Billboards, Bikers & Adult Entertainment: Memories From The Road

We just returned from a family vacation to South Dakota. "The Great American Road Trip" they call it and it definitely is - we counted license plates from 38 states in the Mount Rushmore parking lot alone!

We had so many great experiences on this trip (and a few moments I'd like to forget), but it is funny how looking back on a meticulously planned trip, some of the things that brought us the most enjoyment were things that never would have occurred to me in advance - and if I would have thought of them they would have been on the list to surely avoid.


On our first day of travel we made it six hours down I-90 into Chamberlain, SD. Soon after crossing the border my husband and I dubbed the state “the land of 10,000 billboards.” At first it was a term of annoyance. How unfortunate the beautiful scenery is mucked up with so many signs. But after a few hundred miles we realized that farmland gets fairly boring to look at after a while and, well, the billboards are actually kind of brilliant. We used them to play the alphabet game, we counted the Wall Drug signs, and we guessed the age of the signs (some clearly not replaced since my first trip to SD as a child). We got ideas of places to go and we got really excited each time we saw a sign about one of the attractions on our agenda. The billboards definitely became our friends and we missed them on the way home.

When not looking at the billboards, we were usually watching the bikers. Little did we know that we had planned our vacation to intersect with the annual Sturgis rally. Our first realization of this fact was a bit concerning. Would it mean huge crowds? Lots of noise? Slow traffic? Would our son grow up to be a biker inspired by this very trip?! I can’t comment on the last question yet, but if it happens to be the case I am no longer concerned after spending a week in the presence of so many pleasant Harley folk. The kids loved watching the hundreds of bikers and my husband and I enjoyed guessing what types of corporate jobs they were escaping from for their week in Sturgis. And they were the first people to smile and offer to take a family picture. In all honestly, if we wouldn’t have had the kids with us, we would have probably ended up in Sturgis by the end of the week the culture looked so fun!

And then there was the adult entertainment (not related to Sturgis, I will note). We had some good laughs over the most inappropriate things. After hours of seeing signs promoting the “adult superstore” Sugar Shack, it turned out to be across the parking lot from our hotel in Chamberlain. Classic. And then when we finally made it to our hotel in Rapid City, our three year old ordered a porn flick while we were carrying in the luggage. Luckily his sister knew enough to turn it off a couple minutes into it (who knows what they saw!) and to tell us so we could promptly activate the parental controls on the TV. Fortunately the hotel was nice enough to credit the $16.95 back to our room. That incident was too funny coupled our discovery that our Rapid City hotel hosted adult-only bikini parties at the pool after hours. And we thought by staying at a water park we were guaranteed a nice family setting – ha!

And so, between the national parks and monuments, we had a lot of great moments that we never could have planned – the things that are often forgotten, but I don’t want to – this is what it’s all about! Oh, and this...