(Pictured above: Excited at the start of our trip!; We made it to South Dakota!, and Ally sitting on my lap. For the. Entire. Car ride.)
Chances are, you've never heard of Wall, SD. It's a town in the middle of nowhere (which is pretty much all of South Dakota). According to the free brochure we picked up at a rest stop today, only 824 people live in this town. It does, however, have a claim to fame: a drugstore. Weird, I know. Apparently this drug store started giving out "free ice water!" to travelers years ago, put up advertising billboards in other continents (although none in any of the 5 U.S. states I've lived in, which seems an odd marketing tactic) and somehow started convincing weary travelers that Wall, SD was a good place to stop on their journey across America. It is now the Tourist Trap of all tourist traps. You have never seen so many silver "collector's" spoons, shot glasses and souvenir t shirts as you will at Wall Drug. And I've been to many amusement parks in my day, so that's saying a lot. There are also a myriad of statues and mythical animals that you can get your picture taken with if you have to patience for it. We did not, so we only got a couple shots - I'll post tomorrow when my phone is being more cooperative.
But it is still also a drugstore. I mention this because while we would have gone to Wall Drug to solely to check out what I like to call the "trinkets & trash," I did in fact need a few drugstore-type items tonight, including deodorant, which I already mentioned that I forgot; ibuprofen, for the hangover I am almost certain to have at some point on this trip; & diapers (no I am not the type of mom who would forget to pack diapers on a 10 day road trip...more to come on this in a moment). All items which Wall Drug did in fact carry. But I was shocked and disappointed to find that they don't stock LAUNDRY DETERGENT. That's right, you can buy a bearskin rug and fine jewelry at this joint but you absolutely cannot buy laundry detergent. Go figure.
Why would I need laundry detergent on only the 2nd day of my vacation, you ask? Because my daughter peed through her diaper 3 times today. So doing laundry is my evening activity of choice tonight instead of the fun night of drinking wine and playing cards with my hubby that I had planned. Well, OK, obviously I'm still drinking some wine...just while I'm doing laundry. So I guess life could be worse. And, ironically, this night WAS a whole lot worse exactly one year ago today, when one of people I loved most in this world passed away. One of her all-time favorite things to do was go camping. It seems fitting that I am on an RV road trip today. Miss you, Grammie.
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