlier than expected.  Not a big deal, but we did have to adjust our schedule by a day.  

Actually, I was unfamiliar with it and my wife hadn't said much about her 1972 family visit to Wall Drug Store when she was 15 years old.  From an FB comment, I think one of my long-time college friends may have visited there as well.  

So, if circumstances permit a future trip, Wall Drug Store will be in our South Dakota plans.

Badlands National Park was nearby, as well.  But as our plans involved spending a couple of days in Nebraska, we had to bypass The Badlands of South Dakota.

The photos below were taken by my Dad in 1980, while he and Mom were on their final vacation together (he passed away in November 1980).  [I wonder if he sensed that something was wrong and just wanted to spend a little more time together with Mom?]

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Some U.S. National Park Service Badlands Geology is recounted here.  A bit more about Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

Something else discovered after we returned to Georgia:

Shortly after we returned, I found this book in a local bookstore and since I had my recent memories of the Black Hills of South Dakota, I was highly interested in the history and concepts behind what is now known as The Wild Idea Buffalo Company.

The follow-up book is (which I am reading now):

As "luck" would have it, the office for Wild Idea Buffalo Company was about 1,000 feet or so from the Black Hills/Rapid City KOA, where we stayed the afternoon and night of August 27th.  (If only I had found that book before we hit the road.  It would have been a great idea to grill some ultra-fresh bison burgers, while in Rapid City.)