After waking up, we packed up our camping gear and headed west. We stopped in the Fryin’ Pan for some diner-esque food. Our next destination was Badlands National Park, but the long drive meant we would not get there until nightfall.
We headed to Wall, a middle-of-nowhere town that has a drug store that it tries to pass off as famous; Sarah and I had purposely skipped this establishment on our last short jaunt around the US. The signs for hundreds of miles before the exit were too obnoxious and I didn’t want to support that type of ridiculous behavior.
We stopped this time because Tom wanted to check it out and it was on the way anyway. We checked in to our motel and went to Wall Drug. It was a cafeteria, a gift store with Wall Drug merchandise, a leather store, and a few other things. Somehow all the signage had made this the most major city in the area, but I didn’t see the big deal; if they should be famous for anything it should be artificial hype. We decided to go to a beer garden in the area, confident that any beer garden would be better than Wall Drug.
Man, were we wrong. The “garden” portion of the beer garden was closed, so we had to settle for seating inside, which was no problem; at least we would be drinking some delicious microbrews that any beer gardens were known for.
The five or so beers on the short menu were headlined by Budweiser and Bud Light, and it didn’t get any better from there. Nothing was on tap. I have been to only a few beer gardens, but from what I have collected, they should have an exceptionally large selection of exceptionally good beer, usually served in large German-style steins. This was just a sign to get people to come in and spend money on subpar beer and food that I won’t even mention. Everything was overpriced.
At least this evening and the next morning we would have refreshing showers to wash off the festival and drive of the past few days. NOT! The local water was oily and disgusting, and left a residue all over our skin.
The town of Wall is like a traveling salesmen selling snake oil. You are (over)paying for what is advertised, and what do they care if they deliver, you are never going to see them again. Let me assure you that once is too much. It is rare that you can review a whole town with a thumbs down, and I am not even that picky, but Wall is a rare town. Avoid it like the plague.
-Joey