South Dakota, Part 2: Wall Drug, Rapid City, Cosmos Mystery Area, and Mt. Rushmore

Here's Part 1, if you missed it.
I REMEMBER SEEING PHOTOS FROM A family vacation to South Dakota in a photo album before I was, as my mom says, "Even a glimmer in your daddy's eyes." Or something. But I didn't remember any specific photos before Alie, Bunny, and I headed out on the road. It wasn't until I visited my parents after the trip, and looked again through the photo album, that I realized I had pretty much retraced their trip exactly, approximately 29 years later.

My photo album had startling similarities: there were the photos on the giant rabbit at Wall Drug, the photos in the old mining town of Keystone in the Black Hills, photos at Cosmos Mystery Area. Granted, of all the trips people take, I would think all South Dakota photo albums look the most alike. In any case, it was eerie and exciting to see that I took the same trip my family (mom, dad, older brother and sister) took before I even existed.

Too boot: I found out we stayed at the same Holiday Inn in Rapid City that my family did, too! Pure coincidence.


So, we arrive in Wall, South Dakota and it's like someone has made a town just for me and Bunny. It's touristy, sure, but it's far from boring. It's darn right fun. Hell -- there's a whole yard full of standees, a giant rabbit, and replica stagecoach to climb on! We stayed there for about two hours, but for my time-to-be-determined return trip, I would like to get a room in one of the tiny motels in town and spend an entire day in Wall.

I was able to find a cheap pair of cowboy boots, pink ones, and I wore them for the remainder of our trip. I also got my refreshing cup of free ice water -- the very gimmick that put Wall on the map -- and also picked up my free Have You Dug Wall Drug bumper sticker.



I love Wall.

High on all the fun we had at Wall Drug, I couldn't wait to move on to the next leg of our journey: Rapid City and Mount Rushmore! We were only a little over an hour away! We stopped at a Holiday Inn in Rapid City to relax for a moment and freshen up before heading out to Mt. Rushmore. The room was huge. I wonder if I managed to stay in the same room, much less the same hotel, as my parents!

We take the long, winding route, higher and higher into the Black Hills. There is something luxurious about being surrounded by pine trees growing out of the rock. We wound our way through Keystone (which looks incredibly fun, but we didn't have time to stop) and up to the four faces carved into the side of the mountain.


Do you know? The pass to get into Mount Rushmore is good for an entire year!

Bunny was first to point out all of the different license plates in the parking lot. No two seemed to be from the same state! A new walking path opened recently that leads to the base of the mountain. You can get up close and personal with the blast rubble! There is also a great photo opportunity to take a photo of the Presidents from the inside of a bolder. We also were lucky enough to see mountain goats! I knew something was going on when everyone was aiming their cameras into the woods rather than at the mountain!

I got a pressed penny souvenir (I'd been collecting them the whole way), and we drove back the way we came, but this time stopping at Cosmos Mystery Area.

Cosmos Mystery Area, according to our tour guide, is the location of some sort of unexplainable vortex. A vortex that warps and binds the trees, architecture, and gravity itself! Whoa! So that's a load of crap, but it was highly amusing and a ton of fun. We arrived just as the last tour of the day was getting ready to depart -- we were pretty lucky with our timing!



We walked up an uneven, steep, paved path to a crooked house-like structure surrounded by twisted trees. There were all kinds of tricks. I'll let the photo, above, say it all.

After that, the three of us were pretty punchy. But we were also hungry, so stopped at a Mexican restaurant before calling it a night back at the hotel. The food was delicious, the margaritas were huge and delicious, and in entered a mountain man. Well, he was more of a prospector looking fellow. We couldn't believe our eyes. That, coupled with being sleepy, punchy, and full of half a giant margaritas -- we got a little giggly, too. We were baffled and didn't quite believe our eyes. The prospector had continued walking toward the back of the restaurant.

