Oh yeah, I’m talkin’ bout bears. Lots of them. Up close.
Anyone who grew up in SoCal remembers Lion Country Safari, where you drove your own car through free-roaming fields of exotic wild animals. This was the same concept, although instead of lions, tigers and bears (oh my!), the star attractions here were just the bears.
There were other animals too, some native to the region (big horn sheep, elk, mountain lions, bison) and some, not so much. (Dahl sheep, reindeer, arctic wolves—did an Alaskan drive-through park go out of business or something?)
It was feeding time when we got there. The elk and reindeer were face-down in the feeding troughs, which was fine—I’d seen my share of elk up close at the Grand Canyon, and even pet some reindeer in Alaska. What I hadn’t seen in those places were bears!
We scooted through the arctic wolves section, where the wolves were all gnawing on big hunks of meat. They were pretty cool, but just kinda looked like white dogs. Wild dogs eating hunks of raw meat.
Next up were the Dahl sheep and big horn sheep. One big guy was standing atop his trough, and looking around at the flat ground all around. I felt kinda bad for him. This was a sheep used to climbing stuff—he needed some kind of vertical structure to conquer, something taller than his feeding trough.
Then it was on to the main attraction—the bears! We squealed excitedly at our first sighting, a lazy black bear ambling across the road. Little did we know there were about 35 others just around the corner…
The bears were super cool. Even though, technically, they were all black bears, they came in all different colors—black, brown, tan. The keeper told us it’s like us all being human, but having different colored hair. Some looked a little raggedy and worse for the wear, and I wondered if they were hot in their thick coats and the humid South Dakota weather. I was already sweating, even at 8 a.m., without a big furry coat—I could only imagine how the heat affected them.
The bears were in various states of activity; some were out for a morning stroll, some had claimed a spot and were already napping (or maybe they hadn’t yet started their day). It was awesome to be so close to them—you could really see how big they were, how thick and imposing they looked, even just walking around on all four legs. These were black bears, so they weren’t as scary or imposing as grizzly bears, but I wouldn't want to come across any of these guys while hiking or camping.
We stayed in the bear section a long time. The bears were lazy, lolling about, but endlessly fascinating. I don't plan to be that close to a bear again (at least, not outside of a car!), so I made this time count.
Behind the bears were cages of mountain lions, also gnawing on hunks of meat. They were so cool, lithe and tawny, pacing back and forth, growling over the meat. A couple lionesses had cubs with them, and we could see them peeking out of the caves.
Finally, we rolled on to the next enclosure, with the bison. There was one mom and two small calves, breakfasting on tall prairie grass. The little calves were so cute. One kept running off from its mom, who eyed us warily, and snorted at the little calf to return. Protective Mom made us a little nervous, so we snapped a couple more pics, then moved over to the male bison.
He was also eating. We let out a collective gasp at his sheer size—that was one BIG buff! His head alone was humongous, so big I was surprised his body could support it. He must have one strong neck! (You could see his front legs were set further back on his body to help balance him out.) Again, I was amazed to think that an animal who eats only grass could get so large—he must eat a football-sized field of grass a day!
The big bison tolerated our stares and snapping camera for a few minutes before he lifted his head and snorted at us. Suddenly, our car felt very small, and not all that protected—that bison could’ve easily tipped us over and banged us up if he’d wanted to. We heeded his warning, and drove off.
The last section of the “zoo” housed two big, golden grizzly bears. They were gorgeous, busily searching for food, and showing off their massive paws and muscles.
There were also cages of smaller native animals, such as badgers, foxes and even river otters. We passed by the raccoons and skunks quickly (got those in Cali!), stopping briefly to look at the porcupine. Then we got to our favorite exhibit of all—the baby bears!
There must’ve been 20 little critters scampering all around. The baby bears tackled each other, wrestled each other, stealthily attacked each from behind. They were a flurry of activity, never stopping, never slowing down, like a pack of wild kindergartners all hopped up on sugar. They clawed and smacked each other, and were just so cute, I wanted to take one home immediately.
Until…the keeper stopped working long enough to tell us we wouldn’t last 30 seconds before bringing those adorable little teddy bears back.
