BADLANDSThe trip to the Badlands was an interesting insight to another facet of Americana. The drive is across miles of miles of farmland. What makes it interesting is the art and ketch that the natives have made out of the content of the countryside. We drove trough advertisements for giant everything (the billboards were an interesting diversion to the numbing drive) to local art. The giant steer was the come-on to a sculpture farm.
We stopped at as record (for us) number of side areas as we are not apt to come  back to them again. The corn palace, made completely out of corn is an example. It epitomized the area both in term of the simple style of the people and the inventiveness of the spirit. We bought a bag of popcorn and proceeded on our journey. We passed into Mountain time and gained an hour which we turned into an excuse to tour for two more hours.
 We stopped for lunch at a Hollywood set western locale, by this time Carol had become enamored of the area and the motorcycle enthusiasts that inhabited the area.
We took an extended loop that led us through the Badlands Loop. A fist glimpse  of the topography of the Western Mountain ranges. Colors, shapes, and wildlife. We saw bison and pie dogs galore. I discovered that us senior citizens can get a lifetime pass to go o any hat for less than it took to enter the Park in the first place.Finally, we left the Park and went to a place, Wall Drugs, hat had been  advertised for 200 hundred miles or more on the billboards. It was a plastic town that was such fun as Americana. More junk per square inch than one might imagine. We indulged in ice cream - supporting our American heritage.
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