That's when we started hearing knocking on the wall behind us. And more knocking. And then some more. By now we were full on laughing, probably being a touch annoying to the other diners. When the waiter came by to ask if we needed anything, I asked, "Did I just see a mountain man walk by? And is he knocking on the wall? I don't care, I'm just curious." The waiter shook his head with one of those "I don't know" shrugs. And then almost immediately we saw the prospector get escorted out of the restaurant. I felt terrible! I don't know if that was a direct result of me or a coincidence.

But the knocking stopped.

We brought our leftovers back to the room, watched some bad cable tv, and we all slept as hard as bags of bricks in our giant room. I woke up sad that we had to leave for home, but as I got dressed and put on my pink cowboy boots, I and made a promise to myself that I would return again someday.

But there was one more stop to make before we made a bee-line back to Minneapolis. The Dinosaur Park.

To get to this area, you have to drive through a regular old neighborhood and, once again, we wound our way up the side of a small mountain until we could see the city around us, unobstructed. The Dinosaur Park was made as a part of WPA Project #960 in the 1930s.

Basically what you do when you get here is climb on the dinosaurs as much as you want and take silly photos. It's a good thing that's what me and Bunny do best. The gift shop here is wonderful -- all kinds of goodies, including snacks like popcorn, hotdogs, and slushees.

Home again home again jiggity jig.

See the entire photo set on my Flickr page!

Ben Vereen at The Dakota Jazz Club

BEN VEREEN HAS ENOUGH PERSONALITY to fill Radio City Music Hall. So when he took the stage at the relatively diminutive Dakota Jazz Club in Downtown Minneapolis on August 31, 2009, it felt like the walls were positively going to burst.

The man himself even seemed as if he were going to burst; every song he sang became shows on their own. They were like mini-plays with entire story arcs, accompanied by piano, upright bass, and drums.

Before he came on stage though, actress Tina Fabrique, currently starring as ELLA at the Guthrie (or Gut-tree as Vereen pronounced it) sang a couple of songs. She's a great singer with impressive (necessarily!) scat skills. But I was most impressed by the fact that she was introduced to the stage as "The woman who also sings the Reading Rainbow theme song."

There were a couple of standout moments from the evening's 7pm show. Vereen's version of Misty was spooky, like something from "one of those space channels," a phrase he used to describe the radio channels that only come in at odd moments in the middle of the night. He used the description in a story prior to singing this version of Misty. It was just his voice, a breathy quiet version of an otherwise booming instrument, accompanied only by drum set, which the player tapped with his hands instead of sticks. I expected to see satellites floating by during such a lonely, weightless song.

Vereen spoke often of Sammy Davis, Jr. during the evening's performance. After all, he was Davis's protégé. "I'm not going to do Sammy Davis," Vereen said. He put his hand up to the middle of his torso and continued. "He was this big -- I couldn't fit into his suits. Big shoes, though."

At one point in the evening, they showed a clip from the Jack Paar show in which Davis and Vereen sang a duet, then sat for an interview with Paar. Davis said, "It's like I've been running a marathon and now I'm passing the baton [to Vereen]. Just go! Go! Go with it!" Then Paar suggests the two sing a little more. And as they sang on the tv screen, the lights slowly transitioned to Vereen, nearby at the piano. He had begun singing the same song. It was a stunning bit of staging -- like he had come out of the television itself.

Dressed in a light gray pinstripe suit, accented with an ankle-length top coat and bright red silk scarf, Vereen thanked the Dakota for inviting him out at the end of August. It turns out his very first visit to Minnesota was in January. "I got off the plane and I had tears in my eyes," he said. "I wondered what did I do to you? I mean, it was so cold it hurt my feelings!"

More Ben Vereen:
• His blog
• Article in the Star Tribune
• He's currently writing a book. Be on the lookout for it!

To St. Peter, MN and Back

BUNNY FOUND THAT THERE is a pharmacy museum in St. Peter, Minnesota. We're both fond of those ancient supplements and their highly stylized labels and promises, so off we went to Soderlund Village Drug in search of show globes.

And a free cup of root beer at their soda fountain.


The 68 mile trip south on HWY 169 is an easy one with fun stops along each way. On the way to St. Peter we stopped at Jim's Apple Orchard in Belle Plaine. It's a hard stop to miss, both because of size of the brightly painted place, and because of the extremely large variety items they have to offer.

