Stupendous Serendipity!

On July 4, 2012, we receive an email from Brooke while he and his family were on their big trip:  “Guess who we found at Wall Drug Store when we took an unplanned stop ...?:)”

Jan, Brent, Naomi, Amanda.  Jonathan, Brigitte, Karlton, Klarissa, Isaak, Brooke, Elizabeth.

 That is such an amazing coincidence.
They hadn’t talked on the phone, text, or emailed.

Brooke and Elizabeth had been traveling

for nearly four weeks

and were in South Dakota on their return home.

Brent, Jan and family had come out from Kansas City

to her family reunion on June 22.

They left here on Friday night planning to spend

a couple of days with her sister in Idaho Falls

then drive through Yellowstone on their way home.

What are the chances

of them running into each other

at the famous Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota,

on the 4^th of July?

Brent, Isaak, Naomi, Amanda, Brigitte, Karlton, Jan, Jonathan.  Klarissa, Brooke.

Karlton, Klarissa, Isaak at Mount Rushmore

Two new faces at Mount Rushmore (Jonathan & Jan)

Amanda, Jan, Jonathan, Naomi dipping toes in Missouri River by Chamberlain, South Dakota

 Last report of their extended journey,

on Sat, July 7, 2012 at 12:08 AM

sending one last picture of the kids

pushing and pulling a handcart at Martin’s Cove,

Elizabeth, Klarissa, Brigitte, Karlton, Isaak

Brooke wrote:

“Made it home sweet home about 11:30 PM.

Wish it weren’t over.”

They were gone 4 weeks and one day,

maybe setting a record for a road trip

in a mini-van with six people

who didn’t even kill each other.

Naomi, Amanda

According to Jonathan on Facebook,

Brent, Jan and family arrived home at 5 AM on July 5^th.

History of Wall Drug

The small town drugstore made its first step towards fame when it was purchased by Ted Hustead in 1931. Hustead was a Nebraska native and pharmacist who was looking for a small town with a Catholic church in which to establish his business. He bought Wall Drug, located in a 231-person town in what he referred to as "the middle of nowhere", and strove to make a living. Business was very slow until his wife, Dorothy, got the idea to advertise free ice water to parched travellers heading to the newly-opened Mount Rushmore monument 60 miles (97 km) to the west. From that time on business was brisk. Wall Drug grew into a cowboy-themed shopping mall/department store. Wall Drug includes a western art museum, a chapel based on the one found at New Melleray Abbey near Dubuque, Iowa, and an 80-foot (24 m) Apatosaurus that can be seen right off Interstate 90.

Wall Drug earns much of its fame from its self-promotion. Billboards advertising the establishment can be seen for hundreds of miles throughout South Dakota and the neighboring states.

  In addition, many visitors of Wall Drug have erected signs throughout the world announcing the miles to Wall Drug from famous locations, treating it as a geodesic datum. By 1981* Wall Drug was claiming it was giving away 20,000 cups of water per day during the peak tourist season, lasting from Memorial Day until Labor Day, and during the hottest days of the summer.

Wall Drug today

The Wall Drug Dinosaur

To date, Wall Drug still offers free ice water, but as they have become more popular, they have started to offer free bumper stickers and signs to aid in promotion, and coffee for 5 cents. Some popular free bumper stickers read "Where the heck is Wall Drug?", "How many miles to Wall Drug?", and "Where in the world is Wall Drug?".

Back when the U.S. Air Force was still operating Minuteman Missile silos in the Western South Dakota plains, Wall Drug used to offer free coffee and donuts to service personnel if they stopped in on their way to/from Ellsworth AFB (50 miles (80 km) west on Interstate 90). Wall Drug continues to offer free coffee and a donut to honeymooners, veterans, priests, hunters, truck drivers, and other travelers.

Ted Hustead died in 1999. The following day, the governor of South Dakota began his annual State of the State address by commemorating Hustead as "a guy that figured out that free ice water could turn you into a phenomenal success in the middle of a semi-arid desert way out in the middle of someplace."

In 1981, Wall Drug was featured in Time Magazine of the largest tourist attractions in the north.  In his 1989 book The Lost Continent, Bill Bryson wrote, "It's an awful place, one of the world's worst tourist traps, but I loved it and I won't have a word said against it."

 *1981.  The year we were there.

Exactly 31 years ago,

when Brent was 18 and Brooke was 9-1/2,

It was officially Brent's graduation trip.

we took our family on a historical trip back east

in the motorhome.

We stopped at Wall Drug.

Where are the pictures?

I thought I had all our pictures in albums.

I found one blurry picture of

Brooke and Amy riding a buffalo.

Monday, June 1, 1981 - 
Lunch on the banks of the Missouri River by Chamberlain, South Dakota.

Search.  Search.  Search.

Six-hundred colored slides still in a box in the basement.

Virtually all of our children’s childhood pictures.

Thus the quest began to transfer them to the computer.
From Saturday afternoon
until Tuesday night
DeRay spent nearly every moment
solving one problem after another
until he finally got 40 pictures digitized.
For 19 cents each,
Sam's would have done it.
What is the challenge in that?

Brooke on Jackalope; Amy Lyn on pony

Ride'um Jackalopeboy Ed

Amy Pioneer; Jeanne Indian Chief
From my journal: Wall Drug – free ice water!

We stopped at the famous Wall Drug in Wall and drank free ice water, bought T-shirts and took pictures.  Ate lunch on the banks of the Missouri River by Chamberlain, South Dakota.

“We are seeing what we came to see.  Isn’t it beautiful?” Eddy exclaims.

Eddy holding Roger, a revered member of the family, at Mt. Rushmore

And yes, Amanda and Naomi,

we dressed up too!

Ed, Jeanne, Amy Lyn, Mom, Brooke

Eddy, Jeanne, Amy, Mom, Brooke

Wall Drug not only serves free ice water,

it unites families and memories.