#1118 Home Sweet Home

Sweeney said:
HAHAHAHA!!!!!

Their biscuits and gravy are pretty good too.

Wall drug is a hype shop. It has been since 2014 since we've been there, but ... I want to go back. We've tried to go twice now, it just hasn't worked. We stayed at Sylvan Lake and it was one of the best trips we've ever taken. Just see Crazy Horse after Rushmore...
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Hehe, agree its the Americana hype left from the era of Rte66. Its on the way to that big bike party too. Which is iconic in its way too.
 

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Ken & Peggy said:
1st visit to Wall Drug for me was 1967 on a tent camping trip from Chicago to California and back in the '64 Impala wagon with mom dad & 2 brothers. Next visit was 1984 with Peggy and our 2 oldest kids, with the SAME Sears canvas tent...
A must-see, and a total tourist trap ;)
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Ah yes, the memories come flooding back. The big old Ted Williams Approved cabin tent. The canvas tent bag itself must have weighed about 80lbs, then there was the separate large bag of heavy duty aluminum poles that probably weighed another 40lbs, that had to be assembled, once you figured out which piece goes with another. However it did sleep a family of 6, with the boys in the left side room and the girls on the right, with a table in the center room with a Coleman lantern hissing above it with the brightness of about a 200 watt bulb, and even more heat. The nice thing about the Coleman was that who ever got the job turning it off for the night had the benefit of it's slow burn down as a night lite as they headed back to their sleeping bag, but also that final acrid smell of the final fumes coming off the mantel. But it was what planted the camping bug in our minds, that all the kids(now all retired) still continue to enjoy. Thank you CI, and thank you Clam & Gazelle! You made it so much easier and fun!!
 
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dustinp said:
Ah yes, the memories come flooding back. The big old Ted Williams Approved cabin tent. The canvas tent bag itself must have weighed about 80lbs, then there was the separate large bag of heavy duty aluminum poles that probably weighed another 40lbs, that had to be assembled, once you figured out which piece goes with another. However it did sleep a family of 6, with the boys in the left side room and the girls on the right, with a table in the center room with a Coleman lantern hissing above it with the brightness of about a 200 watt bulb, and even more heat. The nice thing about the Coleman was that who ever got the job turning it off for the night had the benefit of it's slow burn down as a night lite as they headed back to their sleeping bag, but also that final acrid smell of the final fumes coming off the mantel. But it was what planted the camping bug in our minds, that all the kids(now all retired) still continue to enjoy. Thank you CI, and thank you Clam & Gazelle! You made it so much easier and fun!!
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Ah, the Coleman lantern. The glow of... oh wait, that's A Christmas Story. We still use that lantern when without electricity. That was that tent's last year of use :( The main reason was that somewhere between '67 and '84 my dad had let somebody use it, and they had squared off some of the poles, I'm guessing so they'd remember which went where. A nightmare to assemble and disassemble!
The next year we bought a dome tent to camp in circumventing Lake Michigan and Superior, where we were greeted by 45°, rain, and at one point near tornadic winds.
So, next was a used pop-up, which we had until all 4 kids were well into/out of their teens. :)
 
Ken & Peggy said:
Ah, the Coleman lantern. The glow of... oh wait, that's A Christmas Story. We still use that lantern when without electricity. That was that tent's last year of use :( The main reason was that somewhere between '67 and '84 my dad had let somebody use it, and they had squared off some of the poles, I'm guessing so they'd remember which went where. A nightmare to assemble and disassemble!
The next year we bought a dome tent to camp in circumventing Lake Michigan and Superior, where we were greeted by 45°, rain, and at one point near tornadic winds.
So, next was a used pop-up, which we had until all 4 kids were well into/out of their teens. :)
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Hate to say it, but the folks your dad lent the tent to probably did you a favor! A good excuse to get something more user friendly ;)
Gitche Gumee can serve up some real bone chilling winds no matter what time of year it is. A CI would have been a real vaca saver at that point.:eek:
 
dustinp said:
Hate to say it, but the folks your dad lent the tent to probably did you a favor! A good excuse to get something more user friendly ;)
Gitche Gumee can serve up some real bone chilling winds no matter what time of year it is. A CI would have been a real vaca saver at that point.:eek:
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Haha! We felt the same! Our 'new' shock corded dome tent was one of a few left standing after some very high winds at Silver Lake SP in Michigan.
 
We took a photo of each and every 'wall drug' sign on 90 as we crossed South Dakota and Minnesota. I can't tell you how many of the photos we took on that trip of other things -- but it was not a crazy amount. We have 900+ photos in that album...

It seems like every mile or two there was a "Free ice water" sign or some other such sign. It makes me wonder....who maintains those? Its obviously key to their marketing...crazy fun. I really want to get back up in that neck of the woods. I've been there on motorcycle in 1999 or 2000, then again in 2014. Its time to go back.

It was amazing to me to see the damage done by the beetles in the black hills. Sickening in fact.


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