Yes the title is a bit misleading, for two reasons. First, because it makes it sound like I plan on getting more nominations for a "Best Of" anything. And second, because the nomination is in the "Most Unusual" category. I never really considered the Giant Schnauzer Club of America to be unusual... certainly the website itself is a bit bland compared to the other nominees.
The company hosting the vote is the same company that created the membership software that I incorporated into the website. Maybe one of the decision makers has a giant schnauzer.
Thanks to whoever nominated my website. The number of hits has tripled in the past twenty-four hours. If the website wins, there's actually an award show in Vegas. lol
Sorry about the quality. I recorded this on my phone.
Am I the only one who sees the errors in this? Pizza Hut had a deal where they sold any pizza (any size, any number of toppings, any crust) for $10. Now they stopped that deal to "lower prices". Yet the new deal is still $10 (fail) but no longer for any pizza (double fail).
Oh, and if you read the small print at the bottom of the ad, they will charge an additional fee for special crusts like deep dish or stuffed crust. So much for "lowering the price of every pizza on our menu".
I just heard some songs from my younger brother and his band's forthcoming album. Wow. They sound great.
I'm really happy for him. Go check out Paul (also known as Augustus) DeVandry and his band, the Hypnotist Collectors at http://www.thehypnotistcollectors.com.
The new songs aren't on the website, but when they are available publicly, I'll put the info here.
This has been my favorite political ad of the campaign season. Not because I support Bennet, because I don't. He's nothing more than a yes man to the Democratic Party.
I love this ad because of the line "When I talked, he listened, even when I disagreed" (because Ricky disagrees with himself apparently).
I used to make jokes in the past whenever I made a big purchase -- a car, a TV, a computer -- and tell friends that Dana and I are welcoming a new addition to the DeVandry family.
Well, now it's the real thing. I'm gonna be a daddy.
Philippians 4:8 (ESV) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
After leaving Wall, Dana and I continued on our drive to Rapid City, SD. The home of Ellsworth Air Force Base, Rapid City provides a ton of potential activities for ambitious tourists. Since we were planning on being there for two days, Dana and I settled on visiting nearby Mt. Rushmore (a no-brainer choice), and -- based on glowing feedback from friends -- Bear Country U.S.A.
We arrived in Rapid City just as evening approached, and we headed straight for Mt. Rushmore. We made it just in time to witness the night's lighting ceremony. All of the lights from the viewing platform were turned off, and as patriotic background music filled the air, spotlights slowly lit up the faces on the monument. What an experience!
The next day was basically a rest day. After the hurried schedule of the previous day's effort to drive across South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore's night ceremony, we were exhausted. So we slept in, caught up on email (and in Aaron's case, online work), and headed out to Bear Country U.S.A. in the afternoon.
Bear Country is basically an animal park that visitors drive through in their own vehicles. We were given instructions upon entering to keep our windows up at all times in an effort to keep bears from climbing inside the car. Aside from the aforementioned black bears, Bear Country also housed arctic wolves, reindeer, rocky mountain elk, bighorn sheep, rocky mountain goats, mountain lions, timber wolves, mule deer, and bison!
I was curious to see how close the bears actually came to the cars as they drove through. They literally brushed against our SUV.
Did I mention that we saw bison?
We found an alley at the end of the drive lane and took advantage of it to go through the park three times. We LOVED Bear Country, and recommend it highly.
After finishing the drive, we parked and visited the BabyLand area of the park. This is where they keep some of the smaller critters in zoo-like enclosures. We saw raccoons, bobcats, a lynx, badgers, skunks, porcupines, beavers, and bear cubs. There were over a dozen cubs in their enclosure, and they played endlessly, challenging each other to a "king of the mountain" game at the tops of the trees.
The next day was the final day of our trip. We wanted to see Mt. Rushmore again (in the daylight), the Crazy Horse Memorial, and get home to Colorado that night.
Did you know that Mount Rushmore was carved by 400 men over the course of five years, hanging off ropes, and blasting away with dynamite -- and not one of them died throughout the process? That's amazing.
A big storm was announced on the loudspeaker at Mt. Rushmore warning of its pending arrival in about 15 minutes, and we knew we were about 15 minutes away from the Crazy Horse Memorial. So we rushed out to our car and tried to beat the rain.
We didn't quite make it in time, but we stopped at Crazy Horse anyway.
We soon realized how underrated the Crazy Horse Monument is. It is a mountain monument under construction in the Black Hills of South Dakota, in the form of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior, riding a horse and pointing into the distance.
The memorial consists of the mountain carving (monument), the Indian Museum of North America, and the Native American Cultural Center. The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain on land considered sacred by some Native Americans, between Custer and Hill City, roughly 8 miles (13 km) away from Mount Rushmore.
The sculpture's final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high. The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet (27 m) high; by comparison, the heads of the four U.S. Presidents at Mount Rushmore are each 60 feet (18 m) high.
The monument has been in progress since 1948 and is still far from completion. If it is ever finished, it may be the world's largest sculpture. The memorial has never accepted funding from the U.S. government, choosing to build their memorial using private donations only.
What fascinated me the most about this monument is that, unlike Mount Rushmore which was carved into the face of a mountain, this monument is being carved on all sides of a mountain. And it dwarfs the size of Mount Rushmore.
Here's a model of what the monument is planned to look like eventually (on the left):
We finished our incredible vacation by driving through Wyoming, where Dana went ballistic over catching a glimpse of a double rainbow.