• 56 kinds of licorice
• Jalepeño pickled eggs
• Candy, boy have they got a ton of candy
• Homemade pies (you can see them cooling from the oven)
• Strudel
• Bacon

Oh! And 24 different brands of root beer. Among tons of salsas, sauces, and pickled veggies.

Bunny bought an apple strudel stick, homemade walnut peanut roll, and a Fitz's strawberry soda. I bought a jar of pickled jalepeño hard boiled eggs. They just seemed like something I had to try.



From Jim's Apple Orchard it's only 26 miles to St. Peter.
Soderlund's Drugstore
201 S 3rd St.
Monday - Friday 8:30am - 7pm
Saturday 8:30am - 2pm
Sunday Closed
There is a small parking lot and plenty room for 2-hour off-street parking.

Bunny and I found this to be less of a pharmacy museum in the traditional sense and more of a display. The back wall of the now modern pharmacy is devoted to this display and is definitely a worthwhile stop if you're already in the area.


There are tall shelves containing various old liniments, salves, pills, bottles, and show globes. The old-fashioned soda fountain has a few stools where you are welcome to sit and enjoy a free cup of 1919 root beer; the museum self-guided, though I am sure the staff would be happy to answer questions.

St. Peter is a cute town, many of the businesses on the main street just a block east of the museum are located in well preserved old brick buildings. There are a couple of pizza places, one of them offering .99 slices, a couple of bar and grills, and a few stores. Bunny and I decided to get on the road home and see where else we could stop and eat lunch.

Not far from Jim's Apple Orchard is a restaurant called Emma Krumbees and I was pleasantly surprised to see that this establishment still had, for the most part, its old-fashioned flair. There are plenty of seating in booths covered in light-blue/sea-foam colored vinyl. Rounding out the end of each bank of booths are adorable horse-shoe shaped lunch counters with individual seating. They have a large selection of food; Bunny got the fruit cup yogurt parfait, and I got an egg-salad sandwich and cup of chicken and dumpling soup. The food was delicious and definitely had a homemade taste.

Home again home again jiggity jig.

Want to see more photos from this trip? See them here on my flickr page!

New Brighton to New London Antique Car Run

ON SATURDAY AUGUST 8, AS A PART OF New Brighton's Stockyard Days, was an exciting event involving pre-1920s cars racing along a 120 mile route from New London to New Brighton, Minnesota. Since all of the cars are unable to go faster than about 18 miles per hour (not because it's not allowed, but because these cars flat out won't go faster than that), the run takes all day.


It's really more of an endurance test than a race.

This year's run started out in a déluge of rain and the starting gunshot in New London was postponed from 7am to 8am. Many of the cars do not have roofs or windshields, so when the rain didn't let up by 8am, drivers donned their rain gear and putt putt putted toward the finish line anyway. Unfortunately the rain caused one participant to bow out of the race.

The antique car run is a relatively new tradition for Minnesota, dating back to 1987. The original antique car run, however, originated overseas and dates back to 1896.

Over 30 pioneer motorists set off from London on the 1896 Run to endure the rough roads to the Sussex seaside resort but only 14 of the starters actually made the journey, and some evidence exists that one car was taken by rail and covered with mud before crossing the finishing line!

The next run was staged in 1927 as a re-enactment of the 1896 Run and organised by the motoring editor of the Daily Sketch. The Run has taken place every November thereafter, with the exception of the war years and 1947 when petrol rationing was in force. From 1930 to the present day the event has been owned and professionally organised by The Royal Automobile Club.

-- London to Brighton Veteran Car Run website

In the Minnesota version of the race, the cars are not allowed to cross the finish line in New Brighton before 3pm (there doesn't appear to be any kind of a concern about that happening). In the meanwhile there is a county fair atmosphere to keep people occupied. This year included a petting zoo, possibly the best petting zoo I've ever experienced. Among many of the usual animals, there were also fainting goats, a wallaby, a Zebu, a lemur, and a Z-Donk.

