On the Road Again!

We left Provo Friday afternoon and headed towards Ben and Becky's home in North Dakota.  Before going into the MTC I was reading a book by Richard Paul Evans, The Road to Grace.  It was about a young man who had lost his wife and was walking across the United States from Washington state to Florida.  He was actually walking through an area that Scott and I would be going through so I was intrigued when he began to talk about Wall Drugs.  Apparently in 1931 Ted and Dorothy Hustead decided to strike out on their own and open a drug store in Wall, South Dakota.  Things didn't go as well as they had hoped and after a few years they thought they would have to close down and move somewhere else.  One day Dorothy had an idea and told Ted to paint a few signs offering "free ice water" at Wall Drugs.  That was the beginning of a local success story.  Pretty soon they were so busy just keeping up with the purchases that were made after the customers accepted the free ice water.  Those water signs developed into signs placed from each side of South Dakota facing toward Wall Drugs.  Now they advertise free coffee for Vets, Wall Drug.  33 miles to go, All Roads Lead to Wall Drug. We saw many of them and I kick myself for not stopping to take some pictures.  They were simple but effective and if it hadn't been Sunday we would have stopped and bought something!

I love the rolls of hay all over the area.  No bales!

Around noon we stopped for lunch at a McDonald's.  When we pulled into the parking lot a bus load of teenagers were going into the restaurant.  I accepted the fact that we would be there for a while!  When we walked in the door a man came over and gave us what he called was a "free pass" to the front of the line.  It said "I am from Hales Corners Lutheran School and want you to know how much God loves YOU!"  What a great group of kids.  They were eighth graders heading to Mount Rushmore for a field trip.  After lunch we continued on our journey and saw a sign for the Laura Ingalls Wilder's homestead.  We decided to go by and get a few pictures.  We definitely would like to go back and actually go inside some of the buildings when we head home after our mission.  I certainly knew that all of the grandkids would have loved it because they are all great fans of the Little House series.  From the little house on the prairie we headed to another favorite house of ours--Owen, Miriam, Jeremy and Peters house!  I will stop for now and  share some pictures and continue our wonderful journey in the next post.

When you visit the homestead you get a ride on the wagon around the property.

This was the actual house they built after they moved to South Dakota.  

Previous to building this house they lived in a room dug out of the side
of the hill with a thatch roof on top of that.

The area is truly beautiful.  I could see why they stayed in the area.

Just as we were leaving the area the horse was going back into the barn.