We arrived in Sioux Falls rather late, and we left early in the next morning with plans to get to Mt. Rushmore on the other side of the state that evening -- so unfortunately we didn't get a chance to tour much of South Dakota's biggest city. I apologize to anyone out there who's really bummed to hear that.
The itinerary today was to travel west on Interstate 90 (see our route map for a visual picture) from Sioux Falls, SD to Rapid City, SD.
One thing to know about Interstate 90 is that there isn't much going on between towns. This results in local entrepreneurs finding ways to grab travelers' attention with outrageous displays, kooky signs, and anything out-of-the ordinary they can think of, like giant ox heads, or a 20-ft tall hammer (look to the right of the photo behind the billboard).
One of the most egregious examples of these attention-grabbing displays is the endless promotion of Wall Drug, using hundreds of billboards that dot the highway. There was literally a Wall Drug billboard every mile along the highway. These billboards promote free ice water, a T-Rex, a giant jackalope, a piano playing ape, homemade pie and donuts, 5 cent coffee... just see for yourself:
There are two particular types of Wall Drug billboards I like best. First, the ones that play up the mundane reasons you'd drive hundreds of miles to drive to a drug store. "Black Hills Maps", "Fresh baked donuts", "Homemade pie". All good things, but would you drive three hundred miles for a fresh donut?
Second, the special offers. "Free ice water", "Five cent coffee", "Free coffee for hunters". Hey, I wasn't planning on driving to Wall, SD, but that free ice water offer was too good to refuse!
The amazing part is that after seeing hundreds of these billboards, you just need to see this place. How good or bad does a place have to be, that they need hundreds of billboards to get people to stop? Or for that matter, a huge model of a brontosaurus?
More on Wall Drug later. You know, the part of the story when we actually get there.
So after about an hour on the road (or approximately 70 Wall Drug billboards), we stopped in Mitchell, SD. Mitchell is a small town known for it's Corn Palace. The Corn Palace was built during the Great Depression as a way to promote corn farming in the area. The outer walls of the Corn Palace, and some inner walls also, are re-decorated each year with a different theme using different colored corn cobs, which are stapled onto the walls.
At around noon, or approximately 210 Wall Drug billboards later, we stopped in Chamberlain, SD. Chamberlain is built right along the Missouri River, with basically divides South Dakota in half. We stopped for some pizza and sat out on the diner patio overlooking this peaceful section of America's longest river.
On the western side of the Missouri River is some of the most beautiful farm land I've ever seen. The clouds and the weather on this day helped, but I was able to take this photo which reminded me of my computer desktop wallpaper.
A couple hundred Wall Drug billboards later, and we found ourselves in Wall, SD. While known world wide as the location of the infamous Wall Drug store, Wall is also the Interstate exit to enter Badlands National Park.
Despite it's name, there's nothing inherently "bad" about Badlands Nat'l Park. Established in January 1939, Badlands is an enormous area marked by heavy erosion. Natural processes have uncovered and displayed a concentrated collection of rutted ravines, serrated towers, pinnacles, and precipitous gulches.
There were prairie dogs everywhere. Dana got a real kick out of them.
We were getting hungry by now and headed back into Wall to grab a bite to eat. Those homemade donuts sounded really good.
As we pulled up to the drugstore, I felt as if my life was complete.
Here's the story behind Wall Drug:
It is a sprawling shopping mall consisting of a drug store, gift shop, restaurants and various other stores. Unlike a traditional shopping mall, all the stores at Wall Drug operate under a single entity instead of being individually run stores.
The small town drugstore made its first step towards international fame when it was purchased by Ted Hustead in 1931. Hustead was a Nebraska native and pharmacist who was looking for a small town with a Catholic church in which to establish his business. He bought Wall Drug, located in a 231-person town in what he referred to as “the middle of nowhere”, and strove to make a living. Business was very slow until his wife, Dorothy, got the idea to advertise free ice water to parched travellers along the road. From that time on business was brisk. Wall Drug grew into an enormous cowboy-themed shopping mall/department store. Wall Drug includes a western art museum, a chapel based on the one found at New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque, Iowa, and an enormous 80 foot Apatosaurus that can be seen right off Interstate 90. It was designed by Emmet Sullivan who also created the dinosaurs at Dinosaur Park and Dinosaur World.
Wall Drug earns much of its fame from its self-promotion. Billboards advertising the establishment can be seen for hundreds of miles throughout South Dakota and the neighboring states. In addition, many visitors of Wall Drug have erected signs throughout the world announcing the miles to Wall Drug from famous locations. By 1981 Wall Drug was claiming it was giving away 20,000 cups of water per day during the peak tourist season, lasting from Memorial Day until Labor Day, and during the hottest days of the summer.
To date, Wall Drug still offers free ice water, but as they have become more popular, they have started to offer free bumper stickers, signs to aid in promotion, and coffee for 5 cents. One popular free bumper sticker reads “Where the heck is Wall Drug?”
Wall Drug has been featured in Time Magazine as one of the largest tourist attractions in the north. They have over 500 miles of bill boards on Interstate 90, stretching from Minnesota to Billings, Montana. Wall Drug spends an estimated $400,000 on bill board signs every year.
Wall Drug is a tourist trap, and it certainly trapped us.
Here's the map of Wall Drug:
They really do go overboard to make it the most interesting drug store the world has ever known.
And finally... the free ice water.
After about an hour, we headed out to Rapid City and Mount Rushmore. We had plans to get to Mt. Rushmore in time to see the nightly lighting ceremony. That will be in my next blog post, where I'll also explain this:
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