There were also rides and fair food -- Bunny tried a deep fried PB&J -- as well as a Dixieland band playing in the bed of an old-fashioned truck.

Drivers are encouraged to stop at various points along their route. I imagine small towns along the way have their own festivals and traditions surrounding this race, and perhaps even entice the drivers to stop and eat. I'm sure a few of the stops are unscheduled, as well, in order to make repairs or crank the engines.



I should also note that just down the road from the finish line is the New Brighton History Museum, which is very much worth visiting. The building used to be a train depot. Visitors are also welcome to climb aboard the caboose behind the museum.

See more photos here on my flickr page!

South Dakota Part 1: Souix Falls, Corn Palace, Badlands National Park

MAX "BUNNY" SPARBER, OUR FRIEND ALIE, AND I took a whirl-wind road trip to South Dakota. About 1,279 miles round trip between July 24 - 26, 2009.

My goals on this trip:
• Visit Badlands National Park
• Find cowboy boots at Wall Drug, get free ice water
• Visit Mt Rushmore National Memorial

Everything else we'd end up doing I'd consider it a bonus. Turns out we were going to have plenty of bonus rounds.
We arrived in Sioux Falls, SD in the late afternoon and, since this is Alie's old stomping ground, she showed us a nice area downtown to window shop and eat. Then, we saw the Big Sioux river and had some "old fashion" [sic] ice cream.



My excitement grew exponentially when we started heading west from Alie's parents' house in Sioux Falls at around 9 or 10 in the morning on July 25th (after a quick stop at Queen City Bakery where I bought a homemade, lemon-flavored marshmallow). That's when the terrain began to change and the adventure of going west really hit.

The land turned from rows of corn and soy beans to fields of soft, grassy hills cut with bluffs and sprinkled with cattle. I was hoping to see Bison, but the only ones I would end up seeing were fiberglass or cement.

Alie spotted a billboard advertising a garage in an upcoming town. I don't remember the name of the garage, but their billboard touted excellent "toe service." These roadside signs along the way are great. I didn't do any research beforehand and they really made me realize how many fun activities South Dakota has to offer -- and all with the feeling of good old-fashioned fun, too. I hadn't eaten my lemon marshmallow yet, so I know my ever-increasing excitement was not a result of too much sugar.

We stopped at a wayside rest and I grabbed a localized map and a couple of free magazines so I could read the short histories of where we'd be visiting. I walked as far back behind the building as I could so I could no longer hear the traffic, just the wind blowing through the field. It really got to me and I decided that, at some point, I want to spend some time on a ranch riding horse and being a cowboy.


We continued on, taking a quick detour to Mitchell, South Dakota to see the infamous Corn Palace, where, according to their website, each year they use over 275,000 ears of corn to redecorate the façade. There are tours and shops here, but we just had time to hop out of the car for a quick photo before we continued westward.


We had a pleasant surprise in Mitchell -- we found a F.A.S.T. Corp. bison!

And then, after 200 miles of being silly in the car and eating from our bag of goodies (so we wouldn't have to stop when we got peckish), we reached Badlands National Park. We paid $10 for a pass, which is good for a week, and stopped at the first and second lookout points.

I was awestruck! I could have stared out over the alien terrain for hours. Trails where water from the last rainfall still remained on the hills, cutting into the dusty, layered mounds like veins. The wind was hot and the sparse greenery was of the tough, bristly sort that stays close to the ground. There were license plates from all over the country, and accents from all over the world. It would be this way at Mount Rushmore as well!



Our second and final stop in the Badlands, in addition to being spectacular, was also amusing. It was like the Badlands and the children at this stop were engaged in the Battle of Skinned Knee. Since the land is so sandy here, there isn't much traction -- especially when climbing. Children were especially ill-equipped to dealing with this fact. So when they'd go to climb a hill, their feet would slip out from under them, their knees would meet the tiny granules of rock on the ground, they'd slide slightly down the hill they were attempting to climb, and then start to cry. I heard one mom say to her little child as they walked toward the hills: "Better be careful, every other kid here is crying." It was surreal to experience this small pocket of brightly dressed people in the desert, especially with the din of at least a dozen crying children from all different families. Surreal and highly amusing.