“They’d tear up the interior of your car before you even got out of the parking lot,” she said, and true enough, they were climbing and biting on her the minute she stood still. They attacked her, and the rake she was holding, swatted at the shovel she carried, and tore out huge clumps of grass from the ground. They never stopped moving, or destroying stuff, and I realized they were only cute from afar.
The animals were great, but we had a whole state to drive across, so we skedaddled out of there. It was time to move on to the other side of South Dakota!
As we drove out of town, I saw a simple, tiny billboard sign that said, “The sheriff is at Wall Drug.” The sign intrigued me, because I'd seen a similar one in Wyoming. I didn’t know what or where Wall Drug was, and couldn’t figure out why the sheriff would be there.
Over the next two hours, we were inundated with Wall Drug signs. They tried luring us in with 5 cent coffee and free ice water. They promised dinosaurs and homemade donuts, pie and ice cream. You could buy Black Hills gold or camping gear. The signs boasted of western wear for all—“We dress everyone in the family, even the horse!” And sometimes, the signs just had a happy little message: Dig it, Wall Drug. Kids love Wall Drug. Something to crow about, Wall Drug. My favorite had a funny little pig wearing sunglasses and said, “Be yourself, Wall Drug.” The signs worked—we couldn’t wait to get there, and see what Wall Drug was really all about.
There were two exits for Wall Drug, and we took the first one because we were too excited to drive another mile. We’d finally pulled off the freeway, and were 10 feet from the parking lot, clapping our hands excitedly. We could see the signs pointing where to park, when suddenly the car ahead of us stopped. I heard a clanging bell, then saw the red lights and the red-and-white barrier go down.
A train crossing! Seriously, we’d driven two hours to get here, and at the last moment, we were thwarted by a TRAIN CROSSING?
Wall Drug--so close, and yet so far! (And is that a dog driving the RV??)To make matters even worse, the train wasn’t even crossing—it stopped right in front of us, and started filling the tanks from a nearby silo. We couldn’t see how many tanks the train was pulling, but based on all the trains we’d seen across the country so far, it was going to be a LOT. We stared at the Wall Drug parking sign for another minute before finally turning around and heading back to the freeway. Wall Drug was calling us, and we would not be stopped! We got back onto the highway, and took the next exit which was, thankfully, on the other side of the train tracks.
Wall Drug was crazy! I’d envisioned a giant drug store, like the name conjures up, but it was more of a shopping center. Or actually, a shopping town, since there were stores on both sides of the street. They were crazy stores, too, saloons, and souvenir shops, restaurants and jewelry stores. One building even had a tiny little traveler’s chapel, in case you wanted to pray a while or get married (hey, honeymooners get free coffee and donuts!).
The backyard had all sorts of wacky things to take pictures of, so we took full advantage. It was hilarious! Totally random and weird, but funny. I realized that South Dakotans are a smart, resourceful group, very savvy in luring tourists into their state, and getting them to spend lots of money.
Tales of the jackalope (shout out to you, Fera-Schanes'!)
Pioneer Heather, driving the wagon train
Edra, about to be shot in a card game. Cheatin' is not tolerated!We drove on for a while, until we were surprised by another random sign. This one informed us that we’d just left the Mountain time zone, and entered the Central time zone. Just like that, traveling through the middle of the state, we lost an hour. Must be kinda weird knowing that half your state is in one time zone, while the other half is an hour ahead/behind.
There was nothing in between Rapid City and Wall Drug, or between Wall Drug and…wherever we were. As far as you looked, there was nothing, except tall prairie grass and those monstrous hay bales.
"Look at that," Edra said, moving her head slowly from one side of the car to the other. "Three-hundred and sixty degree view of...nothing!" She was right!
We finally pulled off the highway to eat lunch, stopping at a cute little motel with two picnic tables on the lawn. A gardener was watering the plants and tending to the landscape, and I wondered how he could do all that in jeans and boots—it was blazing hot out there!
Well, I had my answer soon enough. I sent Mark to the table with our lunch, and suddenly, he started screaming about mosquitoes. I told him to calm down, they were just little white flies, not mosquitoes. I sat down beside him, and was about to say, “See?” when five giant mosquitoes attacked my foot! They clomped on like starving people at a buffet. I screamed louder than Mark.
Mark and I both ran off the lawn, still screaming. I completely doused us in Deet, staining my shoes in the process, but I didn't even care (I also got it on the car--took the paint right off the interior!). Edra calmly applied a much smaller bit of organic repellent.
The gardener, who was watering the plants, just stared, not exactly sure what was wrong with us. He probably couldn’t believe we’d sat down there in the first place. But we learned from that mistake—for the rest of the trip, we sat only at tables on gravel, and stayed far, far away from tables sitting on grass!
Our next stop was a couple hours away, in Mitchell, SD. Which happens to be home of the Corn Palace! That’s right, an entire theatre decorated completely in dried corn! I’d been looking forward to this the whole trip… (Yes, I know, I need a life!)
And I was not disappointed! There it was, in all it’s corny glory, giant green spires rising into the sky, and corn-cob murals decorating all the exterior walls. The docent told us that not only is it the only corn palace in the world, it’s also the world’s biggest bird feeder. I totally believed her.
The murals outside change annually, but this year’s was late, due to all the flooding in the Midwest. A local farmer plants and donates 100 acres of corn to the palace to decorate with, but because of the floods and late planting, this year’s harvest was still growing.
There were more murals inside. There were permanent murals, depicting the animals of and life in South Dakota, all in corn. It was so crazy, I almost couldn’t stand it.
There was a souvenir shop in the middle, so I loaded up on goodies, including a genuine corn cob pipe for my snowman-building nieces and nephews. In the midst of my shopping, a giant corn cob (Cornelius!) walked by, and I grabbed him for a quick photo.
Mark tried to chow down on Cornelius.Because our hotel was an hour away and we weren’t sure any restaurants would be nearby or open, we ate dinner at the Palace. I excitedly bought corn dogs and corn on the cob (I love a theme!) from the snack bar, but was disappointed to find they were both microwaved. (And then I was even more disappointed in myself for being disappointed—was I really expecting a gourmet meal at a theatre made out of corn??)
The next stop was our last of the day, and the one Mark was most looking forward to. It was our hotel, which was not all that exciting, except that it had an indoor waterpark! Mark couldn’t wait to get in that…
As a hotel guest, we got free passes to the waterpark, but they also sell day passes. So the park was filled mostly with locals and their kids trying to escape the heat and have some summer fun.
The waterpark was cool. It had a giant three-story tall water slide, which sent us flying into the water with such force, I worried about wardrobe malfunctions and what felt like a chlorinated nasal enema. Any potentially clogged up nasal passages were cleared with a vengeance!
Mark dug the water slide, and the kid’s pool. The kid’s pool had tethered logs and a rope above them, and Mark spent a good two hours climbing across them. (He only gave up after the ropes blistered his hands.) The logs were wiggly and had big gaps between them, which made it hard to get across. There were also two water cannons manned at all times by other swimmers, so Mark tried making it past before the kids blasted him off.
I noticed something very different about South Dakota. The kids were a lot…rougher. They grow ‘em tough in SD, because these kids weren’t your average playful type. They were tough, out for blood. They knocked Mark down with a gleeful bloodlust. When kids jumped out of the water, they kicked them back in, or kicked him off the sides. I tried to stay out of it and let Mark take care of himself, but when one particular bully shoved Mark head first into the water, I had enough. The kid knew it too, and came over to apologize before I could come yell at him.
But it wasn’t just that kid, it was all the kids. They tried drowning each other, and hit each other constantly. There wasn’t any cooperative play or friendly competition; these kids were just genuinely out to hurt each other. I mean, I grew up with three brothers, and they were always beating the crap out of me, but even with us, the fighting was more bickering than intent to kill. We eventually ended up racing each other or playing together, but I never saw any of that friendly competition with these kids.
I even watched a dad (or uncle?) twist his son’s/nephew’s arm backwards, until the kid cried out in pain. The guy finally get go, and the kid swam off, screaming how mean the man was. So I knew how those kids came by their bad attitudes honestly, and I was profoundly grateful we were just driving through Sioux City.
We stayed in the waterpark a good two hours straight, and Mark was begging for longer, event after they kicked us out. We put in a lot of driving hours, and were still in the same state we’d awoken, albeit on the other side. But we saw lots of cool animals, advertising and even a corn palace, so I deemed it another successful, adventurous day.
No comments:
Post a Comment