Rapid City Journal from Rapid City, South Dakota • 37

a Arts Calendar, D2 Bridal, D4, 5 0 In Our Schools, D6, 7 Sunday June 1 1 2006 iii 0y mm without breaking your budget. Indulge in a daylong vacation to Wall and the Badlands, where ice water, art, history, kitsch and stunning beauty await Editor's note: With gasoline prices nearing $3 a gallon, the Rapid City Journal is offering a series of stories on travel within one day's drive of Rapid City. This, the first in the series, highlights Wall Drug and surrounding attractions. By Klndra Gordon Special to the Journal I all Drug Is widely known through Its I A I legendary billboards and bumper stickers. If But when was the last time you actually got off Interstate 90 and took time to browse through this nearly 100-year-old drugstore? Sitting 50 miles east of Rapid City on Interstate 90, Wall Drug and Badlands National Park make a surprisingly enjoyable Sunday or any day of the week drive." Today, Wall Drug consumes most of the town's Main Street.

It has grown from what was a simple small-town drug store in the 1930s to a shopping emporium complete with a Western art gallery and clothing store, a bookstore stocked with a varied selection by regional authors, a fudge shop, rock shop and jewelry store. Its claim to fame is, of course, many of its kitschy items that fit every tourist's fancy -including jackalopes, turd birds and unique T-shirts. How Wall Drug got its start Established in 1909, Wall Drug was like many other pharmacies of its day, until it was bought by Ted Hustead and his wife, rr. 1 1 i Above: A tourist takes a slow, easy drive along Highway 240 through Badlands National Park. Stopping at points of interest is the best way to view the scenery.

At right: One of the display rooms in the Wounded Knee Museum in Wall. New exhibits are being added to the museum including a children's corner that will teach about Lakota life. 1, BI roaring T. rex, a 6-foot Jackalope, a buckin' horse to climb on, and. of course, the famous free ice water.

Kids can also tour a replica of a gold mine and pan for their very own gems. Badlands beauty While visiting Wall, be sure to take in the beauty of Badlands National Park. The park is open year-round, and the main entrance is about 10 miles south of Wall on S.D. Highway 240. This road, also known as the Badlands Loop Road, will take you on a 38-mile scenic drive showcasing the park's tinted spires and multicolored rock formations mostly created by wind and water erosion.

Buffalo, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, mule deer and prairie dogs may be glimpsed throughout the park. The road has many pullouts for scenic vistas and offers marked hiking trails. One of the most popular trails is the one-fourth-mile Fossil Exhibit Trail, which is wheelchair accessible. Along the trail are exhibits of some of the 30-million-year-old fossils of three-toed horses, saber -toothed cats, and giant rhinoceros-like beasts called titanotheres that have been discovered among the rugged landscape of the Badlands. Within the park, the Ben Reifel Visitor Center includes natural history exhibits, books about the area, and a film highlighting the park.

Next I door, Cedar Pass Lodge offers a gift shop with pottery, beadwork and jewelry, as well as the traditional souvenirs of postcards, T-shirts and coffee mugs. During the summer season, the lodge's restaurant serves Indian tacos, trout, steaks and buffalo burgers. (There's even a campground and small cabins for rent, call 433-5361 for more information.) The Cafe in nearby Interior also has a steady stream of tourists and locals for their food fare, including a great Indian taco. The Badlands Loop Road connects with 1-90 See Day trip, Page D9 Dorothy, in 1931. After five years of rather dismal business during the Great Depression, Dorothy had a brainstorm to put signs on the highway offering free ice water at Wall Drug.

The promotion began to attract weary travelers from the dusty prairie, and shortly thereafter. Wall Drug was no longer only a pharmacy. The Western store, restaurant and souvenir merchandise were soon added to their offering. In the 70 years since, the Wall Drug billboards have spread around the globe and many continue to promote free ice water. Today, the third generation of Husteads operate the gussied-up drugstore on Wall's Main Street.

Open year-round, it still houses a pharmacy, but it mainly caters to tourists, with as many as 20,000 visitors a day stopping at Wall Drug during the peak summer season. For Black Hills residents, it's the perfect destination for a Sunday drive, breakfast and browsing. The restaurant features 5-cent coffee and homemade doughnuts, or if you're there for dinner, try the buffalo burger and a slice of homemade pie. Also, be sure to take a gander at the silver dollar collection in the restaurant's countertop, with dates ranging from 1878 to 1928. Other must-see attractions are one of the best Western art galleries in the region, and several historical photographs, original paintings and sculptures on display throughout the facility some by Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Bor-glum and South Dakota native Harvey Dunn.

Amid the shopping is memorabilia, wooden cowboy and Indian figures and even a Travelers Chapel for a quiet moment of reflection. Wall Drug's Back Yard is geared for children, with a ill Kv l1 5 Photos by Don Polovich Journal staff Posing atop the giant jackalope is a popular stop in Wall Drug's Back Yard. It's summer: Bring on the marshmallows 3 1 Lvnn enjoyed only when children were fast asleep in the tent. But no, he had to blab it all over the playground, and here we are allowing our kids to brandish hot fork prongs in the dark. Ah yes, summer is really here.

And despite the bruises, sticky marshmallows and the dirt, I really am glad. I love summer, and I plan to enjoy every second of it. But first, I need to pick up a few things. First on the list, antibiotic cream and marshmallows. Taylor I know it's summer.

I can tell by the shins. And the marshmallows stuck to the bottom of my sandals. And my kids' nightly bath water, a subtle shade of gray that leaves small piles of dirt and sand around the drain. In the case of the shins, it's not just the shins. It's the entire leg really.

All six legs, in fact. Lately, I spend time every evening applying antibiotic cream and Band-Aids to the legs of our three daughters. They are bruised, scraped, blistered and any combination of the above. It is not a crackers. Of course, the ritual is never complete until all hands and faces are covered in marshmallow goo and someone says, "1 have a stomach ache." Who invented this concoction, anyway? Whoever they were, they didn't have kids.

If they did. they would have recognized the danger of burning marshmallows being thrust into your face while the small person gripping the other end of the stick screams. "It's on fire. Blow it out." My father-in-law is a tad jumpy around the marshmallow roasting campfire precise hiking hill three times a day and not have a little evidence. On a recent camping trip, she fell onto the sharp rocks in the creek, ran weeping to me and was back on the same rocks before her tears dried.

Bring on the bruises. Which brings me to the marshmallows or somewhere near the marshmallows. Another way I know it's summer: s'mores. I think that every camping trip we've ever taken involves the nightly ritual of marshmallows, chocolate that won't melt properly and graham ly because of this phenomenon. Years ago, a camper catapulted a marshmallow (by accident) across the fire and onto his face.

It stuck there while on fire. As you can imagine, he does a far amount of ducking and bobbing when my kids roast marshmallows around him. So do I. Nothing spurs your adrenaline into gear like the combination of kids, darkness, hot fork prongs and burning marshmallows. If the inventor of this treat had had kids, s'mores would have remained a deep, dark adult secret; something pretty sight.

Our 4-year-old looks as though she has been dragged through the brush. She hasn't, of course. Her legs are entirely of her own making. The fact is, you just can't wreck your bike, fall into the creek and tumble down a Contact Lynn Taylor Rick at 394-8414 or iynn.taylorrickrapidcityjournal.com. Ca pa km qaostlottt or comnmRts abort this section? Call Deb Holland 394-8416.

Toll free: 1-800-843-2330 ext. 8418..