We continued climbing and turning and turning and climbing the narrow road through the Badlands. I'd like to spend more time here at some point, as there are activities here throughout the day, such as nature talks, as well as into the night. They have a night-sky talk; I bet it's stunning to see the stars from here.

Here's Part 2: Wall Drug, Rapid City, Cosmos Mystery Area, and Mt. Rushmore!

Trial Reenactment of Evelyn "Billie" Frechette at the Landmark Center

Jennifer J. Hasbargen as Daisy Coffey and Honorable Paul H. Anderson
IT'S SO NICE TO SEE how quickly the events at St. Paul's Landmark Center are filling up during their John Dillinger retrospective, sparked by the recently released movie Public Enemy starring Johnny Depp.

And of course they would fill up fast, each event provides such a unique look into history, such as the reenactment of Evelyn "Billie" Frechette's court trial in which she is accused of harboring a criminal.

The folks at the Landmark gave director Steven P. Peterson quite a special challenge -- hiring lawyers instead of actors to perform Charles N. Adams Jr.'s script, which borrows heavily from the actual court transcript. On the night I saw the reenactment, Peterson appeared pleased with the results, joking, "I think lawyers are some of the best actors!"

The trial is narrated by John Dillinger, played by Patrick Ostergren of Lind, Jensen, Sullivan & Peterson, P. A. I suspect some of his lines were written on his prop newspaper. But the lack of actorly skill on stage was quickly eclipsed by the interesting case itself, coupled with the entertaining prosecuting and defending attorneys. This was their environment, after all, so Richard Stebbins who played defense attorney Louis Piquett and the Honorable Paul H. Anderson who played prosecuting attorney George F. Sullivan did a great job of being lawyers in this reenactment. They were comfortable enough to add dashes of humor in their interactions with each other. Sullivan, for instance, would thrust a photo of John Dillinger in Stebbins' face -- this was an unnecessary act as the photo was really quite large. After a particularly successful witness examination, Sullivan saunters back to his chair, holding his hands as if they were pistols, and pretended to fire them in victory. Piquett fired back at times, too. At a particularly ridiculous question asked by Sullivan, Piquett replied, "That question should be taken out and shot!"

The witness testimony, rather than the theatrics, pulled in this audience member more than anything. We hear from the landlord and caretaker of the building in St. Paul where Dillinger and Frechette were staying, as well as from a college student who was walking nearby. This all made for vivid, "first-hand" accounts of a very exciting moment in St. Paul history -- that of gunshots, a daring escape, fleeing a scene, and losing the cops.

The facts also come out about Department of Justice's Herold H. Reinecke and his uncouth interrogation techniques upon Billie. James Patrick Barone, Minnesota Assistant Attorney General, did an effective job of portraying the "high-powered griller." Billie was interrogated off and on for 10 hours. In those 10 hours, she was not allowed to use the restroom, she was punched and slapped in the face, and Reinecke neglected to ask her if she wanted a lawyer, wanted to call a lawyer, or even if she knew what she said that day could be used against her in court.

Reinecke didn't bother to write down anything Billie divulged that day, and her defending attorney, Louis Piquett, made a good point of stating why these things she did say shouldn't be admisable in court. After all of those excruciating hours, of which Billie only intermittedly spoke, how could Reinecke reasonably remember the pertinent facts here in court today -- months later. A good point, maybe, but not enough to keep Billie from going to a detention farm in Milan, Michegan. While there, she was in familiar company: Machine Gun Kelly's wife was there, too. When Billie was released from the dentention farm, she went on a theatrical tour with Dilinger's family.

Later, Piquett would be tried in court with the same charges he defended Billie of -- harboring a criminal. After all, it was he who had a fake wooden gun made and smuggled to Dillinger when he was in Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Indiana. He ended up taking control of 30 officers with that gun before his escape. After the show, Richard Stebbins said, "That's good lawyering," of the character he played.


A few of the actors did extra research and came out on stage as themselves to read a little more information about what came of these people in the months and years following the trial. And that's when things got even more interesting. It turns out that Dillinger wanted to put a hit out on the officer who beat up Billie, but Piquett convinced Dillinger to do nothing of the sort or else he would refuse further defense services. We also found out that Dillinger and Billie met at a party. The dashing gangster came up to Billie and said, "Where have you been all my life?"

On the night I attended, relatives of the judge from the original case were also in the audience. The judge was Gunnar Nordbye, played by Tony Palumbo, whose full head of white hair was quite fitting to play the character as it turns out. Besides having a career of 45 years in the courts, Judge Gunnar Nordbye apparently had a morning ritual. "Correct me if I'm wrong," Palumbo said, addressing Nordbye's relatives. "But did he start each morning with some whiskey while the sun came up?" There was silence for a moment before an answer came from behind me: "Grape juice and bourbon!"

After the show and these interesting mini-presentations, the audience and actors were encouraged to visit the exhibit of Dillinger, Frechette, and other unique gangster memorabilia in one of the courtrooms upstairs. Though it's been modified in size over the years, the exhibits are in the actual courtroom where Billie was tried. Snacks were provided as well, and it was wonderful to peruse these moments in history with complementary -- legal -- hooch.

John Dillinger's Death Mask and Other Gangster Goodies

Photo taken by AngieD

"DON'T YOU WORRY I WILL BE OUT sometime and believe me I am going to stay out," wrote John Dillinger while in Indiana State Penitentiary. The letter is to his niece and it's a long one in which he expresses happiness at her success in school and even small talk about the weather.

The letter is handwritten by Dillinger in a vein-like scrawl and the paper has yellowed with age. It is currently on display now through July 16 in St. Paul's Landmark Center. According to the Landmark Center's website, in addition to being a post office, the building also originally served as the Federal Court House for the Upper Midwest.

The letter is fascinating, but it's a tough match for the other objects on display. Here is a sample of what this exhilarating retrospective includes:

• A book entitled The Dillinger Book of which there were only a handful of copies made before it was pulled from production. This book apparently infuriated J. Edgar Hoover.

• Another handwritten piece, but much shorter and to the point than the friendly letter mentioned earlier. This note, you see, is an actual hit list penned by Dillinger himself.

• Homer Van Meter's Hat. It's a well-crafted straw number, but slightly ruined. The hat sits under glass with a wooden dowel poking through a spot where the brim meets the crown. The dowel isn't meant as a stand for the hat -- it's to aid in showing the trajectory of the bullet that killed this member of Dillinger's clan on Aug. 23, 1934. Four members of the St. Paul police helped in the final capture of Van Meter, and their signatures can be found written on the leather headband on the inside of the hat. The brand of the hat? Sarnoff New York.

• The beautiful courtroom within the Landmark Center, where this retrospective is on display, should be mentioned as well. The famous trial of Evelyn "Billie" Frechette -- featured recently in the movie Public Enemy -- took place here.

Like many of the pieces in this exhibit, the main attraction likewise lays under glass. Within 36 hours of Dillinger's fatal gunshot, at least four molds were made of his face.

• One of those molds is in this exhibit.

The orangy-yellow form of John Dillinger's dead face sits between black and white photos from when he was first brought to the morgue, still bloodied, and a photo of him cleaned up.

All throughout the exhibit there are photos of Dillinger and from the grin on his face in each and every one of them, it seems he just might have been enjoying being Public Enemy Number One.

Check out this exhibit and see if you will agree, even in death the grin still remains.

RARE JOHN DILLINGER, BARKER-KARPIS GANG ARTIFACTS TO BE DISPLAYED JULY
14-16 AT LANDMARK CENTER, PART OF “PUBLIC ENEMIES” RETROSPECTIVE
Rare opportunity to view original
artifacts from the 1930s gangster-era.

To accommodate crowds, the hours of the exhibit have been extended, and the following artifacts will be on display from 6:00pm-10:00pm July 14-16.