JohnHarrelson
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[font=arial, helvetica]Some like visiting places that others would never consider going..[/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]Almost every summer between 1973 and 1980 my wife and I made a complete round trip of the USA... about 8000 miles on each trip.. [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]Several times on our Goldwing, one time in our truck camper and a few times in our camper van. Each trip was part repeat and part unexplored.[/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]Some folks use a highway mile marker number to tell them where they are... [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]but the true explorer uses "Landmarks" ... [size=x-small]John Harrelson 1975[/font][/size]
[font=arial, helvetica]We always made sure that our route and our schedule included stopping at one of our "Landmarks"... [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]The "Corn Palace" was one of our landmarks... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]it was fascinating to look at and to know that the large Mural on the side of the brick building was made not of paint... but rather, thousands and thousands of individual kernels of different colored corn painstakingly glued in place on the brick wall. [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Each year the students would clean off the side of the building and color by color, kernel by kernel.. they would create a beautiful picture that covered the entire wall of the building.... knowing all the time that next year, their art work would be scraped off by the next class of students.. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]These landmarks were like a goal that we had to achieve because they told us where we were in our travels... a stopping point... a starting point... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Another "Goal" was the top of a hill where there was an over pass with a sign hanging on it that said "Continental Divide".. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]We would always pull off on the shoulder of the road and sit there staring at that sign and try to swallow the big lump in our throats... .... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]knowing that this was something we had read about in school but could only imagine what it was back then .. and to think that at last we were actually seeing the "Great Divide" ... the mystical "center" of our country .... America.... the greatest nation in the world.[/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]We were actually seeing American history in real life... not just in a text book photograph. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]But Wall Drug was our number one favorite landmark... Sure Wall Drug is a tourist trap,..... there is no carnival, no water slide, no Cinderella or Micky Mouse to take your picture with... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]But Wall Drug also has a place in our country's history... it tells the story of the old prospector who stumbled across a pool of water and how a hundred years or so later it became known all over the world as Wall Drug. [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]How it began with a one room "lean-to" and how each room was added on as time went by.. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Wall Drug has the "emergency items" and the "like to have items" that the traveler needs or wants.. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Back in the 1970's there was a real honest to goodness Long Horn Steer with 7 foot horns and a live buffalo... just like we had seen in the old black and white western movies we watched as kids in the 1940's and 1950's.. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]The beautiful silver dollar bar, and other inlaid bars.... and don't forget the hand carved "Totem Pole" roof supports.. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Souvenirs ?.. sure they have them for the folks who like that sort of stuff... But they also have "fair to midlin" food and a darn good cup of coffee,in the restaurant. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Of course they have other things for the traveler as well ... medicine, milk, soda pop, snacks, and of course magazines, puzzles, diapers, clothing, tobacco, ... etc... to take with us when we continue on our trip. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]When you have been driving or riding a motorcycle for ten or fifteen hours and the seat of your pants are sticking to your rump... that big green dinosaur up ahead sure looks mighty good.... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]By the way... that big green dinosaur was not there on our first trip in 1973 ... we had to keep an eye out for the Wall exit off I-90. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]So to all of you RVers traveling around America ...ask yourself this question.... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]is it better to stop at a place you have read or heard about and be disappointed [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]or is it better to not stop and then wonder if you might have missed something [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]that could have created memories for the times when you are no longer traveling ? [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]best wishes, John[/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]Almost every summer between 1973 and 1980 my wife and I made a complete round trip of the USA... about 8000 miles on each trip.. [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]Several times on our Goldwing, one time in our truck camper and a few times in our camper van. Each trip was part repeat and part unexplored.[/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]Some folks use a highway mile marker number to tell them where they are... [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]but the true explorer uses "Landmarks" ... [size=x-small]John Harrelson 1975[/font][/size]
[font=arial, helvetica]We always made sure that our route and our schedule included stopping at one of our "Landmarks"... [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]The "Corn Palace" was one of our landmarks... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]it was fascinating to look at and to know that the large Mural on the side of the brick building was made not of paint... but rather, thousands and thousands of individual kernels of different colored corn painstakingly glued in place on the brick wall. [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Each year the students would clean off the side of the building and color by color, kernel by kernel.. they would create a beautiful picture that covered the entire wall of the building.... knowing all the time that next year, their art work would be scraped off by the next class of students.. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]These landmarks were like a goal that we had to achieve because they told us where we were in our travels... a stopping point... a starting point... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Another "Goal" was the top of a hill where there was an over pass with a sign hanging on it that said "Continental Divide".. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]We would always pull off on the shoulder of the road and sit there staring at that sign and try to swallow the big lump in our throats... .... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]knowing that this was something we had read about in school but could only imagine what it was back then .. and to think that at last we were actually seeing the "Great Divide" ... the mystical "center" of our country .... America.... the greatest nation in the world.[/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]We were actually seeing American history in real life... not just in a text book photograph. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]But Wall Drug was our number one favorite landmark... Sure Wall Drug is a tourist trap,..... there is no carnival, no water slide, no Cinderella or Micky Mouse to take your picture with... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica]But Wall Drug also has a place in our country's history... it tells the story of the old prospector who stumbled across a pool of water and how a hundred years or so later it became known all over the world as Wall Drug. [/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]How it began with a one room "lean-to" and how each room was added on as time went by.. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Wall Drug has the "emergency items" and the "like to have items" that the traveler needs or wants.. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Back in the 1970's there was a real honest to goodness Long Horn Steer with 7 foot horns and a live buffalo... just like we had seen in the old black and white western movies we watched as kids in the 1940's and 1950's.. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]The beautiful silver dollar bar, and other inlaid bars.... and don't forget the hand carved "Totem Pole" roof supports.. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Souvenirs ?.. sure they have them for the folks who like that sort of stuff... But they also have "fair to midlin" food and a darn good cup of coffee,in the restaurant. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]Of course they have other things for the traveler as well ... medicine, milk, soda pop, snacks, and of course magazines, puzzles, diapers, clothing, tobacco, ... etc... to take with us when we continue on our trip. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]When you have been driving or riding a motorcycle for ten or fifteen hours and the seat of your pants are sticking to your rump... that big green dinosaur up ahead sure looks mighty good.... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]By the way... that big green dinosaur was not there on our first trip in 1973 ... we had to keep an eye out for the Wall exit off I-90. [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]So to all of you RVers traveling around America ...ask yourself this question.... [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]is it better to stop at a place you have read or heard about and be disappointed [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]or is it better to not stop and then wonder if you might have missed something [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]that could have created memories for the times when you are no longer traveling ? [/size][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica][size=medium]best wishes, John[/size][/font]
