cross-country trip day 6: rapid city, sd to mitchell, sd

Alex was greatly recovered this morning, so we got on the road at around 9:30 and headed east. It was a busy day, which started with the famous Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD, where we drank deeply of their famous ice water, bought a few souvenirs, and gazed upon the jackelope and T-Rex in the backyard.

It was a good thing we drank plenty of ice water--and carried cold drinks in our cooler--because it was HOT HOT HOT in the Badlands. I took a picture when my car's outside temperature gauge showed 106 degrees, thinking that was as hot as it would get. I was wrong. At one point it actually went as high as 109. As a result, we kept our stops very short, took some photos, and got back into the air conditioned comfort of our cars. Still, it was spectacular.

We arrived in Mitchell, SD, at about 7pm (local time; we crossed from Mountain to Central time along the way). After settling into a lovely suite at the Hampton Inn, we headed out to see the Corn Palace, which was everything I expected. The boys were only able to tolerate about 30 minutes of it, after which we grabbed KFC for dinner and headed back here to relax.

Oh...and we got great news today. It seems our tenants decided to leave a week early, which means we'll be able to move right back into our house as soon as we arrive. So we could arrive back in our house as early as this Friday, if all goes as planned. Yay!