South Dakota: Monday travels

After morning prayer and breakfast with the monks, it was time to hit the road....Black Hills or bust! On the way, however...we stopped at a couple of must see attractions. Just two hours southwest of the abbey was the famous town of De Smet...home to the Ingalls Family Homestead. This is where Pa built the little house for the setting of Little Town on the Prairie, and the Long Winter. It was here where Laura met Almanzo Wilder...her future husband. We had a fun time exploring the grounds and even tried our hand at making our own rope...which came in very handy for tying stuff down on the bike trip! De Smet is named for Father Pierre-Jean De Smet...a Roman Catholic priest of Belgian origin whose missionary journeys rivaled those of St. Paul! The "Apostle of the Rocky Mountains" crisscrossed the Great Plains and the Rockies on numerous occassions bringing the gospel to the various Native American tribes. Known simply and beloved by the Indians as the "Black Robe," he helped engineer the peace treaty of 1868 at Ft. Laramie. Many Indians and even some white Protestants came to the Faith through his tireless work. Today, his statue stands outside one of early churches he founded. Just a little ways outside De Smet...lies the town of Huron...home to the World's Largest Pheasant. I mean this is a giant bird that looms over the highway...you just have to see it! After a quick swing through Pierre (pronounced Pier by the locals) to see the State Capitol...it was on to the famous Wall Drug store...the biggest tourist trap in America. Tiny Wall was a nondescript little outpost on the prairie mostly a ranching community in the 1930's. A new pharmacist and his wife came to town to open up their first store. Business was slow to say the least...but finally after a couple of years...the wife hit upon a golden idea. Tired of hearing the endless drone of motorcars passing the nearby highway...she realized what might make them stop. Free Ice Water! What else would tired and thirsty motorists want? Before the signs were finished being put up...motorists were headed to the store. Today, the huge complex includes restaurants, kids attractions, novelty shops, and of course...free ice water. Signs every couple of hundred yards advertise Wall Drug....GI's during WW11, Korea, and Vietnam even posted Wall Drug signs with mileage from those places! Everything seems to lead to Wall Drug, so stop we did for a quick look. After Wall, it was on to Custer where we dropped off our car and waited for the taxi that would take us up to the trailhead for the beginning of our bike trip! Enjoy